Hope Springs Eternal
Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption

The narrator is perfect: his name is Red, a man who, due to due to his youth and unfortunate circumstances, is serving three life sentances in Shawshank State Prison in Maine. Over the years, he's become the man who can get it for you: cigarettes, some liquor, movie posters, nearly anything. "I'm a regular Sears & Roebuck," he says early on. He's also hardened and wise; he sees through the eyes of a lifer who knows there is no more outside for him. That is, until the appearance of Andy Dufrense, and with him, a glimmer of hope.

Dufrense is serving two life sentances for the murder of his wife and her lover. He swears he's innocent, but so do all convicted men. He suffers horribly at the beginning of his stay: he's young, and the homosexual-rapist clan known as The Sisters try at him every chance they get. Andy, betraying his weak appearance, fights them at every step (not necessarily winning every time.) He's quiet, and keeps to himself, leading many to thinking he's stuck up. He was a fairly wealthy banker on the outside, adding to this perception. But then he approaches Red for the first time, requesting what is known as a rock-hammer. Not as a weapon; his outside interests included geology, the long, arduous process of shaping and forming of rocks. After some deliberation, Red gets him the hammer.

Time passes. One day, Andy and Red, along with a group of other prisoners, are tarring the prison roof. A guard is noisily bemoaning a recent inheritance, complaining that the government will take most of it in taxes. Andy, breaking the unspoken sight-line rule, stands up to the guard and tells him how he can keep every cent of that money, tax free. After some scary deliberation, ahe takes Andy's advice. Soon, Andy is doing taxes and money transactions for the entire prison, getting money for a prison library in the process.

Years pass. Andy and Red become closer friends. Again, Andy makes a request: for a large poster of Rita Hayworth. We learn more of Andy's nature: like the stone formations he is interested in and the long-view of accrued money, Andy is solid. He defies everything that prison life is about, keeping hope alive in a place designed to squash hope. He talks to Red of a place in Mexico named Zihuanteneo, clearly a pipe dream. Or is it?

I won't reveal the ending here, because it's just too good to spoil in a summation. This novella came in second in a contest deciding the best of King's shorter works (losing only to "The Mist" in Skeleton Crew). And it's easy to see why: a non-horror tale that resonates with hope and perserverance. The tale of Andy Dufrense (pronouced Doo-frane) closely resembles that of Peter's in Eyes of the Dragon, that other story retaining this one's sense of apposing grimness and wonder. In keeping with the "STEPHEN KING" mythos, there are some scary moments, (especially those detailing the rapist attacks) and some extreme moments of exploding tension (the story of Elmo Blatch comes to mind). But "Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption" is unique: an exciting, uplifting, and sometimes dark tale of intense hope. Amazing.

Summer of Corruption
Apt Pupil

Stephen King had to get around to writing about it someday. Perhaps the most terrifying tragedy in history is the Nazi Holocaust. But, in its grim way, it is fascinating. Why did the Nazis do what they did? How? And why were they allowed to get away with it?

A young boy named Todd Bowden wants the answers. Months before the story begins, Todd has discovered his GREAT INTEREST (in the parlance of one of his teachers) is learning about the Holocaust, beginning with his discovery of some war magazines in a friend's garage. Then, using his amateur detective skills, discovers there's a fugitive Nazi living in his town, a man named Arthur Denker (aka Kurt Dussander aka the Blood-Feind of Patin). He hunts down Dussander's house and forces himself into Dussander's life. Why? To hear stories of the Holocaust, of course. "All the gooshy parts."

Dussander begins telling. Both Todd and he slowly become entwined in these stories from the past. They take over their minds, eating away at rational thought. Todd begins to fail in school. Dussander finds he has trouble sleeping unless he wears the faux SS uniform that Todd gave him. Then, as their minds become utterly fixated on tales and memories of death, darkness consumes both of them as it consumes this disturbing little tale. Things go from bad to worse to worst, and the chain of events leading up to the simple, terifying ending are among King's most upsetting.

"Apt Pupil" is a well-written, disturbing tale about the cyclical nature of hate and mutual parasitism. In many ways, though it isn't a "horror story" per se, it is the scariest thing King has ever written. Why? Because it could be true..

Fall From Innocence
The Body

King's favorite of his own works is at once compelling, dark, and wonderful. A rite-of-passage tale in which innocents discover the larger world, and must stand against it. A boy's tale, a children's tale, and an adventure tal, this is really one of ther best.

The main character, and the narrator, is a man named Gordan LaChance. He recounts a specific time in his childhood in 1960 when he and three of his friends (Chris Chambers, Teddy DuChamp, and Vern Tessio) go on an overnight trip to find the body of a dead boy their age. The trip is especially important to Gordie, whose brother Dennis dies a year before and he now feels he needs some closure.

The boys follow the railroad tracks which will eventually end up where the dead boy, Ray Brower, was discovered by Vern older brother and his friend. The intimations of death hang over every word. Several sequences, scary and exciting, challenge death itself: Teddy tries to dodge a train, but Chris (the leader of the group) drags him off the tracks (like he saved Teddy from falling out of tree years before.) Teddy has a bit of a death wish: his father, nearly crazy, is prone to beating his son whenerevr the mood takes him. Once, he put Teddy's ears to a stove and disfigured him. During an intense moment, the owner of a local junkyard calls Teddy's dad a loony, and Teddy reacts violently. He is unable to express the love/hate emotions for his father, only subconsciously aware of his suicidal tendencies.

Other such incidents follow: Walking across a dizzyingly high railroad trestle, Gordie and Vern must literally run for their lives. Chris (Gordie's best friend) reveals a moment in his life when he learned the harsh reality of the world, eventually breaking down to tears. And Gordie himself must face his own mortality following a bloody encounter involving leeches. Their eventual discovery of the body is King at his most elegaic - a moving, tense, scary, tear-inducing conclusion I don't believe any other modern author couldhave pulled off.

The story begins a few days after Chris Chambers' death in the early 1980's. Gordie, narrating, reflects on the nature of death examining the fact that the three friends he saw the body with are all now dead. It's a sad story, but also wonderful. Gordie loses his innocence but gains an understanding of the world, a deeper understanding that only his friend Chris shared: that the world is cruel, but you have to keep getting up again and making peace with it. And, maybe, that's the best knowledge of all.

A Winter's Tale
The Breathing Method

The shortest tale in the book is also a return to what many expect from Stephen King: a real horror story. The previous three tales are each important and wonderful in their own way, but this one is the shocker, a two-fold tale of terror that works on every level.

[I admit I don't have my notes with me, so names are vague.] The front story involves a men's club that meets in an anonymous brownstone in New York City. The meeting place itself holds secrets, but the main thrust of this tale is what occurs at the meetings. The men sit around and tell stories of all kinds: funny, sad, tragic, scary. But the Christmas story is the gruesome one, and that is what we, as readers, are privy to: the story of The Breathing Method.

The story-within-a-story involves a doctor and a young girl who is determined to deliver her baby. The woman is unwed and unashamed. But she doesn't wish to have an abortion or give the child up. She wants to carry it to term.

The doctor, sympathetic to her case, teaches her The Breathing Method (an early form of Lamaze). The woman utilizes it, breathing in deeply and slowly as practice for her delivery whenever she can.

The finale of this tale, which I will not spoil for you here, is emblematic of everything King has done in his career up to this point. This scene is horrific ... but it's also kind of beautiful. King's deft touch in finding the essential human drama in the most gruesome of places is what continues to set him apart.

The tale of the Breathing Method recalls the determination of Andy Dufrense, the arduous journey toward death of Gordie LaChance, and long sufferings of Todd Bowden. It is a summation of all that is good in the previous three stories, with its own little twist. And the terror doesn't end there.

Back at the brownstone, things are not quite right. The narrator discovers books not in print anywhere else in the world. And the sound he sometimes hears in the walls. And the butler, Stevens, a mysterious man who says, "Here, sir, there are always more tales."

A Lovecraft-esque shell story surrounding something reminiscant of Poe, this is one of King's best short horror stories. But, as proven, King needn't only write horror. As the plaque on the mantel reads: It is the tale, not he who tells it.

Movie and Audio Adaptions

Different Seasons is blessed. Consider this:

(1) The Shawshank Redemption, a film by Frank Darabont, was one of the best-loved films of 1994, nominated for several Academy Awards. Frank Muller does an excellent audio adaption for this tale, as well.

(2) Stand By Me, based on "The Body" and directed by Rob Reiner is also well-loved and amazing, confounding people that don't know it's King. A great audio adaption was done by Frank Muller.

(3) Apt Pupil is the first of the Different Seasons projects not to hit the five-star mark. Bryan Singer's film version is good, but not great. Granted, this material is hard to translate, but much of the elemental power in King's words lay in the extremeties, which Singer doesn't explore fully. Also, David Schwimmer - while terrific on Friends and in different dramatic roles - is distracting here. Three stars at best. Frank Muller does the excellent sound adaption.

(4) Nothing yet on a "Breathing Method" film ... but Frank Muller reads the audio (superbly!)