Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
After finishing Stephen King's Wizard and Glass, book 4 of his grandiose The Dark Tower Series, I discovered it was best to acquaint myself with other King works, that would expand upon The Dark Tower's quite vast lore. With this in mind, I leapt into Hearts in Atlantis under the pretence that it would be a novel strictly pertaining to the western-cum-fantasy series that I was now firmly engrossed in. It came as quite the surprise then, when halfway through the adventures of Bobby and Ted, that I was now reading a tale from the perspective of Peter, a University of Maine student in the mid-1960s, and even more so when the story started to include Vietnam, which made the somewhat fantasy tale of the Low Men in the Yellow Coats seem distant, almost separate from the rest of the short stories in the book.
Although the experience is somewhat different to what I originally expected, it now ranks highly in the ever expanding list of King books I've read and loved.
It starts with a story of a child's innocence, of Bobby Garfield, Carol Gerber and John Sullivan, who are befriended by a mysterious man named Ted Brautigan. This first novella is more in line with the familiar Stephen King horror, writing of low men in yellow coats, of strange symbols drawn in chalk by hopscotches, of upside down missing pet posters with seemingly inhuman messages typed on them. The story indulges those fans of the Dark Tower, as it did with me, but was also a brilliant glimpse into the late stages of childhood, and early stages of adolescence, of overcontrolling mothers, discovering the opposite sex, love and literature, with characters so interesting and appealing that you'll not soon forget it's a Stephen King book you're reading.
This is followed up by the eponymous novella Hearts in Atlantis, which follows Peter Riley, a student at Maine university, who, with the rest of the boys in the dormitory that he lives in, get addicted to the card game hearts. This features reoccurring characters from the first story, and starts to tackle Vietnam, and its effect on young adults, on their questioning of the government's decisions, and the repercussions of war. The members of the dormitory risk being expelled from their courses, their grades lagging due to their addiction to cherchez la femme noire. I myself am a UK university student, and because of this have a very limited knowledge of Vietnam or the state of the US in the sixties, so this book I feel served as a great introduction to such a radically different world. As King says "Although it is difficult to believe, the sixties are not fictional; they actually happened".
The final three stories are a lot shorter, and link together some loose ends from the first two novellas, offering the perspectives of the war from Vietnam veterans, and finally being closed with Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, a fantastic ending to the collection.
Although I can't comment on the book as a baby boomer, whom I feel this book is meant for, as someone with a constrained knowledge of the 60's and the Vietnam war, I found it to be a brilliant display of the renowned sixties culture that I could never be a part of, and was both funny, sad, and endearing, as many good books are. I would recommend this to anyone, whether a baby boomer, or just a teen like me, stumbling into it blindly as a Dark Tower fan; either way it's a real treat.
Although the experience is somewhat different to what I originally expected, it now ranks highly in the ever expanding list of King books I've read and loved.
It starts with a story of a child's innocence, of Bobby Garfield, Carol Gerber and John Sullivan, who are befriended by a mysterious man named Ted Brautigan. This first novella is more in line with the familiar Stephen King horror, writing of low men in yellow coats, of strange symbols drawn in chalk by hopscotches, of upside down missing pet posters with seemingly inhuman messages typed on them. The story indulges those fans of the Dark Tower, as it did with me, but was also a brilliant glimpse into the late stages of childhood, and early stages of adolescence, of overcontrolling mothers, discovering the opposite sex, love and literature, with characters so interesting and appealing that you'll not soon forget it's a Stephen King book you're reading.
This is followed up by the eponymous novella Hearts in Atlantis, which follows Peter Riley, a student at Maine university, who, with the rest of the boys in the dormitory that he lives in, get addicted to the card game hearts. This features reoccurring characters from the first story, and starts to tackle Vietnam, and its effect on young adults, on their questioning of the government's decisions, and the repercussions of war. The members of the dormitory risk being expelled from their courses, their grades lagging due to their addiction to cherchez la femme noire. I myself am a UK university student, and because of this have a very limited knowledge of Vietnam or the state of the US in the sixties, so this book I feel served as a great introduction to such a radically different world. As King says "Although it is difficult to believe, the sixties are not fictional; they actually happened".
The final three stories are a lot shorter, and link together some loose ends from the first two novellas, offering the perspectives of the war from Vietnam veterans, and finally being closed with Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, a fantastic ending to the collection.
Although I can't comment on the book as a baby boomer, whom I feel this book is meant for, as someone with a constrained knowledge of the 60's and the Vietnam war, I found it to be a brilliant display of the renowned sixties culture that I could never be a part of, and was both funny, sad, and endearing, as many good books are. I would recommend this to anyone, whether a baby boomer, or just a teen like me, stumbling into it blindly as a Dark Tower fan; either way it's a real treat.
SUMMARY: Stephen King, whose first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation. Images from that war -- and the protests against it -- had flooded America's living rooms for a decade. Hearts in Atlantis, King's newest fiction, is composed of five interconnected, sequential narratives, set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War. In Part One, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror. In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest...and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast. In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam," two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow -- and as haunted -- as their own lives. And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," this remarkable book's denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart's desire may await him. Full of danger, full of suspense, most of all full of heart, Stephen King's new book will take some readers to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.
King is the master of horror. The first story hinted at great horror while including enough realism to ring true emotionally. These interlinked stories deal with the loss of innocence that comes from leaving childhood behind using the Vietnam War as a backdrop. This is not a horror story but a gripping tale that displays a deep need for healing within our nation because of our relationship to war/violence.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's a long, winding one and I'm not sure I grasp all the nuances. I like it for the mysticism, the character paths that grow and intertwine, and the glimpses into the world of the Crimson King and the Dark Tower. Always beware of Low Men in Yellow Coats.
Some stories were better than others. And, you should read the Dark Tower series before this one.
I still see low men in low cars everywhere I go, and it’s been twenty years since I read this.
I'd only read this one once before, so listening it again was interesting. Some points I seem to have missed in the listening, so I might have to go back and get the book to re-read sections. Hadn't realized in my first reading how much this one is linked to the Dark Tower! Plus, in this audio version, Stephen King himself reads a portion of the book (which is MUCH better than the other narrator!)
july 2017 - i think this deserves a bump in ratings. not ready to say 5 stars, but 4 for sure.
july 2017 - i think this deserves a bump in ratings. not ready to say 5 stars, but 4 for sure.
I like the first story so much better than the others. I wish this book contains this story only (and my rating, in this case, would be 5/5), since I don't care so much about the characters like I do for the characters of the first story.
Stephen King mashes three of his favourite things together - small town America, the sixties, and The Dark Tower - and comes out with a collection of interconnected stories that add up to a novel.
Low Men In Yellow Coats, apart from having one of the finest titles for a story ever, comprises a full 50% of the book, and it's the one that the film version of Hearts in Atlantis was based around. It's a satisfying piece in and of itself, and it captures a lot of what King should really be remembered for: the capturing of a mood.
The rest of the stories are good, even if the concept of the second, the titular Hearts in Atlantis, is itself a complete mystery. King understands the nature of addiction, and he passes that understanding on to the reader, but one has to wonder precisely why a relatively simple card game could catch on like a fever and ruin multiple lives. It's like the sixties themselves: you had to be there. Even the narrator, the only first person voice in the book, can't quite explain the pull.
Because once Low Men In Yellow Coats ends, Hearts in Atlantis as a whole is King's Vietnam novel. One gets the impression in 2017 that people have forgotten Vietnam, that the generation that it defined has moved on to other things - and those that weren't alive for it have multiple other unpopular wars to focus on. The anger that King feels is justifiable and palpable, and it informs Blind Willie and Why We're in Vietnam, which are, in their own ways, damning indictments of war in general. Sometimes one gets the impression that King is more moderate than progressive, but one knows precisely where he stands on this issue.
It all comes full circle with the final story, Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, which acts as a coda to Low Men In Yellow Coats, but would not work without the intervening stories to fill in the years. There's a certain perfect symmetry here that reflects King at his peak and it ties in so nicely with The Dark Tower (with the bonus of making enough sense to non-initiates) that Hearts In Atlantis, in total, becomes something close to a masterwork of both sentiment and literature.
Low Men In Yellow Coats, apart from having one of the finest titles for a story ever, comprises a full 50% of the book, and it's the one that the film version of Hearts in Atlantis was based around. It's a satisfying piece in and of itself, and it captures a lot of what King should really be remembered for: the capturing of a mood.
The rest of the stories are good, even if the concept of the second, the titular Hearts in Atlantis, is itself a complete mystery. King understands the nature of addiction, and he passes that understanding on to the reader, but one has to wonder precisely why a relatively simple card game could catch on like a fever and ruin multiple lives. It's like the sixties themselves: you had to be there. Even the narrator, the only first person voice in the book, can't quite explain the pull.
Because once Low Men In Yellow Coats ends, Hearts in Atlantis as a whole is King's Vietnam novel. One gets the impression in 2017 that people have forgotten Vietnam, that the generation that it defined has moved on to other things - and those that weren't alive for it have multiple other unpopular wars to focus on. The anger that King feels is justifiable and palpable, and it informs Blind Willie and Why We're in Vietnam, which are, in their own ways, damning indictments of war in general. Sometimes one gets the impression that King is more moderate than progressive, but one knows precisely where he stands on this issue.
It all comes full circle with the final story, Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, which acts as a coda to Low Men In Yellow Coats, but would not work without the intervening stories to fill in the years. There's a certain perfect symmetry here that reflects King at his peak and it ties in so nicely with The Dark Tower (with the bonus of making enough sense to non-initiates) that Hearts In Atlantis, in total, becomes something close to a masterwork of both sentiment and literature.