Re: And now for something completely…
I've always liked King's short stories far more than his novels, and I think you nailed the reason--he gets right to it and doesn't fuss about with things that we can should be able to gather from what he puts on the page. I think that's why the filmed adaptations of his short stories work far better than the novels. I can't think of a single King movie I really want to sit through again, but I'm a sucker for Shawshank and Stand By Me. I thought Secret Window was very overlooked as a film as well.I find King's novels (in general, there are exceptions) overly wordy, unnecessarily complicated, and generally about 150 pages too long.
In stark contrast to King (but probably a bit in line with my fascination with Cormac McCarthy last year) I've been reading a lot of James Ellroy. My best description of him would be if you crossed Elmore Leonard's crime novels with McCarthy's weary, bleak worldview, you'd get Ellroy.The novels of "L.A. Confidential" and "The Black Dahlia" are remarkably more satisfying than their film counterparts, and his other books are just absolutely gripping in their objectivity and avoidance of sentiment. He re-uses characters a lot between books, sometimes without regard for continuity, but it makes it very easy to jump right into the situation. I strongly recommend "White Jazz", and "Hollywood Nocturnes", which is a collection of short stories.
P
pkjensen
(view)
I've always liked King's short stories far more than his novels, and I think you nailed the reason--he gets right to it and doesn't fuss about with things that we can should be able to gather from what he puts on the page. I think that's why the filmed adaptations of his short stories work far better than the novels. I can't think of a single King movie I really want to sit through again, but I'm a sucker for Shawshank and Stand By Me. I thought Secret Window was very overlooked as a film as well.I find King's novels (in general, there are exceptions) overly wordy, unnecessarily complicated, and generally about 150 pages too long.
In stark contrast to King (but probably a bit in line with my fascination with Cormac McCarthy last year) I've been reading a lot of James Ellroy. My best description of him would be if you crossed Elmore Leonard's crime novels with McCarthy's weary, bleak worldview, you'd get Ellroy.The novels of "L.A. Confidential" and "The Black Dahlia" are remarkably more satisfying than their film counterparts, and his other books are just absolutely gripping in their objectivity and avoidance of sentiment. He re-uses characters a lot between books, sometimes without regard for continuity, but it makes it very easy to jump right into the situation. I strongly recommend "White Jazz", and "Hollywood Nocturnes", which is a collection of short stories.
