Stephen King - Night Shift (compilation). The Night Shift

“Two o'clock. Friday.

Hall was sitting on a bench by the elevator—the only place on the third floor where a hard worker could smoke in peace—when Warwick appeared. Hall cannot be said to have been delighted at the sight of Warwick. The foreman was not supposed to appear before three, the hour when a new shift enters the factory. He must sit in his office, in the basement, and drink coffee from the coffee pot that is on his table. Perhaps the coffee was too hot…”

The work belongs to the Thriller genre. It was published in 1974 by AST. This book is part of the Night Shift series. On our site you can download the book "Night Shift" in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format or read online. The rating of the book is 4.25 out of 5. Here, before reading, you can also refer to the reviews of readers who are already familiar with the book and find out their opinion. In the online store of our partner you can buy and read the book in paper form.

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Foreword

1
Introduction, by John D.MacDonald. © 1998. H. Rein. Translation from English.

At parties (which I try to avoid as much as possible), I am often given smiles and firm handshakes by all sorts of people, who then, with a pointedly mysterious air, declare:

You know, I've always wanted to write.

I have always tried to be polite to them.

But now with the same gleefully mysterious grin I answer them:

– And you know, I always wanted to be a neurosurgeon.

There is confusion on their faces. But it is not important. The circle is full of strange confused people who do not know where to stick themselves and what to do.

If you want to write, then write.

And you can learn to write only in the process. Not a very suitable way to master the profession of a neurosurgeon.

Stephen King has always wanted to write, and he does.

And he wrote Carrie, and The Lot, and The Shining, and the wonderful stories that you can read in this book, and an incredible amount of other stories, and novels, and passages, and poems, and essays, and so on. works that are not subject to classification, and even more so, for the most part, publications. Too repulsive and terrible pictures are described there.

But that's how he wrote them.

Because there is simply no other way to write about it. Doesn't exist and that's it.

Diligence and diligence are wonderful qualities. But they are not enough. You have to have a taste for words. Get drunk, gorge on words. Swim in them, roll on the tongue. Reread millions of words written by others.

And the most violent contempt should be reserved for people who hide their complete helplessness and mediocrity behind verbosity, the rigid sentence structure inherent in the Germanic languages, inappropriate symbols, and an absolute lack of understanding of what is the plot, historical context, rhythm and image.

Only by beginning to understand what you yourself are, you will learn to understand other people. After all, in every first person you meet there is a piece of your own "I".

Well, that's all. So again, what do we need? Diligence and industriousness, plus love for the word, plus expressiveness - and from all this partial objectivity makes its way into the light of God with difficulty.

For absolute objectivity does not exist at all...

And then I, typing these words on my blue typewriter and having already reached the second page of this preface and having quite clearly imagined at first what and how I was going to say, suddenly became at a loss.

And now I'm not at all sure if I myself understand what exactly I wanted to say.

Having lived in the world twice as long as Stephen King, I have reason to believe that I evaluate my work more objectively than Stephen King does his own.

Objectivity… oh, it develops so slowly and painfully.

You write books, they go around the world, and it is no longer possible to clean them from their inherent spirit, like from a husk. You are connected to them as if they are children who have grown up and have chosen their own path, despite all the labels that you have placed on them. Oh, if only it were possible - to bring them home and give each book additional brilliance and strength! .. Clean up, correct page after page. Deepen, shovel, polish, get rid of excess ...

But in my thirties, Stephen King is a much better writer than I was in my thirties and forties.

And I feel something like hatred towards him for this - just a little.

Also, I think I know by sight a dozen or so demons hiding in the bushes along the path he has chosen, but even if I had a way to warn him about it, he still would not listen. At this point, who is who - either he is theirs, or they are his.

Everything is very simple.

OK. So what am I talking about?

Diligence, love for the word, expressiveness, objectivity ... And what else?

Story! Well, of course, the story, what else, damn it!

History is something that happened to someone you watch and care about. It can happen in any dimension - physical, mental, spiritual. And also in a combination of all these three dimensions.

Another kind of interference is pure grotesque. Here's one of my favorite examples I read from last year's bestseller collection: "His eyes flickered over the front of her dress."

The image must be written accurately, contain an unexpected and apt observation and not break the charm of the story. This collection includes a story called "Trucks" where Stephen King draws a scene of tense waiting in an auto repair shop and describes the people gathered there. “A traveling salesman, he did not part for a second with the coveted suitcase with samples. And now the suitcase lay at his feet, like a beloved dog who decided to take a nap.

A very accurate image, I think.

In another story, he demonstrates an impeccable ear, giving the dialogue an extraordinary liveliness and authenticity. Husband and wife went on a long journey. They are driving along an abandoned road. She says, “Yes, Burt, I know we're in Nebraska, Burt. And yet, where the hell are we? skidded? And he replies: “You have an atlas of roads. So look. Or have you forgotten how to read?

Very good. And so simple and accurate. Just like in neurosurgery. The knife has a blade. You hold it appropriately. And you make an incision.

And finally, at the risk of being accused of iconoclasm, I must state with all responsibility that I absolutely do not care what kind of topic Stephen King chooses for his work. The fact that he is currently clearly reveling in the description of various horrors from the life of ghosts, witches and other monsters that live in basements and sewers, seems to me not the most important thing when it comes to the practice of his work.

After all, a lot of the most terrible things are happening around us. And all of us - both you and me - experience crazy stress every hour. And kids, in whose souls evil lives, you can fill Disneyland. But the main thing, I repeat, is history.

Taking the reader by the hand, she leads him along. And does not leave indifferent.

And further. The two most difficult areas for a writer are humor and mysticism. Under a clumsy pen, humor turns into a dirge, and mysticism causes laughter.

But if the pen is skillful, you can write about anything.

And it seems that Stephen King is not at all going to be limited to the sphere of his current interests.

Stephen King does not aim to please the reader. He writes to please himself. Me too. And when that happens, everyone likes the result. Stories that please Stephen King please me.

By a strange coincidence, while writing this foreword, I suddenly learned that King's novel The Shining and my novel The Condominium were on the bestseller list of the year. Don't get me wrong, King and I are not at all competing for the reader's attention. He and I, it seems to me, compete with the helpless, pretentious and pseudo-sensational works of those who never bothered to learn their craft.

As far as the craftsmanship with which the story is written and the pleasure you can get from reading it, we don't have many Stephen Kings.

And if you have read all of this, I hope you have enough time. And you can start reading stories.

John D. McDonald

To the reader

2
Foreword. © 1998. N. Rein. Translation from English.

Let's talk. Let's talk about fear.

I am writing these lines and I am alone in the house. Cold February rain drizzles outside the window. Night ... Sometimes, when the wind howls like today, it is especially dreary, we lose all power over ourselves. But while it's not lost yet, let's talk about fear. Let's talk calmly and judiciously about approaching the abyss called madness ... about balancing on its very edge.

My name is Stephen King. I am a grown man. I live with my wife and three children. I love them very much and believe that the feeling is mutual. My job is to write and I love my job very much. The novels Carrie, The Lot, The Shining were so successful that now I can earn a living exclusively by writing. And it makes me very happy. At present, everything seems to be in order with health. Last year I got rid of the bad habit of smoking strong unfiltered cigarettes, which I had tarred since I was eighteen, and switched to filtered cigarettes with low nicotine content. Eventually, I hope to quit smoking completely. I live with my family in a very comfortable and nice house next to a relatively clear lake in Maine; one time last fall, waking up early in the morning, suddenly saw a deer in the backyard. He was standing next to a plastic picnic table. We live well.

And yet, let's talk about fear. Let's not raise our voices and scream naively. Let's talk calmly and thoughtfully. Let's talk about the moment when the solid fabric of your life suddenly begins to crumble into pieces and completely different pictures and things open up before you.

At night, when I go to bed, I still stick to one habit: before turning off the light, I want to make sure that my legs are properly covered with a blanket. I have not been a child for a long time, but ... but I will never fall asleep if at least the edge of my foot sticks out from under the blanket. Because if a cold hand suddenly emerges from under the bed and grabs my ankle, you know, I can scream. Yell so that the dead wake up. Of course, nothing like this can happen to me, and we all understand this very well. In the stories collected in this book, you will meet a wide variety of night monsters - vampires, demons, a creature that lives in a closet, and other creepy creatures. All of them are unreal. And the creature that lives under my bed and is ready to grab my leg is also unreal. I know it. But I also know for sure that if I properly cover my legs with a blanket, she will not be able to grab my ankle.

Sometimes I have to speak to different people who are interested in literature and writing. Usually, when I finish answering questions, someone is sure to get up and invariably ask the same question: “Why do you write about such terrible and gloomy things?”

And I always answer the same: Why do you think I have a choice?

Writing is an activity that can be summed up in the following words: Grab what you can.

There are certain filters in the depths of human consciousness. Filters of different sizes, different degrees of permeability. What's stuck in my filter is free to slip through yours. What's stuck in yours just slips through mine. Each of us has some built-in body protection system against dirt, which accumulates in these filters. And what we find there often turns into a side line of behavior. The accountant suddenly becomes interested in photography. The astronomer collects coins. The schoolteacher starts sketching tombstones in charcoal. Slag, sediment stuck in the filter, particles that refuse to slip through it, often turn a person into a mania, a kind of obsession. In civilized societies, by tacit agreement, this mania is usually called a "hobby".

Sometimes a hobby turns into an occupation of a lifetime. The accountant suddenly discovers that he can freely feed his family by taking pictures; the teacher becomes a true tombstone expert and may even give a series of lectures on the subject. But there are professions in the world that start as a hobby and remain a hobby for life, even if the person involved in them suddenly sees that he can earn a living from this. But since the very word “hobby” sounds small and somehow undignified, we, again by unspoken agreement, begin to call our activities “art” in such cases.

Painting. Sculpture. Composing music. Singing. Acting skills. Playing a musical instrument. Literature. So many books have been written on all these subjects that under their load a whole flotilla of luxury liners can go to the bottom. And the only thing in which the authors of these books are in agreement is this: he who is a true adherent of any of the arts will practice it, even if he does not receive a penny for his labors and efforts; even if the reward for all his efforts will be only severe criticism and scolding; even under the threat of suffering, deprivation, prison and death. Personally, this all seems to me a classic example of behavior under the influence of an obsession. And it can manifest itself with equal success in the most ordinary and ordinary hobbies, and in what we so pompously call "art." Some gun collector's car might have a sticker on the bumper that reads: YOU WILL TAKE MY GUN ONLY IF YOU CAN PULL MY COLD DEAD FINGERS OUT. And somewhere on the outskirts of Boston, housewives, who are extremely politically active in the fight against the planned development of their area with high-rise buildings, often stick stickers on the back windows of their pickup trucks that read: I WILL GO TO JAIL FASTER THAN YOU CAN SURVIVE MY CHILDREN OUT OF THIS AREA. Well, by analogy, if tomorrow a ban is suddenly announced on numismatics, then the astronomer-collector is unlikely to throw away his iron pennies and aluminum nickels. No, he will carefully put the coins in a plastic bag, hide somewhere at the bottom of the tank in the toilet and admire his treasures at night.

We digress somewhat from our subject of discussion - fear. However, not much. So, the dirt stuck in the filters of our subconscious is often the nature of fear. And my obsession is terrible. I have not written a single story for money, although many of them were published in magazines before they appeared in this book, and I never returned the check sent to me. Perhaps I suffer from an obsession, but it's not yet madness. Yes, I repeat: I did not write them for money. I wrote them simply because they came to my mind. In addition, it suddenly turned out that my obsession is a fairly hot commodity. And how many different madmen and madmen are scattered in different parts of the world, who are much less fortunate with an obsession.

I don't consider myself a great writer, but I always felt that I was doomed to write. So, every day I filter through my filters all sorts of slags, sort out fragments of various observations, memories and reasoning stuck in the subconscious, try to do something with the particles that did not slip through the filter.

Louis Lamour, writer of westerns, and I ... we could both be on the banks of some dam in Colorado, and we could both have the same idea at the same time. And then we, again at the same time, would experience an indomitable desire to sit down at the table and transfer our thoughts to paper. And he would write a story about the rise of the water in the rainy season, and I - most likely that somewhere in the depths, a terrible-looking creature is hiding under the water. From time to time it jumps to the surface and drags sheep to the bottom ... horses ... a man, finally. Louis Lamour's obsession is the history of the American West; mine are creatures crawling out of their hiding places in the light of the stars. That's why he writes westerns, and I write horror films. And we're both a little crazy.

The pursuit of any kind of art is dictated by an obsession, and obsessions are dangerous. It's like a knife stuck in the brain. In some cases - as was the case with Dylan Thomas, Ross Lockridge, Hart Crane and Sylvia Plath 3
Thomas, Dylan - English poet, symbolist; Lockridge, Ross - American writer, author of detective stories; Crane, Hart - American poet; Plath, Sylvia, American poet. All these writers died prematurely and tragically. - Note here and below. lane.

- the knife can turn unsuccessfully and kill a person.

Art is an individual disease, terribly contagious, but far from always fatal. After all, a real knife also needs to be handled skillfully, you yourself know. Otherwise, you can cut yourself. And if you are wise enough, then handle the particles that have settled in the subconscious, carefully enough - then the disease that struck you will not lead to death.

So, for the question WHY ARE YOU WRITING ALL THIS SHIT? – inevitably arises the following: WHAT MAKES PEOPLE READ ALL THIS SHIT? WHAT MAKES IT SELL? The very formulation of the question implies that any work from the category of horror films, including literary ones, appeals to bad taste. Letters I receive from readers often begin with, "I guess you'll think I'm weird, but I really enjoyed your novel." Or: “I may be crazy, but I literally reveled in every page of The Shining ...”

I think I found the clue in the pages of Newsweek, in the film criticism section. The article was about a horror film, not a very good one, and there was this phrase in it: "... a wonderful film for those who like to slow down and stare at a car accident." Not a very deep statement, but if you think about it, it can be applied to all films and horror stories. With its monstrous scenes of cannibalism and matricide, The Night of the Living Dead is definitely one of those films that fans go to slow down and gawk at the results of a car crash. Well, what about that scene from The Exorcist where the little girl vomits bean soup right into the priest's cassock? Or take, for example, Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is, as it were, the standard of all modern horror novels, which, in fact, is true, since it was the first work where psycho-Freudian overtones were clearly heard. There, a maniac named Renfeld devours flies, spiders, and then a bird. And then he vomits that bird up, feathers and everything. The novel also describes the impalement - a kind of ritual intercourse - of a young and beautiful witch and the murder of a baby and his mother.

And in the great literature of the supernatural, you can often find scenes from the same category - for those who like to slow down and stare. Murder by Beowulf 4
Beowulf is the most significant surviving monument of the ancient Anglo-Saxon epic. The poem has come down to us in a single handwritten version of the beginning of the 10th century.

Grendel's mother; the dismemberment of a cataract-stricken benefactor from The Tell-Tale Heart, after which the killer (who is also the author of the story) hides body parts under the floorboards; the battle of the hobbit Sam with the spider Shelob in the final part of the Tolkien trilogy 5
Tolkien, John Ronald (1892 - 1973) - English writer, author of the fabulously heroic epic The Lord of the Rings.

No, of course, there will be people who will object violently and cite Henry James as an example. 6
James, Henry (1843 - 1916) - American writer, lived in Europe from 1875, master of the psychological novel. Among his works is the mystical and mysterious story "The Turn of the Screw" ("The Turn of the Serew", 1898).

Who did not describe the horrors of a car accident in The Turn of the Screw; claim that in such Nathaniel Hawthorne horror stories 7
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804 - 1864) - American writer, author of the collections of short stories "Legends of the Old Manor" and "The Snow Maiden and Other Twice-Told Stories".

Like "Young Goodman Brown" ("Young Goodman Brown") and "The Priest's Black Robe" ("The Minister's Black Veil"), unlike "Dracula", there is no bad taste at all. This is a delusion. They still show a "car accident "- however, the bodies of the victims have already been removed, but we see the crumpled debris and blood stains on the upholstery. And in a sense, the delicacy of the description, the absence of tragedy, the muffled and measured tone of the narrative, the rational approach that prevails, for example, in Black priest's robes," is even more terrible than the frank and detailed description of the execution in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Well and the Pendulum."

The thing is - and most people feel it in their hearts - that few of us can overcome the indomitable desire to even look sideways, even out of the corner of our eyes at the crash site surrounded by police cars with flashing lights. Older citizens have their own way: in the morning, the first thing they grab at the newspaper and the first thing they look for is an obituary column, to see who they managed to survive. All of us, at least for a moment, experience a piercing sense of awkwardness and anxiety - learning, for example, that Dan Blocker has died, or Freddie Prins 8
Prince, Freddie is a young American comedian whose career ended in 1977.

Or Janis Joplin 9
Joplin, Janice (1942-1969) American singer.

We are horrified, tinged with a touch of joy, when we hear Paul Harvey's voice on the radio informing us of a woman caught under propeller blades in heavy rain at a small suburban airport; or about a man boiled alive in a huge industrial mixer when one of the workers mixed up the buttons on the control panel. There is no need to prove the obvious - life is full of fears, big and small, but since small fears are easier to comprehend, they are the first to move into our homes and fill our souls with a deadly, chilling feeling of horror.

Our interest in "pocket" fears is obvious, but about the same can be said about disgust. These two sensations are strangely intertwined and give rise to a feeling of guilt ... guilt and awkwardness, similar to that experienced by a young man at the first signs of the awakening of sexuality ...

And it is not for me to convince you to drop the feeling of guilt, and even more so - to make excuses for your stories and novels that you will read in this book. But there is an interesting parallel between sex and fear. With the onset of puberty and the ability to enter into sexual relationships, we wake up and interest in these relationships. Interest, if it is not connected with sexual perversion, is usually directed to mating and the continuation of the species. As we realize the finitude of all living things, the inevitability of death, we also come to know fear. And while mating is self-preservation, all our fears come from the realization of the inevitability of the end, so I see it anyway.

Once upon a time, Stephen King was an ordinary teacher / handyman who dreams of a writing career and sends his stories to various magazines, dreaming of making at least something from them. But basically they were not printed anywhere, and even if they appeared somewhere, it was only to forget about them a couple of hours after reading.

As time went on, King gained popularity at a frantic pace, and in 1978 he decided to release his first author's collection, which, as you might guess, consisted mostly of these “losers” stories. And here's the paradox - "The Night Shift" is considered by many (and rightfully), the best collection of the writer. Why? It's hard to say - if someone in a seedy magazine comes across a creation like "Grey Rubbish" or "Lawnmower", it is unlikely that this person will immediately recognize the talent of the person who wrote it all. But, taken together, these stories form a single whole, and simplicity, and sometimes naivety, gives this collection a special charm. And one more thing - King was very good at conveying the spirit of the 70s era, when men wore bell-bottoms, women in jeans, and simple hard workers drove up to bars in their old Chevy and Buicks to celebrate the end of the working day.

But at the same time, in the “Night Shift” there are several diamonds (more precisely, rough diamonds). Two brilliant thrillers - "Cornice" and "Stop Smoking Corporation", a horror film "Children of the Corn", whose name has already become a household name. And, of course, two sentimental stories - "The Woman in the Ward" and "The Last Crossbar" (which our publishers place with incomprehensible persistence in the "Team of Skeletons"), which tell about the loss of loved ones, but do not give an answer on how to live with it.

In general, Night Shift is a collection of good stories, without pretensions to something more, twenty stories about ordinary people who are faced with something incomprehensible and trying to return to normal life.

Score: 9

And to begin with, I’ll say a few words about those stories that I rated at seven points:

"The Settlement of Jerusalem" - a prequel to the novel "The Lot", however, these works are united only by the scene. The novel is a good driving horror movie about vampires in the modern world. The story is a tribute to Lovecraft, the action of which unfolds rather slowly in the middle of the 19th century. The narrative is revealed through the letters of the protagonist, whose name is Charles Boone, as well as the diary entries of his servant. Charles moved to his family's old family estate and discovers that people from the nearest village are afraid and avoid him, mysterious rustles and steps are constantly heard in the walls of the house, and nearby is a frightening abandoned town with a creepy church. In general, the stylization was not very successful, something King was missing here. Perhaps experience, tk. released two years later, "Crouch End" turned out to be stronger. And it is possible that my impressions are due to personal perception and are not entirely correct. In any case, I recommend this story to lovers of "Lovecraftian" horror, as well as to all those who are interested in learning more about the settlement of Jerusalem.

"Alien eyes". The plot revolves around the cosmonaut Arthur, who, having been in the orbit of Venus and returning to Earth, received a medal, money, disability and additional sets of eyes on his hands. This is actually the whole plot. And, I completely forgot, someone else is looking with these eyes, alien and very, very hating everything earthly. The story is interesting, but too dark.

"Battlefield". Hired killer John Renshaw, after the successful completion of the next order, receives an unusual box. John “cleaned up” the owner of the toy company, and the box sent to him contained toy soldiers consisting of “twenty infantrymen, ten helicopters, two machine gunners with Browning machine guns, four Jeeps.” Who would have thought that these same soldiers are not averse to fighting for real? The story consists entirely of action, this is a real dizzying military action, albeit limited to only one apartment. The protagonist at first seems somewhat limited and boring, but his ability to adapt to new conditions is admirable. Good idea, good implementation. I recommend it to all fans of hurricane action.

"Strawberry Spring". I put Strawberry Spring on a par with The Man Who Loved Flowers. This is a snag, a story, the intrigue of which will disappear after the first reading, and you will return to it not for the solution of mysteries or the search for new meanings, but for the perfectly written atmosphere and mood of the story. The protagonist, being a college student, finds a "strawberry spring" - a false spring, when the heat comes too early and thick fog envelops the earth. According to popular beliefs, such a spring happens once every 8-10 years. Well, they say it right: in the spring, all psychos have an aggravation, so Jack the Jumper, a maniac who kills girls with a knife, appears on campus. The parallels with Jack the Ripper are obvious, in my opinion, the author even tried to show the same story, but in modern realities, adding to his character an almost supernatural ability to elude the police in the fog and continue to kill, despite patrols and unrest among students. I recommend the story to all fans of reading thrillers about maniacs.

"Lawn Mower". Many people do not understand this story. I'm not an exception. To begin with, I read The Lawnmower Man at the age of 11, and everything in it was alien to me. Mowing the grass in the yard with a lawn mower is something you can only see in the movies, and even then not often. Well, a naked fat man eating grass was also strange and incomprehensible. But there was nothing frightening in the story. And let's end with the fact that when re-reading as an adult, this story is still not scary, but it seems less strange. After the "American Gods" attempts to survive the local Pan is not impressive. And in itself, the story is faded and inexpressive.

Now let's talk about all those stories that I rated at "eights":

"Night shift". I have never been afraid of rats. I think this is due to the fact that in my childhood I had a domesticated variety of this rodent and the sight of its gray relatives did not cause either disgust or fear. Therefore, King's story as a horror movie about monstrous rats did not make much impression. Judge for yourself: a group of characters were cleaning the basement of an old factory from all sorts of junk. Gray rodents around - the darkness is dark. In the process of work, it turned out that the basement is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Like the rats that live in it. This story was read, of course, not bad, but it was too simple and traditional. As if the chef had prepared a delicious pie exactly according to the recipe, though without much inspiration and desire. Re-reading this story the other day, I shifted my angle of view and suddenly discovered that Night Shift can be perceived as a horror movie about people. Judge for yourself: the main character is an educated guy who graduated from college. However, not only did he earn his living not with his head, but with his hands, he also roamed the country well. He is a loner, no friends, no girlfriend, no need for company. He does not shy away from violence and is clearly running from something or looking for something. And when this comrade descended into the depths of the basement with his boss, who knows what he saw there? We have an unreliable narrator's version, but what really happened and what was the protagonist's imagination is an interesting question. And if you look at this angle, the chef definitely succeeded in the pie. Let there be too much rat meat, however, the secret ingredient redeems everything. You just need to try it out.

"Night Surf". This story is like a torn piece of reality, a story that happened, but the beginning and end of which we will never know. When I read it for the first time, I got the feeling that I was holding torn pages from a diary in front of me, and the diary itself had long been lost or destroyed. There is no climax or opening here, we are simply shown the evening and night of a group of young people who survived the flu pandemic and now have nothing. Only memories of the past, the hopeless present and the future, in which only death. And it is precisely because of this hopelessness that this is a truly terrible story. It is enough just to imagine that you are going somewhere only to go at all, because there is no goal, your companions are indifferent to you, because you are all dead, and you yourself are indifferent, because nothing matters anymore. If you're dead at heart, then you don't care.

"Gray rubbish". A horror story, reminiscent of a creepy tale told around a campfire. Once the measured life of the regulars of the Night Owl bar was interrupted by a frightened boy who ran in there. The boy told a terrible story about his father, who, having drunk some strange beer, began to lead a completely different lifestyle. He boarded up all the windows in the apartment, spends all his time in an armchair under a blanket, gushing beer like water and ... stinks. The apotheosis of everything was, accidentally seen by a boy, the scene of how his dad devoured a decaying cat. Realizing that his father was no longer a man, the guy ran to the bar to his parent's old friends and told them everything. And so three adults go to see the creature they once knew. Written well, some scenes of the story can cause an attack of dizziness.

"Trucks". Stephen King decided somehow to speculate on the topic of the uprising of machines, but quickly delved into the social sphere and the vices of modern society. Before us is a variation of the global cataclysm, so to speak. The fact is that the trucks felt an irresistible thirst for murder and opened the season for hunting people. A few survivors are hiding in a diner, but are they safe? And if so, for how long? Everything we love about King is here. Psychologism, living characters, a tense plot and an ambiguous ending.

"Sometimes They Come Back" is a pretty sinister title, isn't it? And the story fits right in. A mystical story about the evil that the protagonist faced as a child, and who returned years later to take revenge. The story can be considered typically King's: psychologism, elaboration of characters, a very vivid depiction of events, an accurate description of the work of a teacher known to the author firsthand... In terms of its mood, the story is most reminiscent of "Pet Cemetery": an oppressive atmosphere of fear bordering on hopelessness and despair.

"Cornice". Another piece of work where King takes the most ordinary people and puts them in extreme circumstances. The main character needs to go around the building along the cornice of the 43rd floor, after which he will receive freedom, money and his beloved woman. The trouble is that the width of this cornice is only 12 cm, there is nothing to hold on to, and the main enemies in such a situation are cold, wind and pigeons. It is possible to pass, but it is damn difficult, but since the goal is worth all these unthinkable efforts, then it must be achieved at all costs.

"I know what you want." Many guys would dream of knowing what the girls want there, because sometimes it’s easier to explain the corpuscular-wave theory of light to an 8-year-old brother than to comprehend the logic of the beautiful half of humanity. Girls, in turn, are also not at all opposed to the guys guessing their desires (and it is also desirable that they be fulfilled right there). Fairy tale. Alas, King does not particularly like to write fairy tales, and dilutes the picture with mundane life, realism, and mental disorders. The plot can be described in one sentence: the girl Elizabeth meets an unusual boy Ed, who falls in love with her, guessing all her desires. Alas, the ending spoils the whole story: too soft, too straightforward, too simple. You don’t even know who in this story you sympathize with more, and is it worth it?

"Children of the Corn". Bert and Vicki, husband and wife, travel across America by car. One day they run over a young guy. Trying to find help, they discover that the area where everything happened is very strange: abnormally high corn grows here, a strange mystical cult thrives among it, and it does not flourish from scratch. There is someone or something in the corn. He Who Walks the Rows is the name of this creature. Briefly, but succinctly, King talks about the problems of spouses, about the problems of children's society, about religious education and worldview, about child cruelty.

"The Last Crossing". I don't even know how to comment. “The Last Crossbar” is perceived by me as a lighter version of “The Body”, but not in terms of feelings, emotions and depth, but in terms of the plot and the events taking place. Before us is a story within a story: the protagonist recalls one of the brightest episodes of his childhood in order to get away from the present for a while. A tragedy happened to the hero's sister, and he is mentally transported to the time when he was 10 years old, and how he once saved his sister's life, because older brothers should do so. Bright memories of childhood are filled with such unreasonable, but such real adventures that nostalgia wakes up in readers. We have never been more alive than in childhood, it is a pity that many lose this as adults. And good, albeit intense, memories contrast sharply with the present, turning everything upside down.

"The Man Who Loved Flowers" A short story about love. It's amazing how well King wrote out the romantic atmosphere of this story, its lyricism, not forgetting to insert a small wormhole of dangerous madness into it.

"On the road." Vampires in Salem's Lot are a sore subject. But interesting. "On the road" - a kind of afterword to the "Lot". Two years have passed since the main events of the novel, but in the neighboring town they still know that Lot is a dark and dangerous place, and in no case should you go there. However, people are not local, who in these places, so to speak, passing by, do not know anything about vampires and, accordingly, become easy prey. One such case is described in this story. The story is not bad, very atmospheric, but too illogical. How vampires survived after the fire is not the most difficult question. It is much more interesting why the bloodsuckers from hunger did not stomp to dine in neighboring cities? After the healing light, did they form a strictly defined habitat? Still, a good vampire horror story.

"Woman in the room". One of the most difficult and scary stories from King. And he scares not with monsters, not with people, but with the life circumstances in which the main character finds himself. Johnny's mom is terminally ill. Every day, the son sees how she slowly fades away, and his heart is torn from the desire to help her. That's just how to do it? Trying to prolong her life, and at the same time suffering, or ... For most of the story, the protagonist remains impersonal. His name and the name of his mother almost do not slip into the narrative, but basically we just have “he” and “mother” in front of us. And thanks to this, it becomes easier to try on history for yourself.

And finally, all those stories that I liked the most in the collection:

The Meat Grinder is one of Stephen King's most interesting short stories. Built on a rather simple idea of possession, the story impresses with its presentation of the plot and the imagery of the narrative. We have a bulky ironing machine, which the laundry workers called the "Meat Grinder". How such devices look and what they are capable of, King knows firsthand - he himself worked on such devices at one time, so enough time has been devoted to the descriptions of the machine so that any reader also gets a sufficient idea. One day, the stars align in such a way that a bloodthirsty demon inhabits the Meat Grinder. And how now to be ordinary people who are not related to exorcism - the question, of course, is an interesting one. Stephen King very successfully builds horror and tension out of ordinary everyday things. And if the ironing machine may be a curiosity for many modern readers, then the image of the possessed refrigerator, which is briefly mentioned in the story, makes an impression no worse.

“And Buka Came” is the best story by S. King. The best because this is not a simple story about a monster, but a story about a man who turned out worse than the monster himself. This is the story of how Mr. Billings came to the doctor and told him about his life, about his dead children and his fears. Mr. Billings believed that his children were killed by a scarecrow (in other translations, "beech" or "brownie", in the original, the creature is called "boogeyman", that is, the archetype of a children's scarecrow, like our "babayka"), and there can be two interpretations of the story :

Spoiler (plot reveal) (click on it to see)

1) The scarecrow really exists. However, then the protagonist did nothing to save his family. At times, he even accidentally helped the monster.

2) Scarecrows do not exist. Then it turns out that the main character is mentally ill and has killed his loved ones.

As you can see, both variants of Billings do not paint. But this is the rational view of an adult. When I reread this book, a part of me still remembers those childhood thrills and just urges me to check the closet. Just in case.

Quit Smoking Corporation. It's a cruel story, although not to say that I am absolutely against such measures. The double feeling remains. On the one hand, doing this to people is simply inhumane, but on the other hand, it is a colossal increase in the willpower of a smoker. King, as a narrator, coped with his task brilliantly, the story captivates, makes you think, empathize with the main character, hate the Corporation, fear for the main character's family and sympathize with everyone who quits smoking.

Score: 8

King's first "official" collection is already considered a classic. It was these works that did him a disservice by giving him the title of "King of Horrors". Almost all of the stories belong to the ""the same"" genre, and a couple of exceptions only emphasize this.

Here we are dealing with the early King, with all the flaws and virtues. The advantages include compactness and lightness of style, which disappeared somewhere from later works, which often suffer from excessive bells and whistles. But the stories themselves turned out to be more ... superficial, or what? - in comparison with later ones. However, what is "superficial" for King is unattainable depths for other authors, for he was one of the first to notice that horrors are a reflection of real life hardships.

Thus, blind religiosity and hypocrisy give birth to CORN CHILDREN. Drunkenness corrupts the soul, turning a person into a GRAY SHIT. The consumer society is becoming a slave to mechanization, and TRUCKS are taking over people. It seems to a person that, having matured, he will leave childhood hardships in the past, but ... SOMETIMES THEY RETURN.

As a result, I can say that the collection will appeal to all fans of good literature, except for the very serious ones, who are more suitable for EVERYTHING TO THE MAX and AFTER SUNSET. Well, I won’t advise King’s fans: they will take you for an idiot, because they read it a long time ago!

Score: 9

All. I read the first Stephen King book for me. She became the collection "Night Shift".

Firstly, he was skeptical about the horror genre, even with a twisted plot. I kind of prefer science fiction. Secondly, I did not expect such depth, psychologism and incredibly vital details that directly enliven the characters, and this is a very pleasant feeling.

The collection is indeed, as the preface says, about Fear. And here King, one might say, struck me on the spot. I was preparing for the fact that there would be only stories about the fear of rats, about the fear of the ironing machine captured by the devil, about the fear of vampires (although these stories are written superbly). No. Stephen King turned out to be a deep psychologist of human souls...

It's all about the same Fear. But about what? Here I found Fear of religious fanaticism and child cruelty, and Fear of responsibility for the death of my children, and Fear of heights, and Fear of the monster that lives in every person under the influence of alcohol, Fear of mechanization and shifting all worries to machines, Fear hopelessness and loneliness, Fear of long-forgotten, but returning memories, Fear of feeling that, being absolutely understood, you understand that you are being controlled, that you become dependent, Fear of fanatical love, Fear of alienation in adult life, even the closest people, and and, finally, Fear of helplessness in the face of a serious illness that turns the closest person into a vegetable.

Score: 9

King's collection of early stories did not surprise me, but only confirmed my faith in the king of horrors. From psychological to trash "meat grinder" stories.

So, I will highlight the most beautiful ..

Jerusalem settlement.

A burden of terror hangs over the abandoned town of Jerusalem's Lot. The heir of an ancient family enters an old house on the outskirts and the inhabitants of the nearby village cannot rejoice at this, since the evil sleeping in Jerusalem will wake up and leave no one aside. To the question - how to describe all the horror in a nutshell - you can refer to this story.

Night shift

A vile sensation haunts the reader throughout the story - stuffy stench, fat rats, dirt and darkness. No matter how funny it sounds, I thought, do I hate my boss that much?))

Meat grinder

The speaking name, as it were, hints at what will have to be dealt with .. the inevitability and inevitability of the victory of technology over man. This theme will be encountered more than once on the pages of this collection. Well, the main character is a policeman working on a laundry accident case. This is where all the petty and stupid fears of a person spread their wings. As if nausea is setting in. How it all ended, you will see for yourself ... I will not deprive you of this pleasure ..

Gray trash

It was a typical evening before the bar closed, and suddenly the door opens and a boy runs in, begging for help. So simply and disturbingly begins this vile and gray story. One of the creepiest stories in this book. Maybe I'm trying to dig too deep and find something that can't be here? But this story is like a parody of the modern immersion of society in social networks and television. And the main character here is gray trash. And what is gray rubbish everyone sees in their own way.

Sometimes they come back

What happened in our teacher's childhood that changed his life so much? This is probably the main line of the story. But with what methods he will fight the past - this is the second key phrase. The story is excellent. And the aftertaste is so bright with a taste of terrible retribution.

You start reading and thoughts come to mind - what's the catch, it seems that there are few actions, but it is so catchy and touching. I don't know if this is a spoiler - but who would have thought that walking on the ledge could become so attractive.

Quit Smoking Corporation

And here is the main backbone of the collection! If there were warm-up stories before, then this one will hit you like an adult. Atmosphere of horror at its best! 10 points. Want to quit smoking and don't know how? Want to lose weight and have no sense of willpower? Elementary, in our corporation you will be forced to take a fresh look at many things! And you will never leave us the same. Py.sy. if you can leave, of course...

Score: 10

If you are still reading these lines, then let's talk. Let's talk to you about fear.

"Gray trash"

A very scary story, although it may have made such an impression on me in view of the fact that it is the first story I read from the "King of Horrors". The image of smelly, sticky, nasty gray stuff has been haunting me for days now. This is not just a horror story - it is a whole patchwork fabric woven from pieces of the fate of the inhabitants of a provincial town. The story is replete with sketches from life. The images of the boy Timmy and his father Richie Grinedin were especially successful. "Gray rubbish" is a warning to those who like to drink the deprived: stop, otherwise those closest to you will leave you, and you yourself will turn into something disgusting and terrible. Grade 10.

"Meat grinder"

Interesting, but simple and naive story. Everything seems to be good in it, but something is missing. There is not enough second bottom, philosophical overtones, a message to the reader. Usually I find this philosophical and psychological background, even if it seems to be non-existent, and cannot be. I did not find this in this story - the plot in this case is primary. It can be seen that the author worked in the laundry, knows about all the subtleties firsthand. Grade 4.

"Night Surf"

The main characters are practically not spelled out, but from the meager information, the reader still manages to put together a certain picture in his head. The atmosphere of loneliness and general helplessness prevails in the story, the general feeling of the story does not save him from being included in the category of ordinary ones. Grade 5.

"Night shift"

The title story of the collection should set a certain bar and the general mood of the collection. In principle, the story copes with its role - it is a terrible story, leaving behind a feeling of disgust and fear of cellars. I have never considered myself a zemmiphobe (Zemmiphobia is the fear of rats), but after reading this story, I will treat them with caution and caution. Grade 9.

"I know what you want"

Interesting, thought provoking story. What are you willing to do for your loved one? This is the choice of each of us: either you truly love and wish only happiness for your loved one, even with another, or you become an egoist and keep love close to you by force. Grade 10.

"Cornice"

Still, Stephen King succeeds in psychological portraits of heroes. Even without any fantastic element, he can create a story as tense as a stretched string, and it is up to the reader to decide whether this string will break or not. Grade 8.

Quit Smoking Corporation

What are you willing to do for the happiness of your family? Quit smoking soon, otherwise your relatives will soon run out of fingers. Grade 8.

"Through Eyes"

The Lovecraftian story is a threat from other planets, it is strange that Yuggoth is not mentioned. No matter how hard you try, the curse will never let you go, you either fight and die or you give up and die. Grade 6.

"Battlefield"

Interesting idea, poor execution. This was not written by Stephen King, but by a high school student, I remember at school we were given fantastic essays. Yes, and there is an old film about revived soldiers. Grade 4.

"Sometimes They Come Back"

An interesting, bewitching story that when the ghosts of the past do not let you go, you need to get rid of them yourself. You don't have to grieve for what you lost, you need to rejoice at what you have.

Hatred and the desire for revenge, along with love, are the strongest feelings. So strong that they can bring back the dead from the other world. There is a belief that the spirit of a dead person cannot find peace if he has important unfinished business left, and these guys had such an unfinished business in the form of a living Jim Norman. But he paid his sacrifice in full and got rid of them, let's hope they don't come back AGAIN. Grade 10.

"Corn Children"

Stephen King is the "King of Horrors" and the great Master. A master of describing provincial backwater towns, in "Gray Rubbish", in "Jerusalem Lot", in "Children of the Corn". You almost physically feel the atmosphere of desolation and decay, you can even inadvertently sneeze from the dust that has accumulated over 12 years on the bar counters in Gatlin. The worst thing is the degeneration of the city, these children, blindly and fanatically believing in ONE WHO BYPASSES THE ROWS, do not even suspect that with each passing away they are degenerating. And even if a seed of doubt had already been born among them, it remains only to wait for September, after a hot summer, when the scorching sun will dry up this damned corn. Grade 10.

"And Buka Came"

“It's good that I don't have a closet,” I thought after reading this story. If I had, I would have moved out today. If Lester Billings came to me, I would advise him not to give up, as the last people on Earth did not give up from Surf, the would-be lover from Cornice, the unlucky killer from Battlefield, the schoolteacher from Sometimes They Come Back ". But he gave up even before the first coming of Buka. “Who is the head of the family? Husband ... You can’t tremble over children ”- so he thought, made a mistake and paid dearly for her. Grade 10.

"The Man Who Loved Flowers"

A wonderful, interesting, short story filled with meaning and mood. Where is my gray jacket? Where is my hammer? And where the hell should I look for my Norma? Grade 10.

"Trucks"

This is the second story in the collection about things that come to life, but this time it turned out to be more interesting and exciting than the “Battlefield”. The ball is ruled by animated trucks, and people are just miserable puppets and slaves. Grade 6.

"Strawberry Spring"

A tense detective story about the most interesting and favorite time of every person - students. How to recognize a killer among your closest friends? No way, start with yourself: maybe you are a killer? Mister Hyde or a Dark Passenger lives in each of us, sometimes he pulls his hand to the steering wheel and takes control, no matter how good we may be from the outside. Do you remember what you did last night? Me not. Grade 10.

"Lawnmower Man"

A very strange, just terribly boring story, to be honest, just a pity for the minutes spent on it. Thrash - no more words, except for a score of 1 point.

"Woman in the room"

Very interesting idea, but poor execution. How could such a master of psychologism as Stephen King turn around. It seems that he preferred to take a shortcut, that the King got scared and did not turn around in full force. It was possible to create a more voluminous and multifaceted work. Grade 6.

"Passage"

Vampires? Sorry, boring and beaten up. It is better to read the story in winter, when snowfall is raging outside the windows. A good addition to the story "Jerusalem's Lot", which, unfortunately, is not in the publication. Why it was impossible to leave both stories, the more they are connected by the place of action. Grade 6.

Stephen King does not invent plots for his creations, he simply shows us what we are really afraid of, what we should be afraid of in order to survive. A person cannot live without fear, in which case he loses the meaning of life, loses the incentive to move forward, develop, evolve. Fear is the engine of progress. In this collection of stories, the king dissected and presented to the public literally all kinds of fear, ranging from the fear of the dark and the fear of loneliness, ending with the fear of the unknown and the supernatural, the fear of one's own dark half.