Book # 6 DIFFERENT SEASONS By: Stephen King

Different Seasons is quite unlike most of Stephen King's most famous work. Obviously there's Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Cujo, etc. But these four novellas (while maintaining occasional elements of horror stories) are ultimately an undefinable genre.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

As a disclaimer, much of this review discusses the differences between the film and the book. If you have neither seen nor read an adaption of this story I would suggest skipping ahead to Apt Pupil, because I would hate to give you spoilers and ruin any part of this fantastic story for you, (whatever medium you get to experience it in). It's probably not the greatest review seeing as how much attention I pay to the film adaptation, but the movie is my favorite so I guess it's inevitable I would bring up the film frequently.

This story is written from the point of view of Red, an inmate in Maine's Shawshank Prison.

This point of view felt very much like Nick Carroway and Jay Gatsby. Aka: while the reader gets the story from Red, the story ultimately belongs to Andy Dufresne.

Obviously this story has been adapted into one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time and it's very hard to talk about this story without mentioning the film. I wouldn't venture to say that the film is flat-out better than the novella, but I would say that the film had the opportunity to bring this story to the next level.

From a film perspective I think the the last half hour of The Shawshank Redemption is the most brilliant ending ever. (more specifically from the moment that Warden Norton throws the rock through the poster of Raquel Welch till the ending credits) This ending wasn't quite as triumphant in the book, because King was very faithful to remaining in Red's point of view leaving the details of Andy Dufresne's prison escape up to hearsay and Red's speculation. Another thing that lessened the triumph of his escape was that in the book, Andy's money comes from wise investments and preparation prior to his being incarcerated for the murder of his wife and her lover. Whereas in the film I loved that Andy's $300,000 came from the Warden's dirty money and viewed as "severance". The last thing that I think that really brought the story to another level via the film, is the character of Tommy Williams. In the film I think one of the most shocking and heartbreaking moments is when Tommy is basically sniped after telling the warden he would testify to Andy's innocence. In the book Tommy is more or less bribed to keep his mouth shut and sent to a lesser security prison.

To the books credit I loved all the information we got that the film never thought to give us. For one thing, it always drove me nuts that we never knew what Red was in for, especially after him saying that he was "the only guilty man in Shawshank". I also greatly appreciated receiving the details of Andy Dufresne's trial so that we can see the evidence that sealed his fate and the politics that were the driving force of the D.A.'s case.

In either medium, this story is, in my opinion, still one of the most inspiring and uplifting of all time; and while I personally find it fascinating to compare and contrast the two versions, they are both brilliant stand alone pieces of storytelling.

SUMMER OF CORRUPTION

Apt Pupil

Apt Pupil is the story of a young boy's fascination upon discovering a man in his neighborhood is a Nazi war criminal and the ultimate blackmail that follows.

The story switches in and out of many points of view which I found to be a great choice considering the psychological issues that plague the two main characters. (as a side note it was also a great way to see how clueless parents can be or maybe just how determined they can be when they want to see only the best in their children)

I found this story to be the most disturbing of the collection, not that it necessarily had the most heinous individual scenes, but the other stories in this book even in their worst moments were all rooted in good people- Apt Pupil was unarguably rooted in evil.

While this story was the only one to give me bad dreams, it was also my quickest read. I was petrified of the union between the sick violence-obsessed little boy and the Nazi who slowly began to miss killing. I think that it was a combination of being a page-turner and me wanting to get the story over with so that my dreams could resume in a less haunting manner that made the story move so quickly.

A FALL FROM INNOCENCE

The Body

This was undoubtedly my favorite of the bunch. For me, it was your typical case of the book being better than the movie (and I loved the movie to begin with).

The Body is the story of four boys who (after one overhears a rumor) go in search of another young boy's dead body who recently went missing.

It's always a testament to the original work when the film is true to the book. In this case the film was fiercely loyal to the book, however, in the novella we have the luxury of really understanding the narrator. I was never a huge fan of the film being a memoir written in present day by an adult Gordie, but on paper it was powerful as hell. On top of which, throughout the memoir being written, we are treated to Gordie's writing at various ages through short stories of his between chapters. The short stories themselves are stand alone pieces even without the emotional ties to the story of The Body.

One thing that always kinda bugged me about the film is that upon beating Ace (and company) to Ray Brower's body, Ace threatens them saying they won't forget this. It always seemed odd to me that it wasn't mentioned what happened in relation with Ace and Eyeball after the anonymous phone call was placed. As an audience member it appeared to me that those guys weren't the kind to make hollow threats.

I always liked the ending of the film with the explanation of what became of everyone, but the ending of the book was just brilliant. There were a few excellent chapters explaining what the consequences were of not letting the older delinquents take the body, and each boy got a chapter explaining in great detail what became of them. The explanations were a bit more heartbreaking in the book than in the film, but were incredibly poignant and more in keeping with the tone of the overall story.

There is most definitely a reason that the film is regarded as one of the best "coming of age" stories, but once again the quality of this story put to paper is unmatched and I wish that the print version could have received as much recognition AND be more readily available to the public!

A WINTER'S TALE

The Breathing Method

Obviously this story is the only one not to be optioned as a film and after reading it, I can't say I'm surprised.

Not to say that this story wasn't great.

The novella is a story within a story. The first "story" is of a man who frequents a mysterious club, where older gentlemen get together, drink scotch, and tell stories of their lives. The "story" within: a young doctor in the early 1930s practicing medicine on a strong-willed woman whose pregnant out of wedlock.

The story of the woman is not just a great character, but also a good portrait of how women were judged in that time. There were lots of things in the story that I probably should have known about the treatment of women, I just simply never thought of them. The idea of being fired from a job for being pregnant without a wedding band or evicted from your apartment for the same reason is something that I guess makes sense for the 30s, but was certainly lost on me before reading this book.

I said before that I wasn't surprised that this wasn't made into a film. It's true, this was probably my least favorite of the four stories, but more so I just don't believe that this story would be able to translate to film as seamlessly and as favorably as it's three successors.

**********************

There were two big strengths of Different Seasons as a collection that struck me the most. One was Stephen King's use of POV. Each story used POV in very different ways. In Shawshank there was Red who's first person account read almost like folklore, in Apt Pupil King brought us into the minds of each character at some point (still in the third person) creating a full-bodied world for the reader, in The Body it is though the reader is reading over the shoulder of Gordie as he writes his memoir, and in The Breathing Method there are two different men telling to drastically different stories.

The last thing (and in my opinion, the most powerful) is the way Stephen King had tiny threads (literally just one sentence in each story) tying these people together in some way. The book begins at Shawshank Prison and in Apt Pupil it is discovered that the man who made Dussander all his money after the war was doing time in Maine for shooting his wife (this man is in fact, Andy Dufresne). In The Body, the boys discuss Shawshank Prison and in The Breathing Method it is revealed that the baby delivered at the end of the book was adopted by a family in Castle Rock, Maine, the same town inhabiting the four boys in The Body.

Grade: A-