Till 4 AM definitely. Review on Four Past Midnight - Stephen King

FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT – Stephen King

What made me pick up this book when I went to my local book store was its thick size. Embarking on a 25 hour train journey from Mumbai to Delhi, I needed something to kill time and the compilation fit my needs to the T. Did I say compilation? Yes, Four past midnight is a collection of 4 novella’s (too long to be a short story and too short to be called a novel), viz. ‘The Langoliers’, ‘Secret Window, Secret Garden’, ‘The Library Policeman’ and ‘The Sun Dog’. I had read King’s ‘Christine’ and ‘Desperation’ earlier, neither of which had succeeded in impressing me (in fact in this book King accepts that ‘Christine wasn’t as good as I had hoped’, sic). America’s so called king of boogeymen, for me was king of ha-ha. Consequently, I wasn’t expecting much from this book either but somehow it managed to completely change my perception of King as a story-teller.

1.The Langoliers:

American Pride’s Flight 29 in en route from Los Angeles to Boston when a freak of nature makes them pass through a time rip in the sky into the past, only those who slept survived and they wake up to find themselves in a world where air doesn’t move, life doesn’t exist and someone is eating up the world.

With a title like that you almost expect some circus troupe to come and perform in front of you, so you have to give it to this guy cause he has the nerve to give the most horrifying characters of his story the funniest of names (another case in point would be the can-tah and can-tuk in ‘Desperation’), and get away with it too. King very successfully crosses into sci-fi with this story, as his unique interpretation of time travel slowly unfolds in front of your eyes. King’s take on time dimensions was what affected me the most and I would call it more of a suspense than horror story. The story was also turned into a popular mini series on ABC. A genius of a cross over, maybe Grisham should take lessons from King.

2.Secret Window, Secret Garden:

Morton Rainey is a very successful writer who has just divorced from his wife and is recuperating at his country home, when a stranger going by the name of Tom Shooter turns up at his door step accusing him of plagiarism. It’s then a race between, Mort to prove his innocence and Tom; to make him do so.

Again, more of a psychological thriller than a horror story, King gives competition to a popular Sheldon novel. Although the story didn’t exactly grab my attention, it’s the plagiarism angle that will appeal to all budding writers. Expect king to play shrink! (Corny?)

3.The Library Policeman:

Sam Peebles is a small town Realty and Insurance agent. To pep up his rotary night speech, Sam visits the local library for some books but all hell breaks loose when he forgets to return them on time and gets a visit by the Library Policeman. His love interest Naomi and the town drunkard Dave give Sam company in his fight against a vampire like creature which feeds on the fears and tears of children.

This by far was the best story for me. What I thought started out as comedy soon turned out to be a ride to nightmare land. King surpasses himself here in characterization and scene detailing. Though the main villain wasn’t as scary it was the underlying theme of childhood fears blooming into adult horrors that did me in, so much so that I couldn’t sleep for hours in the fear of that stranger lurking behind the shadows.

4.The Sun Dog:

Kevin Delevan is ecstatic when he gets a Polaroid camera on his fifteenth birthday. But no matter what the subject it takes a photo of only one scene, that of a dog by a fence. As Kevin keeps clicking he notices the dog moving closer in the frame simultaneously growing bigger and more ferocious with one single intent, to kill. What will happen when the dog completely fills the frame and it can’t get any closer except maybe…? Well, Kevin doesn’t want to know but someone else does.

Though a fantastic premise, King again fails to capitalize on his amazing imagination and turn it into a hair raiser. The story keeps moving along like a lame duck and I had to struggle to finish it because I had nothing better to do. All in all the worst of the lot.

So finally the book turned out to be a mixed bag. While the first and third story were the best, the second managed to strike a chord somewhere, it was the fourth and the last which was a duh! Something very interesting are the few pages that King has given before each story detailing the circumstances and incidents that gave him the idea to write them. I will credit the book with breaking my prejudice against King as an uninteresting writer, so am thinking of taking up ‘Carrie’ now, which people say was his first and best work. Wish me luck!

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