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Different Seasons (平装)
by Stephen King
| Category:
Horror fiction, Bestsellers, Original books |
| Market price: ¥ 108.00
MSL price:
¥ 98.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
The basis of three well-received great movies, four memorable and incredible journey. Stay on with Stephen King! |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 15 items |
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Brian Seiler (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
Sometimes collections like this can be hard to judge. Most of the time the author will have ups and downs, with one story that may appeal to one audience and another which appeals to a different one. Different Seasons, however, manages to provide a good body of work that should appeal to just about everybody.
To be clear on the content of the book, this is actually two novellas and two short stories - both Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Breathing Method are both on par with such classics as "Bartleby the Scrivener." The format of the book is perhaps a little hokey - the stories follow the seasonal theme - but ultimately that artistic touch is irrelevant to the real appreciation of the book, at worst, and endearing, at best.
The stories themselves are excellent, a fact attested to by the production of three major films based on the first three of these pieces. The first presented is Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, and of them all, it's probably the best on the whole. The characters in the story are well written and, all things considered, it's really just a fine story with a positive message that you might not be used to seeing in Stephen King's writing. Second is Apt Pupil, which is more reminiscent of King's usual subject matter and tone, but still manages to provide an engrossing and interesting view into the nature of evil and the parasitic relationship that a man can develop with it. The Body is probably the most endearing of all the stories in the book, even if it is the roughest in terms of production. With a reflective, old-man-on-the-porch-in-the-sunshine voice, King is able to relate this tale of the loss of innocence and the passage into adulthood. The final tale is actually reminiscent of other, older authors than King. The Breathing Method uses several old tricks of such superluminaries as Melville and Hawthorne in its presentation, and manages to wrap an entertaining story around an allegorical examination of the writing process.
Taken as a whole, this collection is truly one of the most excellent efforts that King has ever put forth. While he still does tend to bloat a little (a complaint many have about his novels) in the middle two stories, all of them manage to create an atmosphere wholly their own and to take the mind of a reader away to another place, which, as King says in the afterword, is his first and highest goal. While little new ground is broken in the themes King analyzes, the themes themselves all still bear examination. His storytelling is at its height here, and this is a book that all readers should pick up at one point or another. It may not be horror, but that, in this case, cannot be said to be a failing, as King showcases his cross-genre talent. A truly fantastic book.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
I didn't know King was the creator of such works like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me until long after he'd written those stories. I can say this without hesitation though, that Different Seasons is one of the most powerful works of fiction I've ever read.
The Body, my favorite piece in Different Seasons, is one of those stories that stays with you long after you've put it down. It has its elements of being scary, but overall its a tale of friendship, much as is the case with Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.
You get the sense that King placed many of his own, real memories into The Body, and you also get the feeling that this is his tale (although it's merely fiction) and there's a part of you, as you read, that says, "This is REAL. This author really believes this."
That's when you know you're reading something amazingly profound. Each word has a reason in The Body, each sentence another tunnel to get you where King wants to take you. This can't be said for all of King's works, but it is certainly, colosally present here.
I know many critics hound King for overstating and sometimes, seemingly out of spite, understating, but those that do seemingly skipped past Different Seasons. Note to critics: Read This One.
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Michele Eggen (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
All four of these stories were spectacular and made for a very exciting, and sometimes shocking, read. The best was of course "The Breathing Method." I must say that I have never read anything quite like that before but it totally blew me away. It was disgusting, but at the same time mesmerizing as that amazing story unfolded. I don't know why people are so down on "Apt Pupil." I think it's because it was a good story but maybe it was the way the story was told. You gotta love "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" because it was made into a such a wonderful movie and it and the story were practically twins. You couldn't help but enjoy it. "The Body" was a very cute story of four boys off on an adventure with some frightening mishaps on the way. I love how King makes such wonderful transitions in whose point of the view the story will be told from.
All great stories, exciting read.
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Daniel Jolley (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
For all those who doubt the fact that Stephen King is one of the all-time great masters at the craft of writing, there is Different Seasons. If nothing else, the doubters should at least acknowledge King's important contribution to reviving the lost art of the novella. King has always said he would write, whether he ever sold a single book - and I think that is completely true. He didn't write these four novellas with publication in mind; each one was written immediately after the completion of a best-selling novel - and each one just sort of sat there after it was finished. What, after all, can a modern author really do with manuscripts too long to be short stories and too short to be novels? Eventually, the idea came to King to just publish them together, with a title that speaks to the fact that these are not the author's usual blood-dripping, creepy-crawling horror stories. In doing so, he not only gave us four of his most captivating works of fiction, he showed a whole new generation of readers the vast, inherent power of the novella.
Three of these four novellas are even better-known than many of King's best-selling novels - due in no small part to the movie adaptations that followed in their wake. It all started with the film Stand By Me - which was not marketed as an adaptation of a Stephen King work of fiction. This was a smart move, considering some of the weak adaptations of earlier King novels. I can only guess how many impressed moviegoers were shocked to learn that Stand By Me was adapted from King's novella The Body. It's a story of four boys who set off to see a dead body, that of another kid hit by a train; their adventure makes for an extraordinary coming-of-age story. It is, in fact, a story about childhood, founded upon a mysterious event in King's own early days (he supposedly saw a friend hit by a train when he was four years old - but there has always been some question as to whether or not this is true); The Body feels autobiographical, and it truly does recapture the essence of childhood and the maturing process into adolescence. I like to think of The Body as a fantastic warm-up to King's later novel It, which captures the essence of childhood almost perfectly.
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption gave birth to Shawshank Redemption, the most critically acclaimed and popular of all King movie adaptations. I think the movie is even better than the novella (largely due to Morgan Freeman), but everything that shines in the movie is here in the novella. An innocent man, convicted of killing his wife and her lover, gives new meaning to the term patient resolve - and has a profound effect on some of his fellow prisoners. I think it's the ultimate prison story, as it shows us the good and the bad of prison life and imbues its characters with a humanity rarely seen in prison-based stories. It's just a stellar piece of writing.
Apt Pupil is my favorite, though, and it finally, after years of fits and starts and rumors, was made into a film in 1998. The movie did make some changes to the original storyline, but it was a vastly underrated film that truly embodied the spirit of King's original novella. The most horrible things can oftentimes be the most fascinating. I know I've always been fascinated by everything that took place in the Third Reich. The teenager in the story, though, is obsessed with those atrocities, and that obsession turns into something increasingly disquieting and dangerous when he discovers a former Nazi living under another name in his neighborhood and blackmails him into telling him all the "gooshy" details of his part in the Holocaust. Apt Pupil is one of the most impressive psychological studies of evil I've ever read.
The Breathing Method sort of gets lost in the shuffle. It's shorter than the other novellas and has never been adapted for film. I really like this story, though. It has a classic fireside story feel to it, hearkening back to the likes of Poe, with its mysterious gentlemen's "club" and emphasis on story-telling. The particular story we are privileged to hear about is in some ways rather ridiculous and certainly quite melodramatic - yet it works extremely well. The novella was dedicated to Peter and Susan Straub, and I think it shows the obvious influence of horror maestro Straub from top to bottom (which, to my mind, is a good thing).
The Breathing Method supplies the theme that serves as a sort of mantra for the entire collection: It is the tale, not he who tells it. The story is everything, and the author is sort of a literary midwife who helps the birthing process along. I heartily believe that many a King critic would fawn over Different Seasons if they read it without knowing who wrote it. This book is a perfect introduction for those yet to experience King for themselves - these are, for the most part, mainstream works of fiction that reveal a master storyteller at work.
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bargles (MSL quote), Canada
<2007-02-01 00:00>
It's nice to know that Stephen King can write more than just straight horror, and this book proves it. Stephen King has a way of drawing you into his stories, in much the same way Todd gets drawn in by Mr. Dussander in Apt Pupil. I consider the four novellas in Different Seasons to be among King's premiere work, and each one would get 5 stars, in my opinion.
Perhaps as a testament to the quality of this book, three of the four novellas have been made into movies (Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil and The Body, renamed Stand By Me), and I wouldn't be surprised if a movie for The Breathing Method is currently in the works. For those of you who'd like to start reading Stephen King, but aren't into the gruesome-type horror, then I recommend this book.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
I've always thought Stephen King is an excellent horror novels writer but "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" changed my mind. I have not read the other 3 stories in the book yet but I am really impressed and inspired by "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption". It's not just another story about prison life or prison escape. It's all about hope. The beauty of the story is that it unwraps little by little and when you get the whole picture, you can't help but applaud and feel tingly all over. I saw the move immediately after reading the story. While Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman did a wonderful job in the movie, there's nothing like reading the novel itself.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
I cannot say anything to describe where Stephen King takes you in this book. I just have to say that the movies, "Shawshank Redemption," Stand By Me," and "Apt Pupil," are all in this book. Yes are we all amazed that these are good stories, and they are not scary, if you read this then you'll understand why Stephen King should be considered the best writer of the late 20th century. And like they say the book is always better than the movie. Read this, trust me.
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Morgue Carter (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
Different Seasons is a remarkable story collection when one realizes that several of the stories within were later made into successful motion pictures. Indeed, there is some really great fiction here and not all of it has to do with the more traditional Kingesque stories of monsters and malevolent beings from another planet; King attacks the reader with a horror that is more psychological and personal than it is fantastical. For example, Apt Pupil is the tale of a young man whose own inner evil is awakened when he befriends an ex-Nazi who shares with him the atrocities he experienced during the holocaust. And Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption capitalizes on anyone's worst nightmare: being incarcerated for a crime they didn't commit. The writing here is solid and, of course, King is an excellent, natural born storyteller. The only real criticism I have for this book is its lack of flowing, artistic prose. If you'd care to check out a story collection that is highly original, erotic, and brimming with horror, I'd recommend "Revenant" by Gaines Galloway, who is also a King fan, yet brings a certain level of dark, artistic prose to his work. Other than that, Different Seasons is another genius-level work from one of the uncontested masters of the horror-genre. Definitely worth reading and belongs in your personal library.
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Beth Cholette (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
If you've never read Stephen King before, this book is an excellent place to start, as it will show you that King is much more than just a "horror" writer. In this book, King has crafted four novellas which provide countless insights into various aspects of life and the human condition. Three of the four stories have been made into movies - you may have seen them and never known they were based on King.
The first novella in the book, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, is clearly the best (it also produced the best movie, The Shawshank Redemption). The premise is simple - a wrongly accused man is sentenced to life imprisonment -but the story itself is rich and enveloping. To say that this engaging, intricately woven tale is heartwarming is somewhat trite, yet the theme of the story, "hope springs eternal," shines through like a beacon.
Also compelling are The Body (made into the movie Stand by Me) and Apt Pupil. Both are coming of age stories which center around young teenage characters, yet the first focuses on triumph, the second on tragedy. The final story, The Breathing Method, was my least favorite, but it fits with the redemption theme that is interlaced throughout the book; plus, fans of King's forays into horror will get a taste of the macabre here. Whatever your specific preference, you are sure to find a favorite tale in this book.
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Dan Prevost (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-01 00:00>
A great novel with unforgettible characters.I would also like to add that Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemtion,that the movie is better and that you should see it first before reading it.I would also like to make some recomendations:Misery,Bag of Bones,Carrie,The Shining,Hearts in Atlantis,and The Talisman.
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 15 items |
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