ELEVATION by Stephen King

We have reached the point where anything that Stephen King writes will be published. I generally don't have a problem with that, but this 'novella' is a thin tome with what looks suspiciously like double spacing. If it took me two hours to read then I'm surprised.

It also felt like some reheated old ideas thrown together. The central conceit of Thinner was a man who got thinner no matter what he did. The central conceit here is that a man is getting lighter no matter what he does. Gravity is losing its hold. Does this cause anyone great concern? No not really.

The main concern is that there's a married lesbian couple running a restaurant and people don't approve. The local seasonal running race should take care of that. Really? In Trump's America, one photograph is all it takes to change conservative views?

It is a slight tale that doesn't last long or think deep, both of which are surprising for King.

That said, the man does know how to write and you breeze through it pleasurably enough, though by the end of the this snack you're left far from satisfied.

STEPHEN KING FILMS FAQ by Scott Von Doviak

Stephen King is one of the great storytellers of our age, hell of any age if it comes to that. It is therefore a strange thing that movie and TV adaptations of his books more often than not fall well short of, well, not sucking.

This book is a comprehensive look at all things screen when it comes to taking the printed words and, more often than not, ignoring the hell out of them. Every production you can think of (and a whole bunch you couldn't and will wish you hadn't found out about) can be found inside the covers here.

First of all, let's deal with the title. STEPHEN KING FILMS FAQ suggests a certain format, but it's not like that at all. There are no list of questions being answered, frequently asked or otherwise. And then there is the matter of the subtitle 'All that's left to know about the king of horror on film'. Well, that forgets about the whole chunks devoted to videotape productions and I'm curious to know what it means by 'all that's left to know'. All that's left to know after what?

Let's deal with the good stuff first. Scott Van Doviak knows his Stephen King adaptations. What it may lack in surgical detail it makes up for in the sheer breadth of its scope. Whilst books could be written (and have been) about the troubled making of Kubrick's THE SHINING, it gets a single chapter before we head on to the next one. There is so much ground to cover that we don't get to dig too deeply at any point.

Von Doviak's tone is light and pleasant and the book itself is a very easy read, almost a page turner. It's very easy to settle down to a quick sample and find that three or four chapters have gone past. The layout is clear, going through celluloid examples chronologically before then moving onto the televisual delights on offer. It starts to run out of steam toward the end, however, but that's because we're on to the odds and sods such as THE SIMPSONS pastiches and films inspired by Stephen King.

Curiously, Von Doviak doesn't really seem to like many of the films and shows on offer. He certainly spends more time waxing rhapsodic about what's wrong with each of them than what's great. Then again, we all do that.

Despite the fact that it's 'all that's left to know', I doubt that there is that much in there that the King devotee didn't already know. The more obscure outings might be useful for the King completist, however. For the person just getting into the visualisation of Stephen King's books, however, there is a wealth of stuff to choose from. Is THE STAND miniseries as good as the book? How did THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION move from a short story to a long masterpiece? Is the Stephen King scripted THE SHINING better than the Kubrick version?

It's all here.

As someone who's liked and hated his fair share of King's books and films, but is far from being an expert, I found this an enjoyable, easy read, though I was possibly not all that more well-informed at the end of it.

JOYLAND by Stephen King

Stephen King and I have had a bit of a falling out in recent times. UNDER THE DOME was only intermittently impressive (and what was with that ending, man?) whilst the Kennedy assassination doorstop tome is still holding open the conservatory door to allow the air in, still not finished.

JOYLAND, though, changed all that. Gone is the huge, suitcase space guzzling and self-indulgence epic and in its place is a small, spare and utterly captivating paperback. It's produced by Hard Case Crime and is only available as a paperback with a cover that deliberately recalls the pulp noir books of yesteryear.

Speaking of yesteryear, it's a recollection, a story told in flashback of a young and callow youth who spends a summer working in a beachfront amusement park and finds the man he will eventually become. Yes, King is back in full-on nostalgia mode and whilst the flashback structure inevitably robs the big climax of its necessary tension (we know he won't be killed you see, since he's already spoken of what has happened since), it allows him to wallow in what is a very lightweight coming of age tale.

It's a Hard Case Crime book, and there is a series of unsolved murders in there, but that is almost irrelevant to the story, only coming seriously into play in the last fifth. There are other King tropes in there as well such as the kid with the psychic ability (yes, King's next book will be a return visist to Danny Torrance of THE SHINING), a trapped ghostly spirit and an overbearing parent who seems all powerful and happens to be heavily religious to boot. All of these, though, are again in the background and not really the main thrust of the book at all.

JOYLAND is the tale of a boy becoming a man and not a lot more. There's a SUMMER OF '42 vibe going on that is a bit obvious, but that's OK. Doing something old isn't a crime as long as you do it well and King has done this very, very well.

In fact, the reader is welcomed into the story of young Dev, lovelorn hero of the piece with an ease that makes me hate the author. Either it really is this easy for him to throw out such a great piece of storytelling (in which case I hate him for being so talented) or he is so talented that he can make it seem so easy (in which case I hate him). This may be a little thing he churned out in his lunch hour between epic doorstops, but it has an emotional resonance that has been missing from his work of late. In fact, he manages to wring so much emotion out of two people on a beach with a kite in the final scene that I defy anyone with a heart not to tearing up.

The difference here is that King seems to have found something to interest him. Instead of recycling things he's done far too many times already, he's discovered a new world - the world of the carnival. He makes much of the language in his introduction and postscript and it is clear that is part of what attracted him to this tale. Joyland is what this book is about, not the things that happen there. It's fired him up and this book is result.

JOYLAND is not without its flaws, but it doesn't have a single flaw of any significance at all. It's a quick read, an easy read and a satisfying read. What more could you ask for?

Stephen King and I are mates again.