Just After Sunset: Stories

by Stephen King

(New York: Scribner, 2008)

Hardcover, 367 Pages, Short Fiction Anthology

ISBN: 9781416584087, US$28.00

ABCD Rating: DITCH

From the Cover: Stephen King—who has written more than fifty books, dozens of number one New York Times bestsellers, and many unforgettable movies—delivers an astonishing collection of short stories, his first since Everything’s Eventual six years ago. As guest editor of the bestselling Best American Short Stories 2007, King spent over a year reading hundreds of stories. His renewed passion for the form is evident on every page of Just After Sunset. The stories in this collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, Esquire, and other publications. Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating—and then terrifying—journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, “The Gingerbread Girl” is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable—and resourceful—as Audrey Hepburn’s character in Wait Until Dark. In “Ayana,” a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In one of the longer stories here, “N.,” which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient’s irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside ... or keep the world from falling victim to it. Just After Sunset—call it dusk, call it twilight, it’s a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It’s the perfect time for Stephen King.

This collection includes the following stories: “Willa,” “The Gingerbread Girl,” “Harvey’s Dream,” “Rest Stop,” “Stationary Bike,” “The Things They Left Behind,” “Graduation Afternoon,” “N.,” “The Cat from Hell,” “The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates,” “Mute,” “Ayana,” and “A Very Tight Place.”

My Review: Well, here we are. The end of 2008. With this review, I’ll have read 111 books this year, and I wish I could say that I went out on a high note. That the last book I read in 2008 blew my frakkin socks off … but I can’t. Stephen King’s Just After Sunset is nothing to write home about, unfortunately. Oh, yes. There are one or two good stories in the mix, but that’s all there are. Just one or two, and in fact … looking at the Table of Contents right now, I can say with assurance that there were only two good stories in this collection and two that almost made it. The rest: completely forgettable.

Let’s start with the bad pieces and end this review (and year) on an up shot.

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that I am a serious reader of Stephen King’s work, and that I absolutely love this man’s short fiction, so it pains me to say that I think he’s starting to lose “it” in his old age. “Willa” would have been done better (and has been done better) by Ray Bradbury or Neil Gaiman. I’ve already reviewed and ripped apart “The Gingerbread Girl” on this blog. “Harvey’s Dream” and “Rest Stop” really have no business being in print; they seem like half-stories at best, or the start of something much bigger and grander than they are. “The Things They Left Behind” is King’s attempt to come to grips with the tragedies of 9/11, but it is a whiney and self-indulgent piece. “Graduation Afternoon” was over before I realized what was going on and so I had to go back and reread it twice before I truly grasped what was happening. “The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates” is alright, though King has done this before, and better. “Ayana” can’t rise above it’s “passive racism” and as for “A Very Tight Place,” well … let’s just say that for oh so many reasons, the world would be a better place if King had just decided to leave this story on the cutting room floor.

Honorable Mentions should be awarded to “Stationary Bike” and “The Cat from Hell.” “Stationary Bike,” though try as it might, can’t overcome an anticlimactic ending. (Though, when I reviewed the audiobook in 2006, I didn’t think so, but maybe that’s because of Ron McLarty’s masterful performance and not the text itself). “The Cat from Hell” didn’t quite work for me. I had the queerest sense of déjà vu while reading it, which I couldn’t shake until I read King’s notes at the end. Apparently it was turned into one of the vignettes in the 1990 film Tales from the Darkside. It didn’t quite work for me then, and it still doesn’t … but it is a pretty damn creepy story nonetheless, so it gets points for trying.

Now, for the two Blue Ribbon winners in the collection. (Careful Readers will already know which two I am placing here through the process of elimination.) “N.” is, without a doubt, the stand-out of this collection. This is a story that shows that whatever it is that King had at one point, it is still dormant within him somewhere and every so often rears its ugly little head to great effect. “N.” The sleeper breakthrough of the collection, though, is “Mute.” This is a grab-you-by-the-throat story that starts out easy, and then whisks you along for one helluva ride! I’m still thinking about this story.

So. The bottom line is, unless you are a Stephen King die-hard fan or scholar (like me) then perhaps Just After Sunset is not the collection for you. If you are a casual King fan, or just like a good scary or suspenseful story, then get Just After Sunset at your local library, read “N.” Read “Mute.” Maybe flip over to “The Cat from Hell” and “Stationary Bike,” but after that close the book and return it and you will have gotten your money’s worth. Sorry to say, Constant Reader, but oh so true.