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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Fantastic.
I read this while on a camping vacation (well, glamping...in a cabin) with my wife and kids. Its brilliant. The first story, Low Men in Yellow Coats, is about young Bobby Garfield and his father figure Ted Brautigan. It connects to the Dark Tower series, which is cool. I also thought Bobby was the perfect age. Ted tells him to be on the lookout for odd looking men in yellow coats, as well as other signs they are near. When Bobby sees these signs he hesitates to tell. If Bobby was a bit older, he probably would have thought Ted was a wacko for even asking Bobby to look and if Bobby was younger he'd have been terrified and run to Ted immediately. Bobby was an entirely believable 11 year old, looking for what Ted said but not telling him when he saw it.
The second story, Hearts in Atlantis, is about freshman in college who are obsessed with the game Hearts. One character from the first story shows up here, Carol. This is also the story where the theme of the Vietnam War comes in. As the boys fail out of college they risk being sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. I found it a funny thing to be addicted to, but the way they couldn't stop despite knowing the risks was tragic and probably true.
The final three stories are much shorter. We get one about Willie, a minor character in the first story, and how he makes his living two decades after the horrors of Vietnam. Then we spend some time with Sully, Bobby and Carol's friend, as he reflects on Vietnam at a friend's funeral. Finally, we end with Bobby and Carol meeting up for the first time in decades.
Overall, a beautifully written set of stories. There's a bit of fantasy for King fans who want that sort of thing as well as food for thought on war and Vietnam. Beside that, there's just some great storytelling with wonderful characters.
I read this while on a camping vacation (well, glamping...in a cabin) with my wife and kids. Its brilliant. The first story, Low Men in Yellow Coats, is about young Bobby Garfield and his father figure Ted Brautigan. It connects to the Dark Tower series, which is cool. I also thought Bobby was the perfect age. Ted tells him to be on the lookout for odd looking men in yellow coats, as well as other signs they are near. When Bobby sees these signs he hesitates to tell. If Bobby was a bit older, he probably would have thought Ted was a wacko for even asking Bobby to look and if Bobby was younger he'd have been terrified and run to Ted immediately. Bobby was an entirely believable 11 year old, looking for what Ted said but not telling him when he saw it.
The second story, Hearts in Atlantis, is about freshman in college who are obsessed with the game Hearts. One character from the first story shows up here, Carol. This is also the story where the theme of the Vietnam War comes in. As the boys fail out of college they risk being sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. I found it a funny thing to be addicted to, but the way they couldn't stop despite knowing the risks was tragic and probably true.
The final three stories are much shorter. We get one about Willie, a minor character in the first story, and how he makes his living two decades after the horrors of Vietnam. Then we spend some time with Sully, Bobby and Carol's friend, as he reflects on Vietnam at a friend's funeral. Finally, we end with Bobby and Carol meeting up for the first time in decades.
Overall, a beautifully written set of stories. There's a bit of fantasy for King fans who want that sort of thing as well as food for thought on war and Vietnam. Beside that, there's just some great storytelling with wonderful characters.
Hit or miss, but when it’s good, it’s great. One for the fans as there’s a number of references to The Dark Tower etc.
very slow paced, not very interesting, not my cup of tea.
King's book is really a number of stories in a cycle. The film is actually one of the stories, but not the title story - which means, if you watch the film, you never really learn what the title means. The film is fantastic, one of my most beloved, but I love the book separately and together with the film at once. I love both versions of the story.
This is also, as a whole, one of the books I love. I don't say "I love this book"; everyone says that, of course, about books they enjoyed, the way they say it of a confection they have just finished. But that's not what I mean, and this book is not merely this month's confection. I love some stories, whether film or books, the way a man loves a woman, and yes I know what that is. This is one of those books. There are some really painful things in here. But it's like having a friend and the friendship being busted up into a pile of debris - I think, along with a lot of readers who don't need happy endings as much as we do a sense of life, that something goes on - that more than closure, we get persistence, that the friendship, like the book, is worth it. Friendship is so rare and precious, that even if it's like a pile of broken glass, I want it, all of it - shards and all. I want books like this in that same way.
This is also one of those books I think you can read after you've watched the film, with it not being spoiled. Not because the film story - Low Men - doesn't end the same way, but because the richness the author creates in the text embellishes the film experience in such a way that, if you're capable of experiencing art this way, lets you sort of live the film differently in the past. It lets you time travel, rather than feeling like you're re-watching the same film. At least that's how I experience a lot of books, including this one. But I think you have to love a story, really love it, in the unspoken place of the heart, or you don't get that.
Some people have been deprived of such an experience, as I had been for a number of years growing up, and think of the "heart" as a Hallmark card sentiment or Disney movie "message". The heart doesn't exist, or we can't know what it is - it's make believe. I know you - I was once one of you. All I can tell you is that they took it from you, took it from you when you were young, and you can get it back again. And it's nothing like Disney or Hallmark - it's nothing like when they say a movie "will touch your heart". That still makes me want to vomit. But there is a heart, and it is an organ of the soul, given the metaphorical name of the beating organ that pumps your blood, and even connected to it, overlapping it, if you prefer, and connected to your will and your mind, which overlaps your brain and the rest of your body.
I don't mean to condescend and say, "if you don't like this book, you're not enlightened, you have an impoverished soul, you have no heart". All hearts are unique. I'm just saying that, this book operates in my heart, and the title doesn't reflect saccharine sentimentality, but a kind of connection that's possible with others, real or imagined, who also have hearts, even if some of them aren't tromping around the world we consider visible, flattening the same turf. Take that how you like. Anyway, I like this book.
Available from Amazon.
This is also, as a whole, one of the books I love. I don't say "I love this book"; everyone says that, of course, about books they enjoyed, the way they say it of a confection they have just finished. But that's not what I mean, and this book is not merely this month's confection. I love some stories, whether film or books, the way a man loves a woman, and yes I know what that is. This is one of those books. There are some really painful things in here. But it's like having a friend and the friendship being busted up into a pile of debris - I think, along with a lot of readers who don't need happy endings as much as we do a sense of life, that something goes on - that more than closure, we get persistence, that the friendship, like the book, is worth it. Friendship is so rare and precious, that even if it's like a pile of broken glass, I want it, all of it - shards and all. I want books like this in that same way.
This is also one of those books I think you can read after you've watched the film, with it not being spoiled. Not because the film story - Low Men - doesn't end the same way, but because the richness the author creates in the text embellishes the film experience in such a way that, if you're capable of experiencing art this way, lets you sort of live the film differently in the past. It lets you time travel, rather than feeling like you're re-watching the same film. At least that's how I experience a lot of books, including this one. But I think you have to love a story, really love it, in the unspoken place of the heart, or you don't get that.
Some people have been deprived of such an experience, as I had been for a number of years growing up, and think of the "heart" as a Hallmark card sentiment or Disney movie "message". The heart doesn't exist, or we can't know what it is - it's make believe. I know you - I was once one of you. All I can tell you is that they took it from you, took it from you when you were young, and you can get it back again. And it's nothing like Disney or Hallmark - it's nothing like when they say a movie "will touch your heart". That still makes me want to vomit. But there is a heart, and it is an organ of the soul, given the metaphorical name of the beating organ that pumps your blood, and even connected to it, overlapping it, if you prefer, and connected to your will and your mind, which overlaps your brain and the rest of your body.
I don't mean to condescend and say, "if you don't like this book, you're not enlightened, you have an impoverished soul, you have no heart". All hearts are unique. I'm just saying that, this book operates in my heart, and the title doesn't reflect saccharine sentimentality, but a kind of connection that's possible with others, real or imagined, who also have hearts, even if some of them aren't tromping around the world we consider visible, flattening the same turf. Take that how you like. Anyway, I like this book.
Available from Amazon.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
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
Very good book with a couple interlocking short stories. My favorite were the first two. Good book about the 60’s.
This became on of my favourites of King soon after I read it. It's been years since I've read it, just after its initial publication, and still the stories resonate in my mind. The four novellas within are lasting, enduring stories.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes