Just After Sunset – Stephen King
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: [from the dustjacket] Just after sunset — call it dusk; call it twilight; it’s a time when human life takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you.
Expectation: A scattershot collection of stories from King’s uneven period of the mid-aughts.
Reality: A completely passable and often entertaining collection that bring forward some classic, and previously unpublished stories, and set the groundwork for some of his later works.
Recommended For: Constant Readers and fans of supernatural stories.
Why I Read It: It had been in my personal library for more than a decade.
My Take:
A completely adequate collection of short stories, but, in true Stephen King fashion, many last longer than they should. Knowing that these stories were written over the course of his career, as a Constant Reader, it was fun to try and sort the old from the new.
While many cover the well-worn ground that has made King millions, there were a few that still surprised. Each of the stories below would total only about 150-pages and are worth the time:
"My Cat From Hell" — the one truly can't miss story in the collection, and unsurprisingly it was one that was written almost 30 years ago. Its absurd premise — a man hiring a hit man to kill his cat that he feels is responsible for the death of three people — is so ridiculous you can't help but dive in.
"The Things They Left Behind" — an affecting tale of fate told by someone who didn't show to work at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 and has now become the keeper of memories, through typical workplace tchotchkes, of his deceased coworkers.
"Graduation Afternoon" — an interesting take on a trite premise. You think it's going in one direction before it does a complete 360-degree turn.
"The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" — similar in vein to the above "Things," another example of King still processing his near-death experience.
"Mute" — fresh energy applied to an over-used premise. A man picks up a deaf and mute hitchhiker and lets out his frustrations to someone he thinks can't hear, but it turns out that's not the case.
"Ayana" —featuring a character like John Coffey that makes a compelling case for "The Green Mile Literary Universe" to totally be a thing.
If you're really interested in the collection, I'd give honorable mention to "N." and "A Very Tight Place," although each is far too long. The rest of the stories are mediocre at best, tedious at worst, and something that I'd expect from a lesser writer.
While I started and stopped this collection multiple times since I received it as a Christmas gift in 2008, turning to the audiobook helped me push through, and I’m grateful that I did.
Narrated by several voices — including Stephen King, Jill Eikenberry, Holter Graham, George Guidall, Ron McLarty, Denis O'Hare, Ben Shenkman and Mare Winningham — O’Hare gave the best performance (at least the one I remember a year after completing the novel) in “N.”
Rating (story): 3/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5
Formats: Audiobook (library loan) + Hardcover (personal library)
Dates read: April 12 - 18, 2020
Multi-tasking: Good to go. I painted a bedroom while listening.
