by Jay Wilburn
The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.
You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.
After revisited Everything’s Eventual, this short story collection has risen in my esteem. I already liked it and ranked it high among his collections in my mind, but I think if I were putting Stephen King’s collections in order of greatness now, I might have to consider ranking this one higher than I would have in the past.
This is not a collection full of perfect stories. There are two that involve waking up from a dream in one form or another. A couple struggle to find an ending, but that comes with the territory when you line up Stephen King stories all in a row like this.
This 2002 release had its table on contents decided by dealing out playing cards at random. In the introduction, he jokes about deciding the next collection’s order via Tarot cards.
He also talks about a serial novel online called “The Plant.” Where is that?!
He mentions the fear of opening mail in the anthrax scare that followed the September 11th terror attacks.
King says what’s lost tends to stay lost as he discusses playing with the ideas of writing and “selling/publishing” in new ways. This is an interesting discussion in regard to modern evolutions in publishing. King discusses it in reference to making big money with his first experiment with ebooks. That story appears in this collection.
Autopsy Room Four
A stockbroker and golfer from Derry finds himself conscious in a place where only the dead should reside. The terror of being unheard, unnoticed, and defenseless. Being an object about to be taken apart. The ending lines in this story are some of my favorites. I remembered this one as soon as I opened the book.
The Man in the Black Suit
An old man recounts a story of terror from childhood after finding himself on the other end of life in Castle Rock. I sense some of the seeds of Gwendy’s Button Box in the framing of this story. In 1913, a man in Castle Rock chopped up his wife and kids because the ghosts told him to. A bee plays a big part in this story as it had in Black House. It was “just luck and not the intercession of the God I sang to and worshipped all these years.” This is one of two stories in the collection where a harbinger of death does not tell the whole truth.
All That You Love Will be Carried Away
I’m not sure why this story stuck with me all these years since I first read it, but it has. I remember considering the idea of getting a notebook and collecting graffiti like the character in this story and like Stephen King himself said he did in the author’s notes. The idea of copying down graffiti being a problem that would derail a suicide attempt is a fascinating conflict. King mentions GameCubes, The Golden Compass, and Harry Potter. The ambiguous ending is haunting.
The Death of Jack Hamilton
This ranks high among King’s crime fiction stories. Jack has a bad time in this story. It’s a cool secret history/ alternate history for an old time outlaw. Some very good and surprisingly heartfelt crime fiction.
In the Deathroom
A one in thirty chance you can act your way out of this. A fascinating twist on an interrogation scene.
The Little Sisters of Eluria
The setting was lifted out of Black House and I was ready to hear this story the moment I read the hints of it in that novel. This is a great Gunslinger/Dark Tower story that rivals the quality of the novels themselves. Almost a perfectly constructed story.
Everything’s Eventual
The title story I’ve remembered since I first read it. The knockaround character with the strange powers and strange life is well written. “A suit means business while jeans and a tee shirt mean fuckery.” “Like being born again and being born always hurts, I guess.” The Internet room at the library costs money to use. “I thought I was really living a life, but all I was doing was throwing a shadow.” Great story.
L.T.’s theory of Pets
This one is apparently King’s favorite in the collection and the one he picks for readings for the humor and for the turn. Good emotional redirect at the end.
The Road Virus Heads North
This was inspired by a picture King actually had. We follow another author character from Derry. King’s character takes a dig at fantasy and horror conventions. Ordering news with a credit card over the News Wire is an arcane and short-lived practice. “Opened a hole in the basement of the universe” is a good turn of phrase. The ending of the story is a bit blurry and could have been much stronger.
Lunch at the Gotham Café
Well-structured build up and foreshadowing. A great and violent tale of satisfying proportions.
That Feeling You Can Only Say What it is in French
Unnerving. A hell of a story.
1408
This began as a beginning story sample in On Writing. A good take on the caretaker’s warning. Teeth filed to cannibal points is a new obsession for King in the last few books and stories. Clippers trying to speak is a scary description.
Riding the Bullet
This is Stephen King’s legendary first ebook. It’s a hitchhiking story. It’s an unexpected, existential ending. We’re all waiting in line.
Luckey Quarter
Another story relying on waking from a dream/vision to take us forward. Good example of a story weakening from the approach.
Overall a very strong collection of really good storytelling.
My next post in this series will be Before From a Buick 8 which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.
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