Book Review - Stephen King - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

Gosh dang you to heck, Mr. King.

How can you possibly keep getting better? Seriously. I realize the 'academics' wrote you off a long, long time ago. But what do they know? It's just not fair that you've written, like, a hundred great novels (Except for "From a Buick 8", which just blew goats) and you continue to hone your craft. Save some words for the rest of us, pal! 

'Bazaar' is really pretty far from horror in the traditional sense. Some things in it are horrific, of course. The intro story, "Mile 81", for example, comes off a bit like a Family Guy sketch in regard to the actual 'monster', but it's a great little coming of age tale in the vein of 'The Body'. So they balance out. Horror and nostalgia.

In fact (switching from an open letter to Steve, to a review), he does this a few times. I don't think it's because he has a bad memory for stories, but he revisits certain themes, and possibly improves on them. At least one older story has been revised and included, as well. It's loosely part of what makes these stories belong together.

But the themes contained in the whole of the collection largely revolve around memory and aging. I'm afraid he's feeling his age. Getting old. he's realizing, is the real horror. Like I told my wife, getting older means watching all your heroes die. Each story is dedicated to a person or persons, sometimes related to the story in ways only King or a very close friend would understand. And he has a lot of friends, and has also lost a lot of them to time.

This theme is present from the introductory page, although you won't really pick up on that, unless you're reading this, which is unlikely, until you've read it. But the clues are there.

On the subject of revisiting ideas, I *think* one of the first shorts I ever read from King was in Omni Magazine, and it involved a guy who gets a word processor that makes the things he types come true. I may be misremembering that as him, but I'm fairly confident, without researching it, that that was the case.

He revisits that theme, and updates it for the modern era, although the two stories are very different, ultimately. 

That's not to say any of the tales are rehashes as such, nor is the compendium a collection of variations on old themes. Several of them are absolute bangers, and almost of them are unique ideas. But the few that have relation to older tales furthers the themes of aging and nostalgia.

"Afterlife" is a pretty incredible and brief tale revolving around a death. It wouldn't be entirely out of place in the writings of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, or a Monty Python sketch, for that matter. It's funny, fantastic, and also a bittersweet statement on the human condition. Damn good writing, in other words.

"Tommy" is one of his rare forays into poetry, and it's powerful good stuff. Again, it's about memories, death, and all the good stuff in between that never ending cycle. 

None of this is to say that the stories aren't creepy. "Bad Little Kid" sticks out as one that's particularly unsettling. "That Bus is Another World" manages to distract you with story only to pummel you right at the end with fright.

The one actual update is "Ur", which was already a great story. 

Each time the technology/tools of writing change, King writes a story around it. It's sort of tradition, at this point. The aforementioned switch from typewriter to processor was one. The web was another, with the serial "The Plant".

"Ur" involves a magic Kindle. I won't spoil any of it, except to say that he has taken it and framed it in a bigger story, or at least that's how I remember it differing from the original. Which, funnily enough, was something a professor of mine had told me to do with one of my shorts a long time ago. Funny, because it was the short story "Write", and was very King-inspired.

In fact, one can say that King taught me how to write, in large part. He appears as himself in my novella "Cure for Sanity", as sort of a response to him including himself as a character in the Dark Tower series. "Pageburner", my first attempt at a full-length novel, involves a genetically-modified virus, and includes the phrase 'Captain Trips' a time or two, an homage to The Stand.

He does self-referential stuff again in "Blockade Billy", which manages to be horrific *and* about baseball. He can even make baseball interesting to read about, which is a major accomplishment, in my eyes.

One of my favorites is called "Morality", and involves the worst sort of monsters, the human kind. It's a unique little slice-of-life that cuts deeply. Vaguely reminiscent of "The Cat From Hell", but then again not really. Again, I won't spoil anything, but this one resonates deeply with me, for some reason.

The last I'll mention is "Herman Wouk is Still Alive", which opens on a funny note regarding how the story came about, then just sort of slowly rips you into pieces. King hasn't forgotten what it feels like and means to be abjectly poor, and he manages to convey this most excellently. Our lives our brutish and short, although sometimes there is ice cream.

I'm not sure why I'm reviewing this. I enjoy his work, primarily. And maybe I'm trying to dust off the old knuckles for another round of writing as I attempt to get a few more novels under my own belt before the great beyond. It's not like he needs the money you would get from buying a copy. If you're like me, you'll probably get it second-hand from Goodwill anyway.

As a writer, though, this book makes for an excellent study in how to do it. I doubt he wrote these stories with any specific overarching theme in mind, but as a collection, they work well together. A lot of us move on from short stories to novels, because we have grand tales to tell. But King shows us that abandoning short form writing is a mistake. Because there are lots and lots of little stories that need to be told as well. Think of writing short stories as a way to keep in shape in between your larger bouts.

Taken as a whole, it's really interesting to see the progression in his work that culminated in this collection. He keeps changing, and in doing so, his stories are changing as well. I was a bit surprised by this one when I read it.

Damnit, Steve. You better not go anywhere for a long, long time. I've had enough loss lately to fill a hat. 

"Bazaar of Bad Dreams" on Amazon