Different Seasons: Four Novellas Mass Market Paperback – March 28, 2017

I am (re)reading King's works in chronological order. I read this book when it first came out. Up to this point in his career he had proven he was a master of genre fiction, even including the Bachman books which though not horror are still various genres. Here King now turns his hand to straight fiction with four novellas within this collection, bringing some of his finest work to date and proving that he can write pure fiction, even "literature".Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption - This story is the narrative of a lifer at the prison called Shawshank. Shortly after he is incarcerated along comes a new inmate named Andy Dufresne. Andy has a huge impact on our narrator and he tells us Andy's story along with what life is like inside a maximum security prison. A gritty dramatic prison tale that held me fast from beginning to end. (5/5)Apt Pupil - This gets close to what we've come to expect from King. Not a horror story, by any means but a thriller; a psychological thriller. I couldn't quite remember this story at first but it all came rushing back as I started to read. A 14 yob is fascinated with the death camps of the Holocaust and after some detective work finds out a neighbourhood man is an SS Nazi in hiding, blackmails the man into telling him all about the details of what really happened at the camps and the two form a respect/hate relationship that lasts for the rest of their lives until what drew them together pulls them apart with vengeance. A bit hard to read at times (these are sick individuals) but an unputdownable read! (5/5)The Body - I was looking forward to re-reading this one the most as "Stand By Me" is one of my all-time favourite movies that I've seen many times. I know the story impressed me the first time but upon re-reading, I find the movie is too firmly stuck in my mind. The story is, of course, good but it is very long and very retrospective more than having action. We are a party to the narrator's thoughts and this is truly a piece of literary coming of age work. I'm glad to have read it again and feel nostalgic and melancholy afterwards but, as Ive said, the movie remains foremost in my mind. I could not help but picture the actors, especially Kiefer Sutherland and Corey Feldman. Feldman's character Teddy is quite different in the story and it was hard for me to reconcile the two. Vern, Jerry O'Connell's character, is completely re-written so him I didn't picture plus he is the least dominant character in the story, whereas he has an equal role in the movie. This story has tie-ins to the Stephen King universe with Sheriff Bannerman being mentioned a couple of times, only since this takes place in the fifties he is only a Constable at this point and Shawshank prison (from the first story in this book) is now part of canon, being mentioned twice. (5/5)The Breathing Method - This is the only story from this collection that I didn't remember at first and the re-read didn't bring it back to mind either. So it felt new to me. This is a tale of the macabre and the closest to what we would expect from King, in this collection. It is also the weakest, in my opinion. It's firstly, a story of a men's club where they gather and tells stories, sometimes scary but not always, though Christmas is always an unusual or weird tale. There is something unsettling about this club and our narrator at times tries to discover what it is but never has the nerve to fully go all the way, realizing, as we do, that he is better off not knowing the club, the host and the house's secrets. Secondly, the story narrates a tale one icy, stormy Christmas of a young pregnant woman who dies in an horrific accident on the day she goes into labour. I actually found this boring at times, way too much time was spent on describing "The Breathing Method" otherwise known as Lamaze that it felt scholarly. My least favourite story in the book. (3/5)

I bought this for my eleven-year old nephew after forcing him to watch 'Stand by Me.' I love introducing to him to 80's flicks even though he rolls his eyes and says: "Auntie not another old movie! I hate old movies!" To date I've forced him to watch 'The Terminator, 'Commando,' 'The Running Man,' 'Rambo,' 'Indiana Jones' and other great action classics. And after each film he ends up loving them. So after we watched 'Stand By Me' I told him that it was based on a book and he asked me how I liked the book. That's when I realized - I have never read the book. So I ordered two of these books; one for me & one for him. When he finishes it, we're going to watch 'The Shawshank Redemption' because he hasn't' seen it.'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption'Wow. I really enjoy this movie, I'll watch it any time it is on. The book is even better! The book goes right along as the movie does but reading it was very enjoyable. Red's "voice" is just so true and very enjoyable to read, even at sad parts in the book. Stephen King really tells a great story here; pulling in the reader from the beginning & holding the reader until the very end.'Apt Pupil' - spoilers!This is also a movie, but I had not seen it until after I read the book. We meet a young boy who discovers that his elderly neighbor has been hiding out in American suburbia as an average citizen when in fact the man is wanted for war crimes relating to WW2 in Germany. The kid is curious about what the man did to prisoners in the concentration camps and threatens to turn in the man if he doesn't tell the kid, in great detail, what he did. The curiosity turns into obsession and we watch as the kid comes apart then turns numb and finally acts out his own crimes. Meanwhile, the monster sleeping within the old man is awoken by reliving his horrific acts and he too turns to grisly crime to satisfy his own obsession. The build-up of each character's homicidal crimes was obvious to me, but in a good way. This was an unsettling read, because I wasn't sure if the old man corrupted the kid or if the kid was corrupt from the start and the old man finely tuned the kid into a killer. Still, I enjoyed reading it and after seeing the movie I will say I enjoyed the book more.'The Body' (aka 'Stand by Me')A great coming-of-age story about four boys who set out to find a missing kid that is presumed to be dead. Nostalgic and light-hearted at times but serious and thought-provoking at other times...this was a great read. Gordy's point of view, his thoughts and feelings come across so vividly across the pages; I really enjoyed reading this book. The character Chris was actually my favorite character because he has a good heart and is much smarter (about people at least) than he lets on. He really 'gets' people and he is perfectly aware of how he is perceived and while it isn't fair, he accepts it and he is still always pushing Gordy to write and to excel - because it's as if Gordy succeeds then in a way Chris does too.'The Breathing Method'This one was different than the other three stories, though I can't really put my finger on how. We meet a man who gets invited to a secret club in New York by his boss. In the club there are drinks and as much entertainment as you please: books, a billiard room, etc. Every now and then the members sit by the fire and one of them shares a story. The story told in this book is from an elderly doctor who was one of the first to introduce his pregnant patients to Lamaze breathing which was simply called 'The Breathing Method' back then. One patient in particular he is taken with, not so much in love with but more so in awe of her. I won't ruin the ending but I do wish we could have explored 'the clubhouse' more. It was mentioned that there were many other rooms but we never get to read about them, it's very secretive and even the club's butler is reluctant to discuss them. For a few moments here & there I was reminded of the movie 'Eyes Wide Shut,' because it wasn't clear what was going on in those rooms but it felt like to know what was going on meant danger.I really enjoyed reading this book and I hope that my nephew does too!