The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories - Hardcover

King, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1501111671 ISBN 13: 9781501111679

Publisher: Scribner Book Company, 2015

Synopsis

Includes the story "Premium Harmony"--set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

The masterful #1 New York Times bestselling story collection from O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King that includes twenty-one iconic stories with accompanying autobiographical comments on when, why and how he came to write (or rewrite) each one.

For more than thirty-five years, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he introduces each story with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.

As Entertainment Weekly said about this collection: "Bazaar of Bad Dreams is bursting with classic King terror, but what we love most are the thoughtful introductions he gives to each tale that explain what was going on in his life as he wrote it."

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. In "Afterlife," a man who died of colon cancer keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Others address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers--the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in "Obits;" the old judge in "The Dune" who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, people who then died in freak accidents. In "Morality," King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil's pact they can win.

"I made these stories especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."

Stories include:
-Mile 81
-Premium Harmony
-Batman and Robin Have an Altercation
-The Dune
-Bad Little Kid
-A Death
-The Bone Church
-Morality
-Afterlife
-Ur
-Herman Wouk Is Still Alive
-Under the Weather
-Blockade Billy
-Mister Yummy
-Tommy
-The Little Green God of Agony
-Cookie Jar
-That Bus Is Another World
-Obits
-Drunken Fireworks
-Summer Thunder

About this title

Review

"A gathering of short stories by an ascended master of the form... This collection speaks to King's considerable abilities as a writer of genre fiction who manages to expand and improve the genre as he works; certainly no one has invested ordinary reality and ordinary objects with as much creepiness as King... Best of all, lifting the curtain, King prefaces the stories with notes about how they came about. Those notes alone make this a must for aspiring writers."--Kirkus

"BAD DREAMS packs plenty of bite into the 20 stories found here... a welcome dose of horror from the modern master. A large helping, too: Dreams weighs in at 495 pages, every one of which whips by as you plunge into one jolting tale after another... in the space of just a few pages, King can leave your nerves thoroughly jangled. As always, King conjures nightmares you don't necessarily want to wake up from."--Preston Jones, The Fort Worth Star Telegram

"The best stories in THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS are the ones that read like they meant something to King... A Death, which bears the easy, plaintive prose of Kent Haruf, follows a sheriff preparing to go through with the hanging of a man who may have been falsely convicted of murder. Obits channels the snark and cynicism of contemporary culture as its hero, a writer of celebrity death notices for a Gawker-like website, discovers he can kill people by writing their obituaries while they're still alive. Summer Thunder, the touching post-apocalyptic story that concludes the book, ends on a note of lovely melancholy. Death may be inevitable, King says. But to fret about it or dwell on it is a waste of time when life, even at its most difficult, can bear so many rewards."--Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald

"A triumph...Stephen King's shorter works have inspired readers, writers, filmmakers and other artists for more than 40 years. His newest short story collection, THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS, continues his tradition of compulsively readable short stories, novellas and narrative poems that will thrill fans looking for scares, surprise critics that write him off as a 'genre' author and inform artists about his personal creative process...[the] introductions are a fascinating look into the mind of one of the most popular writers in the world, and much like his writers' manual "On Writing," he provides readers with concise and insightful observations about the art of the written word...remarkably resonant... The last story of the collection, 'Summer Thunder, ' takes the reader through the last days of two survivors of a worldwide nuclear holocaust... the last lines of the story are some of the most emotionally powerful sentences Mr. King has ever committed to paper -- they will leave readers weepy, uplifted and satisfied...With THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS, Stephen King has achieved something rare: a short story collection with no weak spots. From a woman confronted with the limits of empathy and the reality of pain, to a man who sees the names of the doomed written in sand, the pieces play off of one another to create a cohesive reading experience filled with optimism, sadness and a search for answers to life's unanswerable questions. While these stories may conjure up a few nightmares, they also will delight, inspire and, most importantly, entertain readers willing to make the journey."--Wendeline O. Wright, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"King fans are in for another in a long line of treats...THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS provides a tasty sampler that, like his other short story collections, showcases the master's array of talents."--John Holyoke, Bangor Daily News

"There are a lot of good stories in this collection: moving, disturbing and in between. 'Summer Thunder' imagines a post-apocalyptic world of startling beauty...In 'Morality, ' a marriage goes south when a wife falls prey to the imprecations of her employer -- not sexual, but ethical. The idea is that we are all complicit, fundamentally, in what happens to us, that the stain of sin is a collective one...When King gives himself a little room to move, the effects are not only unnerving but also deeply human, a series of riffs on love and loss."--David Ulin, The Los Angeles Times

"Shortbut sweet...horror abounds in these collected tales...King confidently inhabitsvaried realms, from the American frontier, where a tale of justice plays out, to a Florida island with deathly secrets. He prefaces each story with anexplanation of its genesis, providing a fascinating glimpse into the mind ofremarkable writer."--People

"King has not lost his ability to keep readers turning the pages late into the night, nor his knack of grounding the supernatural within the most mundane details of American life...this collection of 20 pieces displays a surprisingly wide range...Some of the high points find King in familiar territory...But there are equally successful stories that do not rely on the supernatural...Aptly, the book closes with 'Summer Thunder, ' an end-of-the-world story, this time caused by our old friend nuclear war. It's a quiet tale, just two friends and a dog out in the country waiting for the radiation to kick in, but there's a particularly moving finish."--Andy Smith, The Providence Journal

"Renowned author King's impressive latest collection wraps 20 stories and poems in fascinating commentary...the stories themselves are meditations on mortality, destiny, and regret, all of which showcase King's talent for exploring the human condition...this introspective collection, like many of King's most powerful works, draws on the deepest emotions: love, grief, fear and hope."--Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

"To the reader's delight, King provides a backstory for each tale, enticing the reader with a memory or scenario that prompted that particular selection's birth... The stories collected here are riveting and sometimes haunting, as is the author's style. Surprise endings abound. King is in a class all by himself. Be prepared to read voraciously."--Library Journal, starred review

Book Description

The master storyteller at his best delivers a generous, thrilling new collection of stories featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why and how he came to write each story.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1501111671
• ISBN 13: 9781501111679
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 512