» Just After Sunset: Stories
Rating: 3.5 / 5.00 (27 reviews)
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Manufacturer: Scribner
Just After Sunset: Stories Details
Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781416584087
ISBN: 1416584080
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-11-11
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: 2008-11-11
Studio: Scribner
Just After Sunset: Stories Reviews
Customer Rating:Summary: Read "Everything's Eventual" instead ...
Comment: I enjoy King's stories very much (having read "Night Shift" twice and "Everything's Eventual" three times) so I was looking very forward to SK's new book of short stories. However, these stories fell flat for me. You could see what was coming a mile away ("Willa", for example) in some and others seemed like an exercise for creative writing class ("Harvey's Dream"). As an almost lifelong King fan, I STRONGLY recommend reading "Everything's Eventual" instead. With the exception of "Luckey Quarter" (maybe I just didn't get it), EVERY story in that collection is excellent and "1408" will blow you away - much, much better than the film adaptation.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Short stories by the King
Comment: As Stephen King's novels have grown to be more and more bloated, I have stopped reading them. His short stories, however, don't cry out for an editor with a fast red pencil, so I still enjoy them. This latest collection is no exception. As wtih any short story collection, the entries are going to be a bit uneven, with many very good ones, some good ones, and a few not so good (which even Mr. King admits in his introduction). Even a not so good story by Mr. King is often superior to short stories by many other authors, so I do recommend this book. It's not a behemoth doorstopper like his novels, and some of the stories will scare the heck out of you. That's all I ask from Mr. King, and he has certainly delivered!
Customer Rating:
Summary: What happened to the old Stephen King?
Comment: I've read all of Stephen King's books except for that Dark Tower stuff. I remember the days when Mr.King's books were thrilling page turners. His last few novels, from "Dreamcatcher" on, have not held my interest at all. I felt some hope seeing Mr. King had a new short story book out. His short stories never disappointed me.....until now.
This collection didn't hold my interest. Makes me sad to say so.
Most of the stories start off promising, but get dull.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Stephen, where is thy sting?
Comment: Remember King's short story compilation, Night Shift? I still have the Signet paperback from 1979. Read it to tatters too. I don't see "Just After Sunset" reaching that stage of decrepitude. Nope, I think I'll donate it to the library book sale today.
Some of these stories have so much promise, but they fail to follow through in the end. Take the last one, A Really Tight Place. A terrific premise and wonderful description of the protagonist trying to escape from a porta potty. (Question: Did Steve actually try this? It seems extremely well-researched. One has to wonder...) But the ending is so disappointing. Come on, Steve! You can do better than having the guy jumping into a hot tub with the villain and scaring him into suicide by introducing poop to his pristine water! Please!
I've been a fan for over 30 years, but my interest is waning. Steve, you've been a constant companion to me and I'll always love you. Your writing style is and always will be fabulous. But these stories don't have satisfying endings. K.I.S.S.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So Entertaining...couldn't wait to start....couldn't stop till the end
Comment: I bought this book to read over the Thanksgiving holiday. My fingers kept walking themselves to the end table where it lay and fluttering the pages until I could start reading without "actually" fully opening the book. I finally gave in to my "King addiction" and could no longer delay the anticipated pleasure and read it in two sittings. Good ol' King. Dependable ol' King. He's there to entertain and does his job well. A couple of the stories I'd already read in other venues but found they held up to a second performance. Do yourself a favor, schedule some alone time and read this entertaining collection of King yarns. bg
More Reviews for Just After Sunset: Stories
Editorial Review for Just After Sunset: Stories:
Stephen King -- who has written more than fifty books, dozens of number one New York Times bestsellers, and many unforgettable movies -- delivers an astonishing collection of short stories, his first since Everything's Eventual six years ago. As guest editor of the bestselling Best American Short Stories 2007, King spent over a year reading hundreds of stories. His renewed passion for the form is evident on every page of Just After Sunset. The stories in this collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, Esquire, and other publications.Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating -- and then terrifying -- journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, "The Gingerbread Girl" is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable -- and resourceful -- as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark. In "Ayana," a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In one of the longer stories here, "N.," which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient's irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside...or keep the world from falling victim to it.
Just After Sunset -- call it dusk, call it twilight, it's a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It's the perfect time for Stephen King.