Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Hearts In Atlantis (edition 2000)by Stephen King
Work InformationHearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
Unread books (205) » 10 more Best Horror Books (138) Best Historical Fiction (471) Dark Tower Books (11) Books tagged unread (33) Alphabetical Books (183) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.
Audiobook version. I loved, loved, loved, William Hurt's performance. Although he doesn't put much effort into creating different voices for all the characters, he reads the story with such passion and... rhythm. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. The only two stories that I really enjoyed were Low Men in Yellow Coats and Why We're In Vietnam. The rest I could do without, but the others were classic King. I wanted to read this book because it's related to The Dark Tower series. Of the 500+ pages, only about half of it relates. And I loved that part. The rest centers on the mid/late 1960s, Vietnam, the counter-culture, protestors, etc. As someone born in 1970, and a political conservative, I really didn't like the 2nd half of the book. Understand this isn't a reflection of King's writing. The guy's certainly one of the greatest American writers ever and certainly in the 20th Century. But I can't cheer for characters I don't philosophically respect. If you're a child of the 60s, I think you'd "dig" the half I didn't. I'm not sure you would really get or appreciate the first part (especially if you haven't read DT) but damn, King writes kids well. That first section, DT-related or not, reminded me of "The Body," which of course became the movie "Stand by Me." *All reviews come from online reviews* Hearts In Atlantis is composed of five interconnected, sequential narratives set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War. In "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood and that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror. In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest...and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast. In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam," two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow and haunted as their own lives. And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, and his heart's desire may await him. Full of danger, suspense, and full of heart, Hearts In Atlantis takes some listeners to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.
In ''Hearts in Atlantis,'' it's as though King has written two lengthy prologues and two brief epilogues but left out the novel proper. Or perhaps he hasn't. The book's juxtapositions set me wondering: maybe Vietnam is the archetype not only of the otherworldly horror Bobby chooses to avoid in ''Low Men in Yellow Coats'' but of all King's supernatural horror. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Literature.
Suspense.
Thriller.
HTML:The classic collection of five deeply resonant and disturbing interconnected stories from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King. Innocence, experience, truth, deceit, loss, and recovery are at the core of these five interconnected, sequential talesâ??each deeply rooted in the 1960s, and each scarred by the Vietnam War, which continues to cast its shadow over American lives, politics and culture. In Part One, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror. In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest, and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast. In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam," two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollowâ??and as hauntedâ??as their own lives. And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," this remarkable book's denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart's desire may await him. Full of danger and suspense, full of heart, this spellbinding fiction will take some readers to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely forget. Nearly twenty years after its first publication, Hearts in Atlantis is powerful and astonishingly current. "You will see Stephen King in a new light. Read this moving, heartfelt tragedy and weepâ??weep for our lost conscience." â??Bo No library descriptions found.
|
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
I remembered bits and pieces of this collection from my one and only read 25 years ago, however I do also remember truly enjoying the first story, and not being all that impressed with the ones that follow.
I was also 25 years younger, and now, some themes hit very differently.
I think the thing that bugged me the first time around was, I was expecting horror. The Low Men story delivered some, but then King seemingly eschews horror for the rest of the book...or does he?
King knows that horror can take many faces, and with this book, it's the horror of war—and the mentality of opposing war "at all costs" and what it can do to rational people—and he takes his time to examine it from many different angles.
And while all but one of the stories utterly captivated me, and a couple left me in tears, overall, this is King firing on all cylinders.
Just a gorgeous, terrible book. ( )