by Stephen King
In the afterword to this, his 10th book, King describes himself as a writer of "plain fiction for plain folks, the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and a large fries from McDonald's." This blunt self-appraisal is nothing if not accurate, but think how many of us have wolfed down a Big Mac. So it comes as no surprise that this book shot to the top of the best-seller lists weeks before its official publication date. King's reputation has been built on his mastery of the macabre, but as the title indicates, this one is different. It consists of four novellas, only one of which can legitimately be called a horror story, although the darker side of King's imagination crops up everywhere. The best is probably the first—an upbeat prison yarn about an unjustly convicted man who triumphs over adversity—called Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Next comes Apt Pupil, a repugnant tale about a California teenager and his increasingly sick fascination with a Nazi war criminal. The Body tells about a young boy who grows up to be a writer very much like King. And The Breathing Method (which bears a certain resemblance to Peter Straub's Ghost Story) is another example of the author doing what he does best—scaring the pants off you. Like all of King's fiction, these four novellas are fast-paced page-turners crammed with overblown clichés. If King set out to prove he could handle genres other than horror, the result is an unqualified success. (Viking. $16.95)
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