I couldn't put it down. Review on Hearts in Atlantis - Stephen King

I recently got this book as a Valentine's gift. I couldn't wait to start reading it. I love Stephen King and his work. I couldn't put it down and I had it read in 3 days.

Hearts in Atlantis is a collection of five short stories that are all somehow woven together. All the characters are connected in some way. I have the paper back version and it cost $7.99.

This isn't like most of Stephen King's writing. It is fairly tame compared to some things I have read in the past, but it is a great book just the same. If you are looking for gore and destruction this really isn't the book for you. However, if you are looking for an interesting read that ties to the 60s and 70s then you have found it. The book deals with what it was like to grow up in the 60s and be a young adult in the 70s. It touches base on some of the way life was during Vietnam and then goes right into the present with how people today are coping with what they lived through then.

Low Men In Yellow Coats

This is the first of the short stories. It is also the longest of the stories, each story that follows is shorter and shorter. In this story Bobby Garfield of Harwich, Connecticut is our man character. He is the son to a widowed woman who is very bitter about her life. Bobby has some really great friends in Carol and Sully John. Sully John is his best friend and Carol is his first love. They hang out together and do the kind of things that kids do, until their world is suddenly turned upside down. Ted Brautigan is an old man that comes to live in the apartment above Bobby's. Bobby thinks that Ted is a really nice guy that knows a lot about good books but is slightly crazy. He thinks Ted is crazy because he is paying him to watch out for ''the low men in yellow coats'' only it isn't long before Bobby realizes that these ''men/monsters'' are real. These characters will be well known to you if you have read the Dark Towers books, but if you haven't you won't be lost either. While Bobby is trying to help Ted by keeping an eye out for the low men he is also dealing with other problems. He has some glimpses of his mother being attacked by her boss while she is on a trip with him, thanks to mind reading powers that Ted passes on to him with a touch. Bobby also finds Carol beat up under a tree by some of the St. Gabe's boys, one of which is Willie (the boy that Carol thought was nice when his friends weren't around). Bobby carries Carole back to Ted where he helps to put her dislocated shoulder back in place only to have Bobby's mother show up and jump to the wrong conclusion about what she sees. In the end the ''low men'' catch up to Ted and Bobby moves away with his mother where he loses contact with his wonderful childhood friends.

Hearts In Atlantis

This story takes place during 1966-1970 at the University of Maine. Pete is the main character and the story is his description of how things were on campus for him while he was in college. The story goes on to tell about how many boys in his dorm got caught up in a card game called hearts. Often the boys would skip out of class just to play the game and win a nickel per point. The tragic part is that these boys who would flunk out would then find themselves smack in the middle of the Vietnam war. Only no one really cared because all that existed at times was the game. The story also tells about how Pete has a short lived romance with Carole Gerber (yes the girl from the first story) and she even talks to him about the day that Bobby carried her back to Ted. This story has a little sex, rock and politics. Throughout the story we find out how Pete learned about the peace sign and what it all meant. We learn about Rip-Rip who was crippled in an accident and now is desperate to make a statement against the war. In the end Carole moves away and becomes an activist against the war and Pete is left wishing for her. It is important to mention a character that is a foul mouthed, rude cards player. Ronnie Malenfant ends up being one of the boys who flunks out of college and finds himself in Vietnam and also in another of the short stories.

Blind Willie

This is my least favorite of the stories. It just didn't really seem to hold any importance to me, but it was still very well written. Blind willie is a story about Willie from the first story who helped to hurt Carole Gerber. It is about his life after Vietnam. I am not sure if he is just a major loser who tries to become different people to scam others for money or if he really has a mental problem from the war. Which ever it is we go through a day in his life. He wakes up, goes to work dressed one way, switches offices and changes into another person, then he goes to a hotel restroom and makes the final switch where he dresses like a blind Vietnam Vet. Then he sits and waits for people to give him money. He has to pay off a police office and then begins to think of how to get rid of the police man for good. At the end of the day he reverses the steps and goes home.

Why We're In Vietnam

This short story is set in present times, 1999 to be exact. John (Sully John from the first story) is recalling being in the war with Willie (yes the bully and blind willie). He flashes back to scenes from the war that he lived through while on his way to a funeral for one of the men that he had been in Vietnam with. He meets up with an old war buddy and they talk about life and changes since the war. On his way home from the funeral something really weird happens that can only be explained as a message from Ted who is now in some other world. John has a heart attack and is found with a baseball glove that Willie told from Bobby on the day that he had found Carole beat up.

Heavenly Shadows of Night are Falling

In this story Bobby has come back to his home town for John's funeral. He found out about the death when his glove was returned to him with his current address written inside. After the funeral he takes a trip to the park where they used to play as children. Carole comes too and they see each other again. Only now Carole has a new name and identity. Everyone had believed she was killed in a fire during war protests. At last they are together again.

This is a great book. I would highly recommend it to any reader and especially to Stephen King fans.