Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King

The Story: While this book isn’t exactly short stories or even a collection of novellas really, it certainly is not a traditional, linear novel.  The book is broken into four sections, all taking place in different decades, from the 60’s to the 90’s.  While there are similar themes and similar characters in some of the stories, all four of these could absolutely stand alone.

The first story, “Low Men in Yellow Coats” is about a young boy named Bobby and his interactions with his new, strange neighbor.  The next story one snatches a couple of Bobby’s childhood friends and moves them forward 15 or so years.  They are in college and addicted to playing Hearts. During this time, there is total political upheaval involving Vietnam.  The third story “Blind Willie” uses one of the bullies from Bobby’s childhood as the main character.  He is a Vietnam vet and getting by the best he can.  The third and fourth stories also involve Bobby’s childhood friends and the town he grew up in.  They have gathered because of a death of a friend and we get to see them as adults.

There are a few big themes going on here.  The one that really stuck out the most was the idea that these few events that were talked about in the first story effected not just Bobby’s life, but so many lives.  These events didn’t just change their summer, but really the course of their lives.  That’s powerful stuff.

What I Thought: It’s taken me forever to write this review.  I finished this book last month sometime but it kept getting pushed to the bottom of my review pile for whatever reason.  Usually you guys get my first, most gut reactions to a book, but honestly I can’t remember how I felt when I finished this one.  So we’ll have to go with what I’m left with now, a month later.

This is one of those Stephen King books that defies the idea that all he can write is horror and scary stuff.  The first story was really the only one that even involved anything supernatural.  The rest of the stories really were just stories about America during kind of a volatile time.

I think that what makes me keep coming back to Stephen King are his characters.  I read very few novels that have characters as real or as fleshed out as his, and I love me a good character.  This book as no exception.  I felt like an extra “character” in this one, though, was America during Vietnam.  The town that Bobby grew up in, the college in “Hearts in Atlantis,” the street that Blind Willie begged on… these settings were all as real as any character and added so much to the story.

I have to add, too, for anyone who has read the Dark Tower series… serious tie-ins here.  Mostly in “Low Men in  Yellow Coats.”  That made this even more fun for me.

This review has kind of been all over the place.  That’s exactly how I feel about this book. I don’t know how to describe the stories or how I felt about them.  I think that’s why I put off writing this review.  So if this was totally un-readable I apologize.  If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me.

Conclusion: Totally different than most of the stuff that Stephen King puts out there, but worth the read.