From the book “Just after Sunset”, by Stephen King: “Harvey’s Dream”, a ten page story, in a book of more than 350 pages, $28,000 (I bought it on sale for $7.00; thank God), dated 2008. To my knowledge, Mr. King hasn’t written short stories for a while, this book was his first in several years. He says on the page inside the book “Stephen King…provides an amazing collection of short stories…” Harvey’s Dream, is far from surprising. I read some of his books years ago, only one impressed me, but I never read his short stories, and this story is poorly written, by anyone’s standards. I haven’t gotten to the full book yet, it may take a year or two after reading this ten page story that is way out of date, way too simplified, written in short sentences that don’t seem to connect properly.
Use stupid phrases, idioms that don’t fit the character, mood, or life of the story, and perhaps a bit confusing to the younger reader; it seems like he’s just grabbing anything, knowing that his name will take the book above the silliness of it all, the sentences, particularly their awkward endings, to say the least. He sounds like a reporter, and a reporter in the third person, that shouldn’t be reporting. He uses four-letter words, swear words, to maximize potency, or shall we say, to emphasize mood, and by God, he just drops fat, like someone is staring at you dumbfounded.
He uses clicks, catchphrases, tags like “Waterloo” or “Alfalfa of the Little Rascals” or “The Sopranos” to get his point across (dumb, dumb, and dumber). I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read this story again, and I’m scared to go ahead and read the other stories in the book, it’s embarrassing, I’m embarrassed for him, isn’t it weird? Obviously, he is not working for the posterity of his works, most people, writers today are not, and it shows. But this story should never have been included in the book, it really is below it. (8-11-2010)
