#Spooktober #BookReview ‘Nightmares and Dreamscapes’ by Stephen King

About the book…

A solitary finger pokes out of a drain. Novelty teeth turn predatory. Flies settle and die on an old pair of sneakers in New York, and the Nevada desert swallows a Cadillac. Meanwhile the legend of Castle Rock returns . . . and grows on you. What does it all mean? What else could it mean? First there was Night Shift (1978), then Skeleton Crew (1985), and now Stephen King is back with a third collection of stories–a vast, many-chambered cave of a volume, with passages leading every which way to hell . . . and a few to glory.

The long reach of Stephen King’s imagination and the no-holds-barred force of his storytelling have never been so richly demonstrated. There’s something here for readers of every stripe and predilection–classic tales of the macabre and the monstrous, cutting-edge explorations of the borderlands between good and evil, brilliant pastiches of Chandler and Conan Doyle, even a teleplay and a non-fiction bonus, a heartfelt piece of Little League baseball that first appeared in The New Yorker.

In story after story, several published here for the first time, he will take you to places you’ve never been before, places that are both dark and vividly illuminated. Fair warning: You will lose a good deal of sleep. But Stephen King, writing to beat the devil, will do your dreaming for you.

Can you believe? Then come . . .

The lengthy introductory essay claims that this collection will be the third volume of short stories, plundered from King’s past-from now on in, only new stories will be oublished either in magazines, or in book form.

If this is true, then there is an expectation of this 1993 collection that what has been chosen is the creme de la creme of his back cataclogue. The 24 entries include an original screenplay, a non-fiction collab (‘Head Down’) and other oddities. As always, with an anthology, there are some which will never leave you whereas others, upon re-reading, make little to no impression and are swiftly passed by.

2 complete novellas, ‘Dolan’s Cadillac’ and ‘My Pretty Pony’, contain some of King’s best work, the first reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ and the second of ‘The Woman In The Room’. Reading them both again after many years abcence, it outrages this reader that King’s work is so often categorised as horror/genre fiction, that as literary works and teachable stories, they are never looked at in schools. One is a stone cold story of revenge, a grieving huband hell bent on both silencing the voices in his head and getting payback on someone who thinks they are too big and powerful to ever stand trial for their crimes. The other is a meditation on death and the passing of time, and is just beautifully written

There are out and out horror tales which lie cheek by jowl with entries from other anthologies so it does, at times feel like a mixed bag of tricks but when this comes from the imagination of Stephen King, it really doesn’t matter.

It definitely has the feel of someone clearing house, I am not au fait with his later anthologies and cannot attest therefore to the overarching quality of them, however, this has some stand out tales to suit every taste.

My personal favourites have to be possibly linked by the same central character, ‘The Night Flier’ and ‘Popsy’ could be said to live in the same universe and I think it’s not an accident wich has them next to each other in the listings-both of them are very hungry and cast no reflection…

I like the way that the book ends with a non-fiction piece , documenting King’s lifelong love of baseball, ‘Head Down’ does feel like the best way to end the book. It’s a doorstepper of a volume with something for everyone.

How do you feel about short stories? Is this your favourite of his collections?

I have a deep and abiding affection for ‘Night Shift’, which was the first one of his that I read.

I would also thoroughly recommend checking out the deep dives on these tales undertaken by the Loser’s Club podcast, which is available anywhere podcasts are featured. It is like having a conversation with old friends!

Links to the wider King universe

In ‘Suffer The Little Children’, Miss Sidley is sent to Juniper Hill asylum, another Juniper Hill alum being Henry Bowers from ‘IT’

‘‘It Grows On You’ is set in perennial Stephen King territory of Castle Rock, subject of several novels and short stories such as ‘Needful Things’

Richard Dees, the reporter featured in the tale ‘The Night Flier’, also appears in the Castle Rock set novel, The Dead Zone’ where he doorsteps Johnny Smith.

About the author…

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, ‘Mr Mercedes’, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both ‘Mr Mercedes’ and ‘End Of Watch’ received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel ‘Sleeping Beauties‘ with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘, ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘It‘.

King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine

Links-https://www.stephenking.com/

https://open.spotify.com/show/6VwpQm2DINjcWrn78JbdKm

https://consequenceofsound.net/the-losers-club/

Twitter @StephenKing

@HodderBooks