"But miracles do happen, it seems to me; each breath is another one. Reality is thin but not always dark. I didn't want to write about answers, I wanted to write about questions. And suggest that miracles may be a burden as well as a blessing. And maybe it's all bullshit."
As much as I love Stephen King's brilliant novels such as the incomparable "The Stand," the terrifying "It" and the epic series "The Dark Tower" -- among many others -- I've always been even more of a fan of his short stories. Having dabbled in the medium in the past, I know how brutally difficult it can be to sketch characters, build drama and create a plot that doesn't feel rushed, all within the constraints of the short-story format. Yet King has always been able to do it with a deft touch that makes it look frustratingly easy.
While serving as an editor of a book that discussed the best short stories of the year, King caught the short-story fever himself, and decided to develop his fifth collection of short stories with "Just After Sunset." Building on the setting he unveiled in "Duma Key," a couple of the tales are based in the Florida Keys, while a couple touch on religion and St. Christopher's medal. Among some of the other stories, "Harvey's Dream" ("Nothing must announce itself, it's Saturday morning and nothing must announce itself … It occurs to her that this is her punishment for dismissing life as thin. Life is actually like a Jethro Tull song, thick as a brick, how could she have ever thought otherwise?") is tremendous for being so short, "Mute" is perfectly crafted and memorable, and "A Very Tight Place" -- the last story, and very long -- is giggly-gross fun, and it highlights the first openly gay character that I can recall King writing about or examining. Displaying how far his writing has come and with a nod to the past, King also includes the scary "The Cat From Hell", which was written more than 30 years ago.
Some of the stories are informed by 9/11 and the tragic loss of life and destruction of the Twin Towers. The incredible "The Things They Left Behind" deals directly with 9/11 -- and was written just after that infamous day -- and "Graduation Afternoon," "Stationary Bike" and "The New York Times Special Bargain Rates" also use 9/11 as a foundation and backdrop. The terrific "N" ("He looks at me, pale and not smiling now, a man being pecked to pieces by invisible birds"), which first debuted in serial form online, was phenomenal in its treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder and the complex patient-psychiatrist relationship:
"Reality is a mystery … and the everyday texture of things is the cloth we draw over it to mask its brightness and darkness. I think we cover the faces of corpses for the same reason. We see the faces of the dead as a kind of gate. It's shut against us … but we know it won't always be shut. Someday it will swing open for each of us, and each of us will go through.
"But there are places where the cloth gets ragged and reality is thin. The face beneath peeps through … but not the face of a corpse. It would almost be better if it was."
Yet while "N" is regarded as the star of the book -- the "single," if you will -- I think "The Things They Left Behind" was the most powerful story in the collection. The prevalence of the 9/11 and Florida Keys themes were intriguing to me because I'm always drawn to where authors find their inspiration, put down their stakes and begin to explore.
After poring through "Just After Sunset," it's easy to say that -- paraphrasing Mark Twain -- rumors of Stephen King's demise (or retirement, which may amount to the same thing for someone like King) have been greatly exaggerated … and for that, I'm thankful.
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