From the book “Just after Sunset” by Stephen King: “Harvey’s Dream”, a ten page story, in a book of over 350 pages, $28,000 (I bought it on sale for $7.00; thank goodness), dated 2008. As far as I know, Mr. King hasn’t written short stories for a while, this book was his first in several years. He says on the sheet inside the book “Stephen King…offers an astonishing collection of short stories…” Harvey’s Dream, is far from surprising. I read a few of his books years ago, only one impressed me, but I’ve never read his short stories, and this story is poorly written, by anyone’s standards. I haven’t gotten to the full book yet, it may take a year or two after reading this ten page story that is very outdated, oversimplified, written in short sentences that don’t seem to connect properly.

Uses stupid phrases, idioms that don’t fit the character, mood, or life of the story, and perhaps a bit confusing for the younger reader; it seems like he’s just grabbing whatever, knowing that his name will carry the book above the nonsense of it all, the sentences, particularly their awkward endings, to say the least. He sounds like a reporter, and a third-person reporter shouldn’t be reporting. He uses four-letter words, swear words, to maximize power, or shall we say, to emphasize the mood, and by God, he just falls fat, like someone’s looking at you dumbfounded.

He uses clicks, catchphrases, tags like “Waterloo” or “Alfalfa of the Little Rascals” or “The Sopranos” to make his point (silly, silly, and dumber). I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read this story again, and I’m afraid to go ahead and read the other stories in the book, it’s embarrassing, I’m embarrassed for him, isn’t it weird? Obviously, he is not working for the posterity of his works, most people, writers today are not, and it shows. But this story should never have been included in the book, it really is below it. (8-11-2010)