The King's Tales

"...The great appeal of horror ficition through the ages is that it serves as a rehearsal for our own deaths."
- Stephen King

Probably everyone's favorite lord of thrills and chills is Stephen King, an author who cranks out book after book in the amount of time most people take lunch breaks. King is known for being able to summon horrific tales, emotional epics and optimistic ballads within his work all of which is highly effective.

Shameful to say, I have not actually read a Stephen King book...Yet. But by God I've read his short fiction, which in my opinion kicks ass. Your Modest Guru is mixing it up a bit this time and doing a review on some short stories of his I've read, mainly ones within the Night Shift anthology.

Being a critic and reviewer is not something unfamiliar to me, seeing as how I've stacked a considerable amount on Netflix. However this is my first literary review so I am kind of new at this. If this is hard to follow, you can't say I didn't warn you, jackass.

Though Night Shift contains a long list of deep and dark stories, most of which were published in 70s magazines, I will talk about the ones I most enjoyed aka the only ones I read:

1. To start off I'm talking about The Ledge. Here King incorporates a very Hitchcockian feel to this thriller about a tennis instructor who is given a dangerous offer by his lover's gangster husband. He gets the money and the wife but only if he circumnavigates his way around the ledge of his highrise penthouse. Holy shit, that is scary. Throw in a jerk pigion and a gun and you have yourself one solid nail biting story.

2. You know that movie about the retarded guy who mows lawns but gains psycic powers and intelligence? Yeah that has nothing to do with the original Lawnmower Man short story, which basically involves a man being harrassed by a strange lawnmower man and, even more strange, his lawnmower which seems to have a mind of its own. Nothing like fresh cut grass fertilized with blood I suppose. Listen closely to the dialogue and you'll find something even more insidious is going on with the lawnmower.

3. King develops a cool action story by placing a professional hitman against an army!...Just not quite the army you would expect. This story is correctly titled Battleground. Yes in revenge for killing a toy maker, an assassin finds himself defenseless against a boxful of toy soldiers that attack with every means of miniature warfare. The tension is great and the end is brilliant.

4. Quitters Inc. is probably the most implausible of the horror stories previously presented but is the scariest nonetheless. I mean every smoker probably does wanna quit smoking but finds it difficult. Well apparently Quitters Inc. is the best strategy. It's easy, just imagine if Joe Pesci from Goodfellas was the guy helping you out. Oh yes, you will quit or else. This was especially scary for me because my mom is a smoker.

5. Time to lighten the mood with the story more suited for the drama category. The Last Rung on the Ladder is about a man receives a letter from the sister he never sees which brings back a meaningful memory from their childhood when her life was in danger and she depended on him. This is one that evoked a Stand by Me feeling in me. It shows an adolescent situation we can relate to and than surprises us with the unflinching pain of adulthood. This was sweet and honest and tragic.

6. Finally we have The Man Who Loved Flowers, this started out cute but nothing is at seems when King is behind it. You don't hear about violence in these stories and not get any later. It's all about a sharp dressed man strolling through the city, everybody can tell he's got a case of puppy love and envy it. He buys some flowers for a special girl and then goes off to find her. It sounds charming right? Right? Fucking wrong, we get the rug pulled out from under us and find out what really happens under the layers of what we percieved to be normal and pure. The last dialogue exchange in this is priceless and realistic. It might also be the most well written of these few stories.

That's it, so if you wanna cry, laugh awkwardly, or just shit your pants read these tales and more in Night Shift. And why the hell does this sound like a commerical.

Hope to read a King novel soon.

This has been a semi-tasteful book review by Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.