Different Seasons (Signet)
by Stephen King
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen KingEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1983-08-29
ISBN: 0451167538
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of Different Seasons (Signet)
Book Review: Strong collection of novellas
Summary: 4 Stars
Different Seasons collects four novellas by Stephen King although none of them can rightly be called horror stories. Of the four, three have been turned into movies. The first, "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" was developed into The Shawshank Redemption (Single Disc Edition) and if you've seen the movie you'll find it was a reasonably faithful rendition. As I read the story in it's first person narrative form, it was impossible to keep Morgan Freeman's voice out of my head (that's a good thing). For those who haven't seen the film, the story is about a banker, Andy Dufresne, who is falsely convicted murdering his wife. I suppose that there's no new ground broken in this prison yarn, but it is a highly entertaining read even so.
The next novella is Apt Pupil, also developed into a move with the same name (Apt Pupil). The setup involves an all-American teenage boy who befriends a nazi war criminal that is living under an assumed identity in his town. The boy knows full well who he is and seeks him out because he wants to hear every last detail of life in a death camp. It's a grim story, but a compelling one. Both characters are monsters, of course, but their story holds a fascination that is hard to resist.
The Body was adapted to the screen as Stand By Me (Special Edition). I'm afraid I struggled with this story to the point that I couldn't even finish it. I was doing fine with the narration of the boy and his friends but there are lengthy excerpts of a story supposedly written by the main character later in life that form a "story within a story." Unfortunately, the writing style was reminiscent of a very poor hard-boiled detective novel and ultimately I couldn't get through it. There's more than one of these excerpts and it forms a significant percentage of the novella. I won't say that The Body is either good or bad, I'll just suggest that you be prepared for the noir style of the excerpts if you read it.
Finally, the Breathing Method is the shortest story of the lot and the only one not to grace the silver screen. It's somewhat similar to Ghost Story, which is probably why King dedicated it to Peter Straub. It involves a mysterious men's club and the stories they sometimes tell each other. It's not a true horror story, though it is a bit creepy with some suspenseful undertones. Like most King stories, it's the characterization and atmosphere that makes it a pleasure to read.
While I didn't care for The Body, I enjoyed the other three stories and recommend the book to anyone interested in some non-horror fiction from Stephen King. He's a master of creating interesting characters and putting them in stressful situations to bring out their best and worst characteristics and this book is no exception.
Summary of Different Seasons (Signet)
Four mesmerizing novellas, including the ones that inspired the movies The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and Stand by Me.Different Seasons (1982) is a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and subject, each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, nonhorrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme to escape from prison. The second concerns a boy who discards his innocence by enticing an old man to travel with him into a reawakening of long-buried evil. In the third story, a writer looks back on the trek he took with three friends on the brink of adolescence to find another boy's corpse. The trip becomes a character-rich rite of passage from youth to maturity.
These first three novellas have been made into well-received movies: "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" into Frank Darabont's 1994 The Shawshank Redemption (available as a screenplay, a DVD film, and an audiocassette), "Apt Pupil" into Bryan Singer's 1998 film Apt Pupil (also released in 1998 on audiocassette), and "The Body" into Rob Reiner's Stand by Me (1986).
The final novella, "Breathing Lessons," is a horror yarn told by a doctor, about a patient whose indomitable spirit keeps her baby alive under extraordinary circumstances. It's the tightest, most polished tale in the collection. --Fiona Webster
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