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ajthudson 's review for:
Blockade Billy
by Stephen King
A King quickie that's nice enough, but doesn't stand out much. There are two stories here:
-Blockade Billy: A retired baseball player gives an oral history of one catcher's short career that starts promisingly and ends with a streak of violence. The twist at the end is pretty good, but there's a heck of a lot of King's patented "old timer blathers on" schtick before you get to it. I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot more if I had any interest in vintage baseball stories. But I don't, so this was a very middle-of-the-road 2.5 stars for me.
-Morality: A tidy little story about guilt's power to poison lives. Like the first story,there's nothing supernatural going on here (which I count as a good thing--I like King's human drama better than his fantastical boogeymen), but without a lot of character specificity, this lacks the heft that it could have had. Perfectly fine, definitely a minor story. 3.5 stars.
These are certainly good enough tales to be included in one of King's collections (in fact, they both later ended up in [b:The Bazaar of Bad Dreams|23512999|The Bazaar of Bad Dreams|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468705688l/23512999._SY75_.jpg|43116154]), but paired as a separate release, there's just not a lot here. Three stars.
-Blockade Billy: A retired baseball player gives an oral history of one catcher's short career that starts promisingly and ends with a streak of violence. The twist at the end is pretty good, but there's a heck of a lot of King's patented "old timer blathers on" schtick before you get to it. I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot more if I had any interest in vintage baseball stories. But I don't, so this was a very middle-of-the-road 2.5 stars for me.
-Morality: A tidy little story about guilt's power to poison lives. Like the first story,
These are certainly good enough tales to be included in one of King's collections (in fact, they both later ended up in [b:The Bazaar of Bad Dreams|23512999|The Bazaar of Bad Dreams|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468705688l/23512999._SY75_.jpg|43116154]), but paired as a separate release, there's just not a lot here. Three stars.