Review: Different Seasons by Stephen King

Stephen King is one of my favorite writers, and my favorite work of his is, surprisingly, not a horror novel.  It is not really a novel at all.  And it is number 54 of my books for the year.

In the afterword of the book, Stephen King states that Different Seasons, an anthology, rather than a novel, was created from four short stories (or novellas) that he wrote after finishing some of his hit novels such as Carrie and The Shining.  He writes about his concerns of being typecast in the afterword, and that the idea of the title "Different Seasons" was to show that he could write something "different", something that wasn't horror.  Each of the four novellas represent one of the four seasons, and all are strikingly different in nature and tone.  Three of the four have been made into films.  I just read the fourth one today for the first time.

1. Hope Springs Eternal: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.  Andy Dufresne is a young banker who has just received a life sentence in Shawshank Maximum Security Prison for a crime he claims he didn't commit.  Told through the eyes of "Red", one of his fellow inmates, Shawshank Redemption is a tale about a human being who refused to let his hopes be killed, and who inspired many to follow along with his philosophy.  It is probably the most recognizable film adaptation of the four novellas, The Shawshank Redemption starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

2. Summer of Corruption: Apt Pupil.  The only one of the stories to be told in the third person narrative.  Twelve-year-old Todd Bowden discovers that his elderly neighbor is the fugitive Nazi officer Kurt Dussander.  Intrigued, Todd blackmails Dussander to tell him stories about the internment camps and the Holocaust...but over a period of months, Todd realizes that he is no longer the one in control.  Made into a film several years ago starring the late Brad Renfro and Ian McKellan.

3. Fall From Innocence: The Body.  Four boys strike out on a hiking trip in search of a dead body.  The most classic coming-of-age tale possibly ever written.  Made into a film in the 1980s called Stand By Me, starring the late River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Will Wheaton, and Jerry O'Connell.

4. A Winter's Tale: The Breathing Method.  The protagonist, a businessman named David, is invited to a gentlemens' club where the members tell each other tales.  One Christmas evening, one member, a doctor, tells a group of his contemporaries the story of a young woman's determination to triumph over the adversity she has encountered.  Not made into a film to date.

This anthology is a winner.  All four of the novellas are brilliantly written.  I couldn't pick a favorite, but if I had to, it would be a tie between Shawshank Redemption and The Body.  The first I think is just an incredible story of hope and justice.  The second I have personal ties to; it was the first of these stories I ever read.  The Breathing Method was difficult for me to get into before now (the first twenty pages or so are relatively dull), but once I got into it I had trouble putting it down.

Having read several of Stephen King's books (including Dolores Claiborne and 'Salem's Lot, to name two), I have to say that I like this anthology better.  I love King's prose and his open, imaginative style.  I would give five stars to Shawshank and The Body, four and a half to Apt Pupil, and four to The Breathing Method, so we'll put this in at four and a half stars.  Great book.

Rating: **** and 1/2

Review: The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling

I spent so much time in February reading historical non-fiction, I didn't even notice we were getting to the end of the (already short) month.  Fortunately, I finished up Churchill and Alison Weir, so I was able to pick up a few fun, short pieces, and I've picked up the slack in February.  I'm not going to meet my goal of 10 books for the month, but I managed six, and two of those were extremely long, so I don't feel bad.  Unless I finish my current read tonight (unlikely, considering I'm going to be at work until 5:30 PM), my count at the end of February will be 18 books of 100.  Not shabby. 

Today I'll review a book that I've planned on reading many times, but just picked up recently free for Kindle: The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling.

We visited my in-laws in Massachusetts this weekend, and I started (and finished) this book en route back to CT.  It's a short book, and a quick read.  The story is told in the first person, by an unnamed narrator (presumably Kipling), who is an Englishman living and working in India.  One evening, he is visited by a former acquaintance, English soldier Peachey Taliaferro Carnahan, and his friend, Daniel Dravot, who confide to the narrator that "India has become too small" for them, and that they plan on traveling to the most remote corners of the land, to the uncharted territory of Kafiristan, and once there, declare themselves kings of the native people.  One year later, a bedraggled, broken Carnahan returns to the astounded narrator, and rambling, tells the tale of what happened to "Peachey" and "Danny" and their enterprises in Kafiristan.

This book was made into a film in 1975, starring Michael Caine as Peachy Carnahan, Sean Connery as Daniel Dravot, and Christopher Plummer as Rudyard Kipling, the narrator.  As with Brokeback Mountain, a story of surprisingly brevity was lengthened into a two-hour-plus film -- but it's a great film, and one I definitely wouldn't mind reviewing for Film Friday, if I can get my hands on it.  Although it deviates from the book, the changes aren't noticeable, and are merely "fleshing-out" of the story, rather than abrupt changes.

I first read Kipling as a child when my sister received a copy of Just So Stories from my grandfather -- which I very much recommend, if you haven't read them.  Kipling is occasionally criticized for his use of imperialism and what is sometimes perceived as xenophobia or racism.  But to do this is the same as calling Samuel Clemens a racist for writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or Margaret Mitchell a white supremecist for Gone with the Wind.  Kipling is describing quite vividly the English empire in India and the line of public opinion during that era.

What I find remarkable about his writing in The Man Who Would Be King is that Kipling is able to take two men -- white men, chauvinists, convinced of their own superiority as Englishmen -- and yet make them tragic heroes, the instruments of their own demise.  One cannot help but feel pity for Danny and Peachey, as they walk into a trap of their own making, constructed by their own sense of righteousness and self-satisfaction.  Kipling may have lived in the thick of imperialist India, but it is quite obvious what his opinion of it was, and that he knew exactly what the consequences might be, in the end.

Rating: ****