Finished the new Stephen King book Full Dark, No Stars late last night. Really enjoyable. Comprised of four novellas, the first being fairly lengthy, while the other three range from around 40 pages to 100. The first, 1922, follows a Midwestern farmer in a tale of greed and murder. King takes apart how guilt can work the human mind and takes basic human characters and shows their inner workings. Written as a suicide not of sorts, this tale is creepy and sad.
Next is Big Driver. Writer of old lady books, Tess, finds herself in big trouble when her car gets a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. When a giant of a man stops to help her she finds herself in a situation any woman can relate to. Here, what is fascinating is what this mild mannered middle-aged woman becomes to survive. Also playing against this depiction is what Big Driver’s mother does to protect her family. Scary and interesting.
The third story I found to be fun. Maybe that is because I have a little bit of a macabre sense of humor. Fair Extension follows a man who is drying of cancer. When he meets a man, Elvid, on the side of a deserted street selling extensions. In his case its a life extension. All he has to give in exchange is 15% of his income each year he lives and the name of someone he hates. He offers up the name of his “best friend” since childhood. No matter what he does his so-called best friend outdoes him. However since his extension his friend’s fate is increasingly negative, not just for him, but his family too. Another story of greed? Don’t let it pass you by the the seller of Fair Extension’s name can be rearranged to spell Devil!
Lastly in A Good Marriage, King lets us peek in on a seemingly lovely married couple. That is, until the wife finds out a dark secret about her husband. Torn between protecting her family and herself and giving her husband the punishment he deserves. She eventually does both.
As always King is a master at taking normal relate-able circumstances and taking them to the nth creepiest degree. He does it here in four entertaining stories. I was not disappointed.
Princess of the Library 