Stephen King launches a new short story title, "Blood Gushes"

Source: Interface News

Throughout Stephen King's prolific and long writing career, he has always had a passion for the form in which short stories are written. In 1982, King published his famous four-part series, The Four Seasons, which included his finest masterpieces, the Shawshank Redemption and Walk with Me, which were eventually adapted into memorable films. In the nearly 10 years since then, King has produced three other similar series of works, which have taken the opportunity to experiment with a variety of themes, scenes, and plot settings. The new book "If It Bleeds" contains four wonderful new short stories, which once again confirms his ability to navigate this creative field.

Of course, in fact, King has a good grasp of almost every way of telling stories: short stories, film scripts, novels, multi-volume collections, and even his "novels for television", the miniseries "Evil Storm of the Century" and so on. But in detail, it is the medium-length narrative that best fits his talents, and in the face of the creative material in his hands, this form allows Jin to expand to a certain extent while retaining a bottom line of restraint. The result is a story he creates that is surprisingly rich in emotions and can be read in the time of sitting down and taking a nap.

Mr. Harrigan's Phone Harrigan's Phone) is one example, and the novel reflects King's fascination with technology and the effects it exerts on human life. At the heart of the story is the relationship between the young narrator Craig and John Harrigan, a retired billionaire who is a Luddite (a strong opponent of mechanization or automation). As the two men's unbalanced relationship progresses, Craig gives Harrigan a cell phone as a gift. The gift was meant to maintain "normal" communication, but it was Stephen King's pen after all, and communication began to become so murky that it connected the Maine suburbs to an unknown world. In its deepest sense, Mr. Harrigan's Phone shows the lasting connections that people can make even seemingly insurmountable differences.

The Life of Chuck is, in my opinion, the best original story in the collection. The story begins with a lot of billboards with a portrait of a middle-aged accountant named Charles Kranz, all of which read, "39 years of greatness!" Thank you Chuck! "Who is Chuck?" What's the story behind these billboards? As the three acts of the story unfold in turn, Chuck's early life is revealed little by little, and we gradually get to know the protagonist. The ending is somewhat surreal, and this story full of dance, music, death, and acceptance also proposes a basic concept that applies to all people, that is, we are all-encompassing like Chuck.

Rat presents a subject that King has repeatedly addressed: the tricky nature of writing life. The protagonist, Drew Lawson, is a struggling writer who has written six short stories, but three attempts to complete the novel have all ended in failure, and each failure has furthered his psychological damage. "Rats" recreates Drew's last desperate attempt to complete the novel. Alone in a log cabin in the jungles of North Maine, he realizes once again that art is a double-edged sword that can bring excitement, despair, and even insane situations. When King explores the dark side of his creative impulses, he often adopts this unpredictable, hallucinatory narrative approach.

One of the most crucial works in the collection is the novel of the same name, which is currently the longest story in the book. "Blood Like a Fountain" is highly completed, and it has multiple relationships with Jin's works in recent years. The protagonist, the real hero Holly Gibney, is a wounded young man who looks erudite, who first appeared in the 2014 issue of "Mr. Mercedes" and played a major role in the 2018 novel The Outsider. In fact, "Blood Rushes" is the sequel to "The Outsider", but it also contains many details that are relevant to the story itself.

Holly and a police detective track down an ancient vampire creature in The Outsider, and in Blood Rush she struggles with a formidable monster, but this time on her own. Holly's efforts to overcome obstacles, including overcoming her own fears, overcoming her troubled past, and refraining from distrust of others, are one of the best parts of the book.

Holly is a rare figure in King's pen that readers fully admire. Kim's love for her is evident on every page, adding more emotional weight to the story. Holly has appeared in five of King's novels, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again. Her last appearance added a lot of charm to the story, bringing surprising and even unsettling pleasure. It can be seen from "Blood Like a Spring" that Jin still has a continuous flow of colorful story "reservoir", and the work is as resonant as ever, and it is enjoyable to read. I sincerely hope that this treasure reservoir will never run dry.

(Translator: Liu Xin)

Source: The Washington Post

原标题：‘If It Bleeds’ reaffirms Stephen King’s mastery of short fiction