Just After Sunset by Stephen King – Review by Emmanuel Paige

Stephen King has published a fifth collection of short stories, Just After Sunset, the youngest sibling to Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, and Everything’s Eventual. With the most recent collection, Just After Sunset, King has reignited his passion for the short story.  After sitting in as guest editor for The Best American Short Stories 2007, King stated that “I got excited all over again, and I started writing stories again in the old way. I had hoped for that, but had hardly dared believe it would happen.” ^[1] Each of the stories in Just After Sunset showcases King at his most potent storytelling ability to date.

An avid King fan, I purchased this book shortly after it came out in hardback and I piecemealed my way through the stories, selecting them at random as the titles appealed to me. As I read the stories I noticed that they didn’t have the classic King hard horror edge. These stories were . . . well mannered and slightly mild. That doesn’t mean that they are not frightening and do not have elements of horror; on the contrary, diehard fans and “constant readers” will be pleased to know that King still delivers the goods and plunges headlong into the domain of the unknown, terrible and frightening. That being said, these stories are far richer, in depth, and polished than any of King’s previous collections, probing deeper into the human condition to where the real story resides. These stories show King at his finest with a literary shine that is unparalleled in modern fiction. King is truly without peer and the master of his domain. This book is a little light in the total number of stories, but it makes up for this in quality.

King wrote these stories after sitting in as the guest editor of the series The Best American Short Stories 2007, along with Heidi Pitlor, the current editor of the long running series (first published in 1978). When he was asked if he would like to edit the annual series, King stated: “I didn’t need to sleep on it, or even think it over on an afternoon walk. I said yes immediately. For all sorts of reasons, some even altruistic, but I would be a black liar indeed if I didn’t admit self-interest played a part. I thought if I read enough short fiction, immersed myself in the best the American literary magazines had to offer, I might be able to recapture some of the effortlessness that had been slipping away. Not because I needed those checks—small but very welcome when you’re just starting out—to buy a new muffler for a used car or a birthday present for my wife, but because I didn’t see losing my ability to write short stories as a fair exchange for a walletload of credit cards.” ^[2] King dedicated the collection to Heidi Pitlor, a tip of the hat for enduring such a longsuffering and magnanimous job as editing. If you are not acquainted with the annual series, The Best American Short Stories, run—don’t walk—to the nearest bookstore (or login at your favorite online distributor) and purchase a copy immediately. These are living and breathing short stories by authors of modern times, selected with care from a plethora of reputable sources by guest editors that are experts in the field.

King comments on the current condition of the modern short story, stating that “The American short story is alive and well,” but hesitates at the last on well. “Do you like the sound of that?” King asks. “Me too. I only wish it were true. The art form is still alive . . . but well?” ^[1] King goes on to explain that the market for short fiction is dwindling and the audience for short stories (“real readers” who immerse themselves in the story and “just can’t wait to find out what happens next”) may be diminishing too, leaving only aspiring writers that read in an academic or snooping fashion, a sort of groping or “copping-a-feel reading” to see what is being published in those markets.

With this collection, Just After Sunset, King is paying homage to a literary form that is currently suffering and on the brink of extinction. Why is the short story on the verge of extinction? The distractions of the modern world may be to blame. How can one read a short story with a cell phone in one hand and a PC mouse, TV remote control, Xbox or Sony PlayStation controller in the other? The short story has to compete with other mediums and forms of entertainment: Internet, blogs, cell phones and text messages, video games, and television. Readers seem to be favoring blogs and other online content instead of traditional printed media such as magazines and books. Why pay $6.95 for a book or magazine when you can browse the web for free? It all comes down to attention span and competition for said attention. The demand for short stories is consequently in rapid decline. Stephen King isn’t letting that keep him from publishing in the dying literary form.

Here is a brief summary of the stories in Just After Sunset:

• Willa – A little honky-tonk bar in the middle of nowhere—Crowheart Springs, Wyoming—becomes a haven for two young lovers, Willa and David, after a passenger train derailment.
• The Gingerbread Girl – After the tragic death of her baby, Emily takes up running as a hobby and pastime, or perhaps an obsession, an attempt to flee from the past, and winds up dashing headfirst into a terrible trap where she must fight for her life.
• Harvey’s Dream – Harvey has a dream that may be a precognition with terrible consequences.
• Rest Stop – A short rest area break for Rick Hardin (aka John Dykstra or vice versa), a writer of hard-boiled “caper” novels, on Route 75 between Jacksonville and Sarasota goes terribly awry .
• Stationary Bike – Riding on a stationary bike gets so boring at times that Richard Sifkitz, a professional painter, decides to paint a mural to keep himself entertained . . . and his imagination gets the best of him.
• The Things They Left Behind – This is a story that pays homage to the 9/11 victims in the twin tower bombing in New York.
• Graduation Afternoon – A wicked little tale of a graduation day celebration with an unexpected fireworks display and a terrifying grand finale.
• N. – A Lovecraftian style tale told by a psychiatrist, Dr. B., about a strange occurrence from out of this world with deadly consequences.
• The Cat from Hell – This is what King calls the “hidden track” of the collection, a reprint from Cavalier (one of King’s first magazine publications) , and which also appeared in film in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990). Premise: The services of a professional hit man, Halston, are solicited from a rich old man in a wheelchair, Drogan, to kill the most unlikely of victims . . . a cat.
• The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates – A mysterious phone call leads to the classified ads in The New York Times.
• Mute – A mute and deaf hitchhiker has a particularly grizzly way of saying thanks for the ride.
• Ayana – A miracle in a cancer ward leads to a special gift that keeps on giving.
• A Very Tight Place – Curtis Johnson and Tim Grunwald are neighbors who don’t like each other, and eventually this dislike leads to hate, and as a result, one of them tries to murder the other in a particularly gruesome fashion.

My personal favorites, in no particular order, are: Willa, Mute, Rest Stop, The Gingerbread Girl, Graduation Afternoon, and The Cat from Hell. Each of these stories are written with the skill for which King has become world famous and are worthy additions to the brood of collections that he has sired. This may be the beginning of a new era, a more literary and gentler side that will see a mellowing and maturing King producing more works with a proclivity toward literature. This is not to say that King hasn’t been creating literature all along (some critics would argue this point), and he may now be leaning even more toward the serious side of writing fiction, to where the Pulitzer prize winners reside.

References:

1. King, Stephen and Heidi Pitlor, eds. The Best American Short Stories 2007. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007. Print.
2. King, Stephen. Just After Sunset. New York: Scribner, 2008. Print.