Rating: 
Summary: Different King
Review: This book of four novellas by Stephen King is a change of pace from his normal horror writting. Although each story has a bit of horror to it they mostly deal with human interaction and emotions. My favorite story from this collection was "The Body" which was later made into the movie "Stand By Me". The story follows four youths on their journey to look for a dead body. The other stories are; "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemtion", "Apt Pupil"(these two were also made into movies), and "The Breathing Method". The last being closer to Kings typical horror stories. Overall a great book to spend a few days with.
Rating: 
Summary: Crimes against humanity are a catching disease
Review: The situation described in the book and the use of the Shoah are quite different. A high school student discovers an old man in his neighborhood is an ex-SS who was the commander in the concentration camp of Patin. « Bergen-Belsen, January 1943 to June 1943. Auschwitz, June 1943 to June of 1944, Unterkommandant. Patin... You left Patin just ahead of the Russians. You got to Buenos Aires.... » (p. 112-113) The 13-year-old teenager blackmails the old man into telling him all the gritty details. But curiosity kills the cat. He is so taken over by the stories that his school work, that was previously perfect, declines from straight A's to flunking in the space of six months. He hides the fact from his parents by falsifying his report cards, then he uses the old man and brings him into the school picture to save his skin and avoid a direct contact between his guidance counselor and his family by short-circuiting it. The old man pretends he is the grandfather of the teenager and that the parents are going through a difficult phase. Then the old man forces the teenager to catch up on his work. The teenager accepts, though reluctantly, and he passes the year brilliantly. The parents will never know the truth. Yet, to force the teenager into studying, the old man blackmails him in his turn by telling him a full record of the « adventure » is in a safe-deposit box in a bank. The teenager is afraid the old man may die and then the truth should come out. Time passes and the teenager little by little finishes his high school and prepares for college. He distends his relation with the old man, though he always keeps some fear, because the old man is frail, he chain-smokes and he drinks heavily. During those years, though, the morbid curiosity of the teenager leads him to an even more morbid experimentation : killing vagrant people in empty places where they get shelter for the night, such as the old station that is no longer used. At the same time the recollections of the old man lead him to experimenting - to save his sleep and balance - the killing of animals and then alcoholics that he lures to his home with the ambiguous promise of a meal and a couple of dollars. Then he buries them in his cellar. One night, the old man has a heart attack while in the process of burying one of his victims. He calls the boy, who is supposed to read things to him because of his bad eyesight, and makes him clean up the mess before calling an ambulance and covering his urgent visit with a lie about a letter from Germany that he read, though in German. But everything goes even faster. In the hospital, in the next bed, another old man, an ex-prisoner in Patin, recognizes the old ex-SS commander and reports him to the Israeli secret services at the Israeli Embassy. The man is thus trapped and forced to find a way out to avoid trial : he commits suicide. In spite of the fact that no secret safe-deposit box in any bank appears, the teenager is ruined by another incident. The guidance counselor goes to a convention in the city were the real grandfather lives. Being bored by the conference, he gets in touch with the old man and visits him. But he finds the grandfather in a wheelchair, and this grandfather does not look in the least like the grandfather who visited him some three years before. The publicity around the death of the ex-SS reveals the true identity of the false grandfather, both to the guidance counselor and the parents. Then the teenager is trapped. And he has no real answer to the questions he may be asked and is asked. So he goes on a killing spree with a .30-.30. He kills Ed French, the guidance counselor, then gets to a hideout over the highway where he ambushes going-by cars and the police will need six hours to take him down. Here the Shoah is very crudely described in its perversion and it is treated like a catching disease that infest the curious teenager and leads him to crime, murders, delinquency and final death, just as much as it causes the old ex-SS to fall in a relapse and become a criminal again. In other words, crimes against humanity are never finished. They always find, in some individuals, a perfect ground to prosper. Humanity will always commit such crimes because the sheer knowledge of them will lead some individuals into committing new crimes of the same type. Crimes against humanity are an incurable disease. The Shoah is the example and starting point in the book. Those who will be infested will always find some « marginal » people to give way to and carry out their crime desire, their death instinct, their Thanatos, as well as they will also, as some kind of side effect, develop antisemitism and racism. Vagrant people, or alcoholics, or homeless people will be their natural victims in our society. The film follows the book closely but erases all the gritty details and reduces the criminal development of the teenager. The film is thus a lot less explicit and effective. Yet the meaning is the same as in the book. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Universities of Paris IX and II.
Rating:
Summary: Dark, but good.
Review: This great Novella from different seasons is very evil, dark, and disturbing. It is about a teenager boy you becomes obsessed with a wanted war criminal nazi. He becomes to turn bad himself, and goes crazy, slowly but surely.It is a great book especially if you are interested in Hitler and WW2.
Rating:
Summary: All of these stories are so drastically different!
Review: "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" was a real wonderful story and it really hit me differently than his other novels (novellas sorry....) Apt Pupil was great except for one major flaw; he did it all because of Mr. Dussander, right? WRONG! Todd is painted out to be way too perfect for my taste. He was only susceptable to the evil because he was truly evil inside! Anyway... The Body was probably my favorite of all of the stories. Just recently I rented "Stand by Me", and thought tha it did the story justice. And finally "The Breathing Method" was THE most original stories I have read in a very long time. Maybe not the actual story, but I never would have guessed where it was going from where it started! Anyway thanks for listening to my rambles! BTW- Those who have read 'Salem's Lot, remember the scene at the beginning where Ben meets Susan in the park? When her mother talks about his new book and the strange prison scenes? Seem familiar?
Rating:
Summary: The Molding of a simple Mind...
Review: I made the all time mistake on this one. I went and saw the movie first. I can tell you that the movie did not do the book justice, and could not even compare to it. Mr. King's primitive tale of a young boy that becomes hooked on the terror and the pain of post war circumstances left me cold and shaken. I had expected something comfoting and happy with a meaning that would leave me safe at the end of this story. Mr. King revealed early on that this was not the way that this story would end. I can tell you that I would read this book twice over and still feel the power of his words. He has brought the truth to light in this tale of darkness that reaches into your soul and asks a very fatal quesiton. Many will not be able to answer, and this book makes it impossible to push the thoughts from your mind. Is it possible that there is truth behind this mans madness? I think that there may be and that is the scariest thought of all.
Rating:
Summary: The True Apt Pupil
Review: The novella Apt Pupil touches bases with many people who take the time to read the story. It fouces mainly on the relationship between Todd and Dunker, the way each of them try to out due each other and the fight for control is always on the front. The novella is much better than the movie and it helps you understand better the way the boy and the old man manage to get along even though they hate each other emensly. It opens a whole new world to people who are living in a glass bubble and think that stuff like this is impossible...Stephen King brings it right into your living room. It's wonderful and everyone should read it!
Rating:
Summary: A very dark tale, not for the squeamish or faint of heart!
Review: Mr. King finesses you down an abyss into the sick and twisted past and present of an aged Nazi war criminal living quietly on "Main Street U.S.A." One day a precocious boy knocks on his door and reveals that he is aware of the old man's real identity. An unwholesome obsession with Nazi atrocities and a prolonged association with the old man corrupt some latent depravity in the boy. The boy's conventional life runs parallel and in contrast to the clandestine relationship with the old man, which makes the story more chilling and realistic. Very well done but grisly, gruesome, disturbing and explicit -- definitely not light reading material!
Rating:
Summary: amazing to learn that knowing all isn't always a good thing
Review: This book really opens the eyes. It makes you realize just how hard it is on both sides of the line and just how ironic life really is. I couldn't put the book down when he shared a hospital room with a former jewish prisoner, that knew the sound of his voice.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing piece of work
Review: I guess the challenge of writing a good story is to keep intact the thread of surprize throughout the narrative. In that sense I found the first story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" the best. The other thing is it is written in a convincing style - that of a convict - smooth flowing and direct. What amazed me was the contrast in writing style when he writes the "Breathing Method", which is narrated by a person in many ways the opposite of the convict character. Mr. King is truely a gifter writer.
Rating:
Summary: A Modern Masterpiece in Four Novellas
Review: Stephen King just may be the greatest American writer of the later half of the 20th century. Different Seasons proves my basis. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption ranks the best fiction written by King, and Apt Pupil and the Body come up close. Masterfully written and brilliant to the very end of every novella, you should buy the book and then buy each Movie.
|
