Different Seasons: Four Novellas

I bought this for my eleven-year old nephew after forcing him to watch 'Stand by Me.' I love introducing to him to 80's flicks even though he rolls his eyes and says: "Auntie not another old movie! I hate old movies!" To date I've forced him to watch 'The Terminator, 'Commando,' 'The Running Man,' 'Rambo,' 'Indiana Jones' and other great action classics. And after each film he ends up loving them. So after we watched 'Stand By Me' I told him that it was based on a book and he asked me how I liked the book. That's when I realized - I have never read the book. So I ordered two of these books; one for me & one for him. When he finishes it, we're going to watch 'The Shawshank Redemption' because he hasn't' seen it.

'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption' Wow. I really enjoy this movie, I'll watch it any time it is on. The book is even better! The book goes right along as the movie does but reading it was very enjoyable. Red's "voice" is just so true and very enjoyable to read, even at sad parts in the book. Stephen King really tells a great story here; pulling in the reader from the beginning & holding the reader until the very end.

'Apt Pupil' - spoilers! This is also a movie, but I had not seen it until after I read the book. We meet a young boy who discovers that his elderly neighbor has been hiding out in American suburbia as an average citizen when in fact the man is wanted for war crimes relating to WW2 in Germany. The kid is curious about what the man did to prisoners in the concentration camps and threatens to turn in the man if he doesn't tell the kid, in great detail, what he did. The curiosity turns into obsession and we watch as the kid comes apart then turns numb and finally acts out his own crimes. Meanwhile, the monster sleeping within the old man is awoken by reliving his horrific acts and he too turns to grisly crime to satisfy his own obsession. The build-up of each character's homicidal crimes was obvious to me, but in a good way. This was an unsettling read, because I wasn't sure if the old man corrupted the kid or if the kid was corrupt from the start and the old man finely tuned the kid into a killer. Still, I enjoyed reading it and after seeing the movie I will say I enjoyed the book more.

'The Body' (aka 'Stand by Me') A great coming-of-age story about four boys who set out to find a missing kid that is presumed to be dead. Nostalgic and light-hearted at times but serious and thought-provoking at other times...this was a great read. Gordy's point of view, his thoughts and feelings come across so vividly across the pages; I really enjoyed reading this book. The character Chris was actually my favorite character because he has a good heart and is much smarter (about people at least) than he lets on. He really 'gets' people and he is perfectly aware of how he is perceived and while it isn't fair, he accepts it and he is still always pushing Gordy to write and to excel - because it's as if Gordy succeeds then in a way Chris does too.

'The Breathing Method' This one was different than the other three stories, though I can't really put my finger on how. We meet a man who gets invited to a secret club in New York by his boss. In the club there are drinks and as much entertainment as you please: books, a billiard room, etc. Every now and then the members sit by the fire and one of them shares a story. The story told in this book is from an elderly doctor who was one of the first to introduce his pregnant patients to Lamaze breathing which was simply called 'The Breathing Method' back then. One patient in particular he is taken with, not so much in love with but more so in awe of her. I won't ruin the ending but I do wish we could have explored 'the clubhouse' more. It was mentioned that there were many other rooms but we never get to read about them, it's very secretive and even the club's butler is reluctant to discuss them. For a few moments here & there I was reminded of the movie 'Eyes Wide Shut,' because it wasn't clear what was going on in those rooms but it felt like to know what was going on meant danger.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I hope that my nephew does too!

Cut to the Chase: This is a collection of four different novellas, and I don’t think that they all deserve 5 out of 5 star ratings, but I think that the first, Hope Springs Eternal, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, is worthy of that rating, and makes the entire collection worth buying. Overall, this is a superbly written tome, with different subject matters and storytelling styles… the characters are thoroughly compelling (three of these have been turned into movies, some of which were Oscar-nominated), and the writing is somehow both crisp and evocative.

Greater Detail: Four seasons, four novellas is the basic premise of this collection.

Spring: Hope Springs Eternal, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (the basis of the movie The Shawshank Redemption): Easily my favorite in the collection (and one of my favorite movies as well — incidentally, the movie did a wonderful job translating this off the page, with just a couple key creative license-type diversions). We’ve got Andy, the honest man who only becomes a criminal after entering prison; Red (who’s actually Irish in the book, hence the nickname), the guy who knows how to get things; and their gang of friends trying to make it through day after day, year after year. The story has a darker feel (compared to the movie), but unfolds very believably, with an ending that’s just a tiny bit different than the one in the movie…

Summer: Summer of Corruption, Apt Pupil (made into the movie by the same name): a disturbing portrayal of a young boy who’s obsessed with Hitler and the Nazi regime as a whole. It’s actually kind of a horrifying and horrifyingly mesmerizing read, though slow on the action for much of the book — it’s the kind of portrayal that makes you think people are much darker than you might think, and has you questioning that perfect Boy Scout neighbor from next door. From a story perspective, it was spooky, but there was less character development and more just… wow, kind of creepy kid who’s really obsessed with dark, dark themes…

Fall: Fall from Innocence: The Body (made into the movie Stand by Me): Kind of a growing up story about four twelve year-old boys who were trying to find the body of a missing boy. It doesn’t have the same climax as the other stories, but is a well-written coming of age story, with a lot of well-written prose showcasing childhood friendships, all set in the heart of rural America.

Winter: A Winter’s Tale: Breathing Method: I can’t say much about this one. I don’t often read horror, it gives me nightmares, and I did a very loose skim of it, just to say that I had read it. I think it’s probably good, for horror? Since that’s King’s main fare?

Comparisons to Other Authors/Books: First, you really, really should not be comparing three out of four of these novellas to to the more mainstream Stephen King novels. I think King’s a talented writer, but there’s a big difference between his horror stories (and even his fantasy) and this particular novel, which I think lives more firmly in the “literary fiction” realm. From a lit fic point of view, I feel like some of the story and setting elements remind me of Richard Russo (who has a lot of stories where the setting/town is almost part of the action), and the coming of age parts remind me of various Tobias Wolff short stories.

This collection of novellas should easily be counted among King's best works. Of the four tales contained here, three have been made into successful motion pictures, two of which I would rank among my top fifty favorite films. Contained in this collection are: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body (better known from the film version titled "Stand By Me"), and The Breathing Method. The stories are all very well different and for the most part stray away from the horror genre for which King is most well known although all of them do contain something fairly horrifying at some point or another and I would consider Apt Pupil to be among some of his scariest tales.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: This is a tale of the friendship between two men that happen to be incarcerated in Shawshank prison. this tale showcases King's strong character development skills and contains enough twists and turns to keep the storyline moving at a pace that keeps the reader interested. All in all an extremely enjoyable and well written story that translated into a great movie.

Apt Pupil: To be perfectly blunt, this one scared the bejeepers out of me. Not in a spooky scary sort of way, but in a holy crap the two main characters are truly evil sort of way. This "buddy" tale takes the notion of the evil that resides inside of each of us to an entirely new level as a young boy befriends an elderly gentleman who he believes is actually a Nazi war criminal in hiding. The resulting relationship formed between the two is truly chilling. I don't recall too much about the film version of this one, I guess I'll have to watch it again.

The Body: This coming of age story centers on a group of four boys on a journey to see the dead body of a boy that they all once knew. Their adventure takes place over a several day trek along the railroad tracks. Along the way, they all take a journey within themselves and an adventure that started out as something fun becomes instead a somber trek of self-discovery and maturing. The movie Stand By Me was made from this novella and follows the storyline very closely, I can't help but picture Will Wheaton, River Phoenix and the others from the movie cast when reading this.

The Breathing Method: This is actually a frame story in which an outer tale serves as the setting for a tale to be told within the story. The outer storyline focuses on a man who is invited to join an exclusive club of sorts by one of his coworkers. At the club, members take turns from time to time telling tales, the best of which are reserved for Christmas. The story of "The Breathing Method" is actually the Christmas tale for that particular year and is the strange story of a doctor and a pregnant unwed mother. Both the outer and inner tales contain an element of the supernatural. Some consider this to be the most well-written piece in the collection. While I don't necessarily agree with that notion myself, I did find it to be a fairly entertaining piece and a nice end-cap to a very strong collection.

I am (re)reading King's works in chronological order. I read this book when it first came out. Up to this point in his career he had proven he was a master of genre fiction, even including the Bachman books which though not horror are still various genres. Here King now turns his hand to straight fiction with four novellas within this collection, bringing some of his finest work to date and proving that he can write pure fiction, even "literature".

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption - This story is the narrative of a lifer at the prison called Shawshank. Shortly after he is incarcerated along comes a new inmate named Andy Dufresne. Andy has a huge impact on our narrator and he tells us Andy's story along with what life is like inside a maximum security prison. A gritty dramatic prison tale that held me fast from beginning to end. (5/5)

Apt Pupil - This gets close to what we've come to expect from King. Not a horror story, by any means but a thriller; a psychological thriller. I couldn't quite remember this story at first but it all came rushing back as I started to read. A 14 yob is fascinated with the death camps of the Holocaust and after some detective work finds out a neighbourhood man is an SS Nazi in hiding, blackmails the man into telling him all about the details of what really happened at the camps and the two form a respect/hate relationship that lasts for the rest of their lives until what drew them together pulls them apart with vengeance. A bit hard to read at times (these are sick individuals) but an unputdownable read! (5/5)

The Body - I was looking forward to re-reading this one the most as "Stand By Me" is one of my all-time favourite movies that I've seen many times. I know the story impressed me the first time but upon re-reading, I find the movie is too firmly stuck in my mind. The story is, of course, good but it is very long and very retrospective more than having action. We are a party to the narrator's thoughts and this is truly a piece of literary coming of age work. I'm glad to have read it again and feel nostalgic and melancholy afterwards but, as Ive said, the movie remains foremost in my mind. I could not help but picture the actors, especially Kiefer Sutherland and Corey Feldman. Feldman's character Teddy is quite different in the story and it was hard for me to reconcile the two. Vern, Jerry O'Connell's character, is completely re-written so him I didn't picture plus he is the least dominant character in the story, whereas he has an equal role in the movie. This story has tie-ins to the Stephen King universe with Sheriff Bannerman being mentioned a couple of times, only since this takes place in the fifties he is only a Constable at this point and Shawshank prison (from the first story in this book) is now part of canon, being mentioned twice. (5/5)

The Breathing Method - This is the only story from this collection that I didn't remember at first and the re-read didn't bring it back to mind either. So it felt new to me. This is a tale of the macabre and the closest to what we would expect from King, in this collection. It is also the weakest, in my opinion. It's firstly, a story of a men's club where they gather and tells stories, sometimes scary but not always, though Christmas is always an unusual or weird tale. There is something unsettling about this club and our narrator at times tries to discover what it is but never has the nerve to fully go all the way, realizing, as we do, that he is better off not knowing the club, the host and the house's secrets. Secondly, the story narrates a tale one icy, stormy Christmas of a young pregnant woman who dies in an horrific accident on the day she goes into labour. I actually found this boring at times, way too much time was spent on describing "The Breathing Method" otherwise known as Lamaze that it felt scholarly. My least favourite story in the book. (3/5)