![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Skeleton Crew
Author: Stephen King
Published: New York: Signet, 1986 (1985)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 573
Total Page Count: 95,397
Text Number: 274
Read Because: interest in King's short fiction, sent to me by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sisterite
Review: I approached Skeleton Crew in the hope that I might like King's work better in short form, where his intriguing stories wouldn't be deadened by the weight of a doorstop novel. And there are intriguing stories to be had, here. Unlike most single-author collections, Skeleton Crew doesn't suffer from repetition. King's imagination is vast and in plot, theme, and occasionally style his stories are varied, keeping this collection fresh to the end. "The Mist"'s shrouded monsters, the world's hidden corners in "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" (which reminds me of Caitlín R. Kiernan's work), the brutal violence of "The Raft," and the particularly gruesome premise of "Survivor Type" make each story stand out as unique and compelling.
But while I did enjoy those selections, and while I find I prefer King in short form, King is almost never short and it does his work few favors. King mentions in the notes (568), "this disease I have—literary elephantiasis," and it pervades his work. Sometimes it destroys the story's realism, as in "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" where in an oral story drags on for unrealistic hours; more often, it just weakens the storytelling itself. Sometimes King uses his excess length to build exceptional tension, as in "Gramma," but his penchant for shock and violence tends to shatter that carefully created atmosphere. Frequently, the excess length leads to repetition. "Nona" begins by contrasting intense violence against raw humanity, an effective combination—but thirty pages later, King has told his protagonist's entire backstory and hammered his themes into the ground and "Nona" has lost all of its magic.
I've often taken issue with King's fiction—sometimes for these reasons, sometimes for others, but often it boils down to his excessive length. I love long novels, but I rarely find that King uses his wordcount well. Skeleton Crew was an above-average personal foray into King's oeuvre: there are stories here that I authentically enjoy, and I think that a short form does benefit his work. Perhaps I should stick with King's short fiction in the future—but perhaps I should finally learn to avoid him altogether. This is, after all, a reoccurring problem: I want to enjoy King's work, but rarely do. Still, I enjoyed this collection more than usual and give it a moderate recommendation—and readers who appreciate King's style may enjoy it even more.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Stephen King
Published: New York: Signet, 1986 (1985)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 573
Total Page Count: 95,397
Text Number: 274
Read Because: interest in King's short fiction, sent to me by
sisteriteReview: I approached Skeleton Crew in the hope that I might like King's work better in short form, where his intriguing stories wouldn't be deadened by the weight of a doorstop novel. And there are intriguing stories to be had, here. Unlike most single-author collections, Skeleton Crew doesn't suffer from repetition. King's imagination is vast and in plot, theme, and occasionally style his stories are varied, keeping this collection fresh to the end. "The Mist"'s shrouded monsters, the world's hidden corners in "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" (which reminds me of Caitlín R. Kiernan's work), the brutal violence of "The Raft," and the particularly gruesome premise of "Survivor Type" make each story stand out as unique and compelling.
But while I did enjoy those selections, and while I find I prefer King in short form, King is almost never short and it does his work few favors. King mentions in the notes (568), "this disease I have—literary elephantiasis," and it pervades his work. Sometimes it destroys the story's realism, as in "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" where in an oral story drags on for unrealistic hours; more often, it just weakens the storytelling itself. Sometimes King uses his excess length to build exceptional tension, as in "Gramma," but his penchant for shock and violence tends to shatter that carefully created atmosphere. Frequently, the excess length leads to repetition. "Nona" begins by contrasting intense violence against raw humanity, an effective combination—but thirty pages later, King has told his protagonist's entire backstory and hammered his themes into the ground and "Nona" has lost all of its magic.
I've often taken issue with King's fiction—sometimes for these reasons, sometimes for others, but often it boils down to his excessive length. I love long novels, but I rarely find that King uses his wordcount well. Skeleton Crew was an above-average personal foray into King's oeuvre: there are stories here that I authentically enjoy, and I think that a short form does benefit his work. Perhaps I should stick with King's short fiction in the future—but perhaps I should finally learn to avoid him altogether. This is, after all, a reoccurring problem: I want to enjoy King's work, but rarely do. Still, I enjoyed this collection more than usual and give it a moderate recommendation—and readers who appreciate King's style may enjoy it even more.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
