A master of the macabre

Press, 28 April 1984, Page 18

A master of the macabre

Different Seasons. By Stephen King. Future, 1983. 560 pp. $9.95 (paperback). Stephen King, a master of the macabre, mysterious and unusual, has written four excellent stories. The stories are, as King says, too long for short stories, and too short to be novels — but ail deserve to be read, and enjoyed. Most of the vices that mankind is heir to surface somewhere in the pages, and the language of the prisons and the slums is there in all its unvarnished ugliness, but it brings a seamy, gritty reality to King’s stories, rather than merely wearying with its pervasiveness. The first story, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” is the tale of a prison escape. Andy Dufresne has been jailed for killing his wife, a crime that he did not commit. Life in jail is degrading, brutal and bestial, and the details are

not spared. Andy, however, is a very unusual man, and the story of his rise above his surroundings, and his ultimate victory, is brilliantly done.

“Apt Pupil” tells of the fated and evil pact between a former Nazi war criminal, and the American schoolboy who discovers his secret. It is a thoughtprovoking study of human corruption and weakness by a splendid story-teller. “The Body” has elements of every childhood in it — shades, even, of Huckleberry Finn. “The Breathing Method” perhaps owes more to Poe, and rounds off the set nicely, with a tale of the macabre. King, at 35, has a vast following among those who like his band of mystery and horror — his books have now sold 40 million copies. Devotees of the genre will relish “Different Seasons,” and hope that King has many more productive years ahead. — A. J. Petre.