A Good Marriage

In the winter of 1987 I read The Stand. That was the first book I ever read that was written by Stephen King. I was obsessed with that book. I couldn't put it down & when I'd finished reading it (for the first of probably five times) I could not wait to read more of his work! You'd think that his other efforts at that point in time would have paled in comparison, but of course they didn't. I've been a loyal "Constant Reader" ever since. I've read everything he's ever published, and there is not one single effort within his large and wonderful body of work that I wouldn't, and have not, read again. Case In point....

A Good Marriage. This is my second time reading these wonderful short stories. Stephen King is a masterful storyteller. He has referred to himself many times as the "Schlockmeister", but the truth is that he is both an author and a storyteller. I have many favorite authors, but truth be told, as talented as they all are, King is the King of storytelling, whether the story unfolds in one lengthy tome, like The Stand, or via a magnum opus like The Gunslinger Series, or in one short really great story he tells, like the two he tells in this book.

I've also read many things about Stephen King over the years. One thing in particular always comes to mind whenever I read one of his short story collections or his direct to the net novella releases. Stephen King once said that the art of the short story was being lost in the world of fiction writers, and he believed that the reason why that was happening was that to his way of thinking, and apparently many others as it turned out, it is much more difficult to craft a really good short story than it is to write a typical book. While I'm no writer by any means, I do know the difference between a well written short story and a poorly written one, and so I understood exactly what he meant by that intuitively, and realized that he was right...short stories must be a very difficult undertaking for even the most talented author.

To that end, King began to champion the dying breed of fiction called the Short Story. He not only wrote several collections of his own short stories--which I cherish--he championed many, both established and new or up and coming, writers' efforts by organizing their work into collections. When the Internet took off, he was one of the pioneers of ebooks, way before there were such things as Nooks, Kindles, or IPads or tablets with reading apps. I believe that it was largely through Stephen King's efforts that anthologies and collections of short stories, as well as ebooks started to really take off.

I love reading reviews, and that's not limited to books. Written reviews by you, my fellow consumers, are filled with information that back in the days of no internet I'd probably never have found out. After all, back then in the Stone Age, we either purchased something because a friend, family member or coworker had tried it and told us how great it was, or we bit the bullet and wrote that check (remember those? lol) for $300 for a new vacuum cleaner and hoped it was the best one for our needs. Books were largely purchased the same way.

Everything, including books, is still purchased the same way, but now we have 400 opinions and experiences to guide us, instead of maybe four if lucky! That's a great thing! There are even discussions going on between readers at Amazon, for instance, that seem to be much like a neighborhood book club, for folks who enjoy discussing specific genres, authors, and/or books. Another really great thing that the Internet has provided. However, when it comes to book reviews, I don't care how thorough or well written a review is if it's written like a book report. I do NOT want to know anything more than what I'd read on the inside of the jacket of a hardback, or the back of paperback. I just don't want the entire plot sketched out for me, and I run screaming from a review when I scan through it and see these two words: SPOILER ALERT. Argh!

That's why you won't be getting any specifics from me in any review I ever write. Truthfully though, I mean to review a LOT more books than I actually take the time to. I imagine that's because to a great extent my husband and I are both still very much traditionalists. We still purchase all of our favorite authors and most all nonfiction, biographies, memoirs, etcetera in hardback. We both brought a goodly amount of books with us into our marriage. Fast forward twenty five years and we now have a HUGE library and mixed media room, which is the largest room in our home. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we live in a large enough home that the library we have built would have staggered my imagination if someone had shown me a picture of it back then!

What I will share is this: if you love Stephen King's books, you'll see his short stories as a couple of horribly great treats to gobble up as fast as you can read!

Stephen King's take on the BTK killer has a much more satisfying conclusion than what has happened in real life. In real life, the BTK killer was finally found, he confessed, and he's spending the rest of his life in prison. In King's re-telling of the tale, his wife finds out and, let's just say, takes matters into her own hands. Apparently, this has been made into a film which hasn't done all that well. I'll wait for netflix for this one because I'd still like to see it.

But the book - or rather, novella - is a nice little meditation on what makes a good marriage? How is that one can spend decades with another human being . . . and truly not know them? Perhaps this is the way of all humans, that we reserve parts of ourselves to never be revealed to our closest friends or family. Perhaps honestly is not the best policy in a marriage after all?

These questions are not entirely explored to their full potential, but it is great fun in watching the wife, Darcy, as she pieces together what it is she has found (and completely by accident) and has to re-think everything she has ever thought about her husband and their marriage.

A good little read. In this book, though, there is another novella, 1922, which i have not read. Apparently some reviewers weren't happy that this has been republished with the second novella, when it is part of a larger collection at just a few more dollars. Be forewarned - and if you want to read the other stories or novellas, buy the larger collection, not this one. I am not a rabid King fan, so I was fine with paying for just this one story.