Hearts in Atlantis

By Stephen King





  • Publisher:
    *
    New English Library Ltd

  • Number Of Pages:
    *
    640

  • Publication Date:
    *
    2000-07-20

  • ISBN-10 / ASIN:
    *
    034073891X

  • ISBN-13 / EAN:
    *
    9780340738917



Product Description:


Stephen King, whose first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation. Images from that war -- and the protests against it -- had flooded America's living rooms for a decade. Hearts in Atlantis, King's newest fiction, is composed of five interconnected, sequential narratives, set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War.
In Part One, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood. He also discovers that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror.
In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest...and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.
In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam," two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow -- and haunted -- as their own lives.
And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," this remarkable audiobook's denouement, Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, the hope of redemption, and his heart's desire may await him.
Full of danger, full of suspense, most of all full of heart, Stephen King's new audiobook will take some listeners to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.




Amazon.com Review:

With his idiosyncratic blend of patrician airs and boyish charm, narrator William Hurt provides a wonderful complement to this wildly imaginative collection of short stories by author Stephen King. Hurt carefully weaves the disparate elements into a cohesive whole, embracing the subtle complexities of each character; one moment a wizened sadness leaks into his voice as a haunted old man, pursued by demons, asks his 11-year-old lookout, "You know everyone on this street, on this block of this street anyway? And you'd know strangers? Sojourners? Faces of those unknown?" Then, in a profound yet almost imperceptible switch, he exposes the boy's naive enthusiasm, "I think so." Right about here your neck hairs will stand at attention. Hurt's peculiar vocal style is in perfect pitch to King's dark, surreal vision of growing up amid the monsters of post-Vietnam America. (Running time: 21 hours, 20 CDs) --George Laney






Summary: Your "Hearts" Will Be Touched By This Novel

Rating: 5

The 1960s were a very troubling decade for many (most?) U.S. citizens. With a war raging overseas in Vietnam, the "old guard" was pitted against the "new generation" in a clashing of ideals that shaped our nation from that point forward.




Those turbulent times are the setting for Stephen King's wonderful novel "Hearts In Atlantis". Technically, one almost can't even call this work a "novel", as it consists of five different stories from five different time periods, but it is the broad spectrum the book covers that makes it so fascinating in the first place. There are two reasons why this book is so compelling...




First, is the first (and longest) of the stories in the book, which sets up the characters in the other stories. A simple (yet very dramatic and engaging) tale about a boy, his friends, his first girlfriend, a group of bullies, and an eccentric new neighbor set in the early 1960s provides the groundwork for everything that is to come. The tale is almost guaranteed to hook you right away, and it is the best single story of the five.




However, as the "Hearts In Atlantis" movie proved, the real genius of King's storytelling comes in how he effortless weaves in the characters from that "base story" into all the others. The girlfriend goes to college, the bullies go to Vietnam, and the young boy comes back home for one final visit. Since you WILL NOT want the first story to end, your anticipation to see how those characters "turned out" will keep you flipping the pages.




So, though straying (much like "The Green Mile") from his typical craziness such as manic clowns and little bald doctors, King still manages to put together a very compelling work of fiction with this book. For anyone who grew up in the 1960s, this novel will tap into your nostalgia for the decade. Even if you didn't, though, the simple themes of love, heartbreak, and redemption will keep you interested.




Summary: Not Free SF Reader

Rating: 4

A collection of sorts, based around the sixties experience and Vietnam, from early teenagerhood to many years later, following some people intersecting paths over the years. Maybe a touch autobiographical from what the author says in the intro.




The supernatural bad guys in the first long novella I think are likely from The Dark Tower series, which I have not read a lot of beyond some novellas that make up the first book.




Hearts In Atlantis : Low Men in Yellow Coats - Stephen King


Hearts In Atlantis : Hearts in Atlantis [short story] - Stephen King


Hearts In Atlantis : Blind Willie - Stephen King


Hearts In Atlantis : Why We're in Vietnam - Stephen King


Hearts In Atlantis : Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling - Stephen King




You can take me, but don't Breaker the boy.




3.5 out of 5






Hunt the Bitch in a little more moderation.




3.5 out of 5






Post Vietnam dodgy begging.




3 out of 5






Old mamasan ghost.




3.5 out of 5






Fits like an old glove.




3 out of 5










3.5 out of 5




Summary: Odd yet mesmerising reading

Rating: 5

This reading, which is also the Audible reading, may take some getting used to. Stephen King does relatively little acting here, while William Hurt apparently does none at all, yet by the end of the book I thought it was one of the finest dramatic readings I had ever heard.




Unlike what you may hear from Frank Mueller or Jim Dale, both readers seem to believe the text itself is sufficient to invoke the reader's emotion. King does this tough a reading that sounds like his natural speaking voice. Yet, perhaps because this book has a special significance to him, his plain, unadorned reading, by careful use of pause and emphasis, sets a mood and draws out nuance and significance that I had missed by reading.




William Hurt uses very little in the way of accents or attempts to act different voices. His reading at first seemed interrupted by ill-timed pauses. Yet as the reading continued, I realized that he was using silence, pace, and emphasis to wring out tremendous emotion. The simple moments of childhood were fresh, the scenes of confrontation edgy in a way I have rarely felt in a reading, and in the confrontation between Bobby's mother and Ted, you can hear every twist and distortion in her soul.




I hope William Hurt reads more books and intent to listen to them.




Summary: LOW MEN PART OF DARK TOWER SAGA

Rating: 4

Low Men in Yellow Coats, the first long (300+ pages) story from Hearts in Atlantis, is a story I've wanted to read ever since hearing about it in The Dark Tower Concordance. If you are a King fan, you already know about his epic series of seven novels, which starts with The Gunslinger, and continues with The Drawing of the Tee, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, The Wolves of the Calla, The Song of Susannah, culminating in The Dark Tower.


Since finishing the series and the Concordance, I've enjoyed another related story, "The Little Sisters of Eluria," plus the Marvel comic books (The Gunslinger Born, a series of seven comics which concluded last year, and now The Long Road Home, a series of five more that launched recently.) Plus, while looking tough my own library, I just discovered a Special Stephen King issue of F&SF magazine from 1991 which has a long excerpt from The Drawing of the Tee called "The Bear" which I practically inhaled last weekend. It's great to be able to continue to live off-and-on in this strange world King created. Ultimately, The Dark Tower series is a karmic journey, which loops back to its beginning like a Möbius Strip.


Low Men is a coming of age story about a boy named Bobby who lives with his bitter and damaged mom in a boarding house, and Bobby's relationship with Ted Brautigan, one of the "breakers" from the Dark Tower series. The Low Men are Can-toi, demon soldiery of the Crimson King, sent to our world to bring Ted back to the world of the Dark Tower, and they amply fulfill their obligation to scare the living piss out of Bobby, (and readers like me!)







Summary: Declines after the first novel

Rating: 3

This book is actually two novels and some shorts stories with


a common tead. The first novel is an east coast Garrison Keillor with a PSI


grandpa added. The second is a college dorm story from the '60's about


a scholarship student. These two are pretty good, but the short stories except for the end one are dreadful.


I think he could have made a great novel of the first one by sticking to actual autobiographical material.


As it stands it leaves me, as most of Stephen King's work does,


feeling unclean for having read it. Last time I


read one of these I said to myself I wouldn't read anymore


of his trash...













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