Different Seasons

From the narrative master of horrors and thrillers comes this collection of four novellas that exhibit the lighter side of Stephen King. To give some perspective as to the types of stories we’re talking about, two of these tales were made into the cinematically brilliant and critically acclaimed films TheShawshank Redemption and Stand By Me! In Different Seasons, it’s a change of pace for King and a different type of story than we’re used to reading from him, making the book refreshing, confronting, and compelling. 

Hope Springs Eternal (‘Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption’): This story chronicles the journey of federal prison inmate, Andy Dufresne, from his arrival in Shawshank Prison to his eventual escape. 

Narrated in the first person, it’s told from the point of view of inmate, Red, who observes Andy’s story with much detail and interest. Whilst it is technically a first-person register, the story does have this third-person omniscient tone that King manages to create beautifully in Red’s narration. In this way, readers get to learn so much intimate detail about two characters rather than just one and it’s this and Red’s relationship with Andy that makes the tale so beautiful. 

But despite the clever blend of the first and third person omniscient narration, I did find that sometimes the pace of the story would slow and become a bit of a drone making it hard to continually pick up and read. It pays to watch the film first as the scene-by-scene reruns that the mind is capable of adds to the page-turning inspiration. 

But negative aside, it’s a story of patience, bravery, incredible discipline and determination, and hope and it makes for a very compelling read. 

Summer of Corruption (‘The Apt Pupil’): Tells the story of a young, talented, and promising student who, out of some morbid fascination, tracks down a war criminal and entices him into a strange union that threatens them both as it progresses. 

Written in the third person, this story begins a little slow and then starts to heat up when the past of the elderly man that the boy befriends is revealed and their relationship starts to develop. Taking a sharp turn away from the hopeful feelings inspired by Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, this story explores the corruption of innocence and young potential in a really shocking and confronting way. 

King’s incredible attention to detail works to make the more dramatic and confronting scenes really gut-churning, whilst the nonchalant way in which he describes events through the alternating tones and perspectives of the two central characters, establishes a strong and growing sense of dread and serious disturbance. It’s gritty, and shocking, and so damned compelling. 

The Loss of Innocence (‘The Body’): This exhibition of bildungsroman (more or less ‘coming of age’) is the best in the book I think! It tells the story of four boys on the cusp of adolescence venturing into the woods to find the body of a missing boy, discovering life, death, and the loss of innocence along the way. 

A riveting story told in the first person register as a flashback, it’s one of King’s most intimate stories: entirely character-driven with an impeccable attention to detail of the culture being described. You do feel as though you are there in that town, in that year, at that time. Yes, of the four this is the best! 

A Winter’s Tale (‘The Breathing Method’): Depicts a man telling the story of a man who told a most incredible story about an unmarried pregnant woman determined to give birth…no matter what. 

Admittedly the weakest story in the book, this is the classic story within in a story and one thing that it does achieve quite successfully is create a sense of dread and anticipation without providing payoff at the end. Readers are left with so many unanswered questions, which is probably for the best, and no sense of justification for the effort put in to reading the story about the pregnant woman. 

Having said that, the story about the pregnant woman does provide some weird and horrible closure in the form of blood and horror, which King does all very well. 

It’s simply written and we don’t really get a good sense of any of the characters depicted, so it’s hard to say what it is that keeps us turning the pages. But we do. 

Amongst the intimate registers, empowering tones, and incredible and graphic detail, King also subtly references the tales within each other, which brings another level of enjoyment to the whole thing. Keep an eye out for references to Andy in ‘The Apt Pupil’: particularly enjoyable. 

Filled with action, violence, drama, suspense, growth, despair, and even a little comedy, Different Seasons is an apt title for this collection of novellas that demonstrate King’s ability to write stories with heart as well as horror.