Just After Sunset [ペーパーバック]

First, I'm an avid Stephen King fan. I'm pretty sure I've read all of his books but I don't think I can say I've read every word he's written....but I have to be close. After reading Just After Sunset, I'm convinced that King's true talent lies in the short story/novella sphere. He is a master at developing stories and characters quickly and like a spider can spin his web with perfection. His novels, all of them, are worth reading. You won't be sorry having invested the time with any of them, but his true masterpieces are in his collections of short stories and novellas.

Just after Sunset is comprised of 13 stories, many published previously. For example, The Cat From Hell was originally published in 1977. King displayed, even then, his willingness to experiment with publishing. Originally, only the first 500 words of Cat From Hell were published in Cavalier. Readers were invited to finish the story and the completed work was published later the same year. The story has been published, revised, and then published again. The story was also used in Tales From the Darkside. Others, such as Willa are recent creations and are a treat for the mind.

"N" continues King's willingness to experiment in getting his stories out to the public in innovative ways. The short story "N" was the basis for the animated series of the same name.

Harvey's Dream, originally published in New Yorker in 2003, is a story of fathers, daughters, and dreams and is a read that will keep you interested throughout.

Of all the stories included in Just After Sunset, my favorite is Stationary Bike. Richard Sifkitz has a belated physical and learns that his cholesterol is extremely high; dangerously so. Like so many of his generation he decides to get a stationary bike to exercise and hopefully ride off his health problems. Unlike many of his contempories, however, Richard rides his workout machine. He rides and he rides and he rides. He decides to paint a mural in the room he rides in to give him something to look at while he's working out. As in all of King's work, the simple mural turns out to be unique and Richard's bike takes him on trips he really doesn't want to make. This is a riveting story and is worth the cost of the book by itself.

Other stories of note (my opinion only) are "The Things They Left Behind", "Graduation Afternoon", and "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates".

I especially appreciated the last section, Sunset Notes, comprising King's own thoughts about each of the stories in the collection. I always like the special note he includes to readers at the end of many of his books.

Thank you once again Stephen King. "And the beat goes on!"

Peace to all.

Although I have never been an advocate of the view that Stephen King was losing his touch, this collection seems to offer a version of King with so much energy and creativity that some of his more recent works pale in comparison. It is an intense and generous sampler of short fiction that truly shows King at his best, whether you consider his best to be his horror or his more mainstream work.

"Willa," which provides a quiet, understated opener to the collection, is suspenseful, eerie, and creative. It also, in my opinion, offers a rather unique solution to what I will admit is one of King's problems: crafting realistic modern dialogue for his younger characters. (A problems that he seems to have largely eliminated in this collection, by the way, with the exception of his creative use of it here.) "Harvey's Dream" is also quiet. I found it far more unsettling than "Willa," however, as its depiction of ordinary marital unhappiness--already frightening, given its monotony and barely suppressed hatred--slowly evolves into a sharp, ice-pick intrusion of unfortunate foresight. "Graduation Afternoon" features a similar kind of transition from ordinary unhappiness to the outright horrific.

"The Gingerbread Girl" is one of the best stories in the collection. King shows a deft touch with Emily's characterization while still writing at a white-hot pace and bringing this particular reader to the edge of her seat. He takes enough time to build up Em's past and her attempts to outrun it before starting the clock with the arrival of the zealously psychotic Pickering, one of the best and most frightening villains in all of King's short fiction. Another standout is "N.," a Lovecraftian story of OCD and the outside dimensions, which, given its portrayal of the eroding veil of sanity between us and a massive, incomprehensible evil, will probably have you organizing your things into circles (just to be on the safe side). There's also the very short "New York Times at Special Bargain Rates," which artfully blends disaster, afterlife, and premonition (three of the collection's major themes) in just a few pages to produce a quiet ghost story that doubles as a tearjerker.

"Mute" is marred by the distracting eccentricity of the wife's crime (pulled from real life) and "Ayana," though a rare unsentimental exploration of miracles, is lackluster, as is "Rest Stop."

"Stationary Bike" will probably be a divisive story. In my opinion, it's best going into this not thinking of it as a horror story, and simply enjoying the ride (no pun intended) as Sifkitz's exercise efforts begin to extend into the unnatural. And the ending, whatever its faults in terms of resolution of suspense, is a valuable lesson in terms of dieting. "The Things They Left Behind," with which it share a similar tone, explores the aftermath of 9/11 without the slightest hint of exploitation. It's also an interesting story about survivor's guilt and how grief latches onto possessions.

Lastly (in the order of this review, that is, not in the order of the collection), there are the more gruesome entries of "The Cat from Hell" and "A Very Tight Place." These are probably the best recent examples of what is often called (tongue-in-cheek) "Klassic King," and one actually is: "The Cat from Hell" dates back to the eighties and was often anthologized but never collected by King himself. It balances the grotesque with the vaguely ridiculous so well that, at the ending, you're torn between screaming or laughing as a cat gains a particular type of revenge upon a hitman and, presumably, his animal-testing employer. "A Very Tight Place" is better and even more disgusting, and it's best not to eat immediately before reading it, as it features some very detailed descriptions of what it might be like to be trapped in an overturned Port-O-San. Like "The Gingerbread Girl," this features some almost unbelievable suspense and a likable, emotionally beleaguered protagonist in a horrific situation it's impossible not to imagine, but this is slightly marred by a particularly unsatisfying ending and some laughable dialogue from the villain.

I've described some problems with some of these stories, so why five stars instead of four? Easy. When these stories work, they're really firing on all cylinders: involving, frightening, and impossible to stop reading. If you like King, you can't pass this up; if you haven't liked him before, this might be a good place to start. Definitely worth the money and any sleepless nights that may result.

I'm a bit surprised - disappointed even - in the rather mediocre average review score for Stephen King's anthology, "Just After Sunset." While this collection of short stories is not steeped in the sensational terror and gore of King's earlier works (most of which I thought were terrific), "Sunset" reflects a more mature King - the master of words relying less on horror and more on the subtleties of ordinary people in extraordinary situations. I always found King a keen observer of culture and society - one of the best at capturing the most mundane details of ordinary life, and in King's case, weaving them into a dark fabric of fear that lures one from the familiarity of (a pet, a car, and friendly neighbor...) into unsettled and disturbing worlds, and epic battles of good vs. malevolence. All of which are reflected in this baker's dozen of darkness - twelve new and the "bonus" of "The Cat from Hell" - an early King tale that made it to the big screen in the 1990 movie "Tales from the Darkside". To the point, the contrast in style between the graphic and simple story lines of "Hell Cat", and the cleverly drawn irony of "Mute" could not be more pronounced. Both frightening, engaging, and entertaining reads, but where "Cat" is pretty much gothic horror, "Mute" is a cleverly drawn, sophisticated tale of suspense and murder that would fit well in a collection of Hitchcock.

I didn't find a bad story in the lot, but if I were to pick my favorites, in addition to the fiendish "Mute", I'd place the diabolically gross "A Very Tight Place" near the top of the list. Or the poignant "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" - an oft-told tale in many respects, but never replayed more beautifully than here. Another from that dimension into which we may pass after death is the opener, "Willa", a story that takes a few pages to get into, and may have you scratching your head at first. But when it delivers, it delivers a punch more sorrowful than it is terrifying. But perhaps the defining effort is "N.", a frightening drama that recalls earlier King themes, but twists them around into a gripping and thoughtful thriller bridging Stonehenge and crop circles with pastoral Maine landscapes.

Events like King's near-fatal accident in 1999 and 9/11 clearly had a huge impact on the author's life, and the imprint of these seminal events are very evident in these pages. If there is a common theme between these pages, it is individual reaction to unthinkable tragedy, tempered by King's own passage from near death. While King chose "horror" as his literary path to follow, I'm certain the strength of his prose would have placed him near the top of any genre. Not unlike Poe, King's "Cold damp winds, white skies and fleeing crows" evoke disturbing but familiar images - places we'd prefer not to be but revel in reading. So while this may not be "The Stand", it is not "Cell" either, but a collection of dark little gems that will again remind us how fortunate we are to have King, the rare author as talented as he is prolific.