MANILA, Philippines ? Stephen King is known for the frightening novels he conjures as well as the movies emerging from them. Yet many of the adaptations are actually those made from his short stories, from his most evocative (?Jerusalem?s Lot?), his most campy (?Children of the Corn?) and his most recent (?1408?). In a way, his short stories are the most concentrated form of King-style terror accessible outside King?s private nightmares.
King admits that he really had not written many short stories during the 1980s and 1990s. It was after editing ?The Best American Short Stories 2006? that he returned to writing short stories, one after another. The result is ?Just After Sunset: Stories? (Scribner, New York, 2008, 367 pages), the first collection of new King stories since 2002?s ?Everything?s Eventual.? It may be proof that King?s ideas get better over time, like fine wine. ?Sunset? features 12 new stories written from 2001 onwards plus a 1974 piece collected for the first time. Vintage King, the stories are a mix of tales, set mostly in Maine or Florida, literally from beyond as well as those depicting just how nasty the human spirit can get.
?Rest Stop? is a teeth-grinding example of the latter, a reminder that ?under the right circumstances, anyone could end up anywhere, doing anything.? ?The Gingerbread Girl? features a woman running away from herself while something awaits her. ?Mute? asks malingering questions about cause and effect. The book?s last piece, ?A Very Tight Place,? may be the most disgusting, disturbing piece of revenge porn you?ll ever read. And you will read it all the way to the awful end.
Striking deeper
It?s the stories dealing with what lies barely visible behind the ubiquitous?something evoked by the book?s lenticular cover?that strike deeper. ?Graduation Afternoon? shows us what happens when the world ends when you least expect it. ?Harvey?s Dream? is more of an exercise in timing. Then come the supernatural stories of a thoughtful or even wistful bent. The first piece sets the mood. ?Willa? is a charming reflection of the immediate effects of the afterlife. ?The Things They Left Behind? takes place in the aftermath of a disaster, when items belonging to the lost begin showing up. ?Ayana? asks if what we perceive to be miracles are, in King?s own words, blessings or burdens?
But the three best stories in ?Sunset? stand out in their audacity and ingenuity. The diverting and reflexive ?Stationary Bike? delves into metafiction, with one character stating, ?I made you up!? To which another replies, ?What does that make you? Did you ever think of that? Are you going to tell me there might not be a larger world out there someplace?? One imagines King talking to his own creations?and the creations barking back. A product of a different time, ?The Cat From Hell? is old-fashioned, demonic animal pulp. First published in Cavalier Magazine in 1974, all you need to know is right there in the title.
