I’ve just finished re-reading Needful Things by Stephen King. I first read it when it came out over 20 years ago, and I picked up a second hand copy last month, for $3.80, plus a harmless prank to be played on Lester Platt. Only joking, it was 8 Singapore Dollars.
I reckon I’ve read about 15 or so Stephen King books over the last 30 years or so. Most of those were read as a teenager interested in horror movies and records with devils on the cover, but I’ve never really lost touch completely with him, and I enjoyed the most recent one I read, Joyland (To be honest, I think I’ve enjoyed all the books of his I’ve read with the exception of The Dark Half, which I never really warmed to).
Needful Things was probably, along with Pet Semetary, my favourite of his books back in the day. Partly because the basic idea is a good one (Shop that sells your heart’s desire, at a price) but mainly I think because the book gives King plenty of scope to do what I think he likes the most: write about the people and secrets of small town Maine. You get the sense that he really enjoyed writing this one.
I know there are King fans out there, so why not come in and tell everyone which of his books are your favourites? And don’t worry about those noises you can hear. They’re just loons.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I honestly believe King was one of the finest writers of the 20th Century. The Stand, Christine and IT are brilliant examples of how to write engrossing, enthralling, can’t put down stories.
However, as per musical contemporaries like Van Morrison, he really should have stopped a long time ago. I still read each of his novels as they appear but despite the odd glimpse of the old magic the thrill has gone.
Kid Dynamite says
oh, strongly disagree. King has always been up and down. For every The Stand, there’s a Firestarter, for every IT, there’s a Tommyknockers. He’s written some very good books in the 21st century – the OP mentions Joyland, which is excellent, and I also really enjoyed last year’s Revival. The mid-90s was probably his worst period – the six novels from Dolores Claiborne to The Regulators are among his least essential, but even then he came back strongly with Bag Of Bones and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (before derailing horribly with Dreamcatcher, but that’s all tied in up in his accident and subsequent readdiction to painkillers)
Favourites? I love the three @henpetsgi mentions, but also ‘Salems Lot, Duma Key and 11/22/63. The all time number one pick though is The Dark Tower series. I came late to these for some reason, but more fool me. His non-fiction is also good. On Writing is one of the best writing books I know, and Danse Macabre was an essential textbook for a young kid just discovering the delights of horror.
I think the OP also has a good point in talking about how King likes to write about small town Maine. I would ascribe my understanding, such as it is, of American mores to all the King books I devoured as a teenager. I was a weedy fourteen year old in the wasteland of Plymouth, but I felt I knew American life through his books.
Hawkfall says
I listened to the audiobook of On Writing, narrated by King himself. It’s great fun, he’s a very good narrator, and really brings to life sections on adverbs and grammar.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Forgotten on how good On Writing is. Showed it once to some literary book-writing friends and watched as they went “bloody hell, this is good”
Bargepole says
Overall probably It, The Stand or Tommyknockers – last year’s Revival was a return to form. Also enjoyed the Dark Tower series although the last few books got a little too convoluted.
Feedback_File says
I agree that King is a major writer regardless of genre. Been following him for as long as I can remember but have been hugely disappointed in the majority of last few books – generic characterisation and a loss of something magical (not necessarily in the supernatural sense). His last great one for me was ’11/22/63′. My favourites are probably ‘The Stand’ and ‘It’ although I have a real soft spot for a couple of unsung novels – ‘Hearts In Atlantis’ which more than anything is a wonderful evocation of small-town America, and ‘From a Buick 8’ which has just stuck in my memory. Oh and The Shining remains the scariest book I’ve ever read. So much more to King than that though so Id unreservedly recommend him to anyone who likes good American storytelling.
Keef says
I read 22/11/63 (title translated for the benefit of UK readers) after not reading anything by him since the dreadful Tommyknockers. I thought it was a good read, up there with some of the early novels for entertainment value. I think his most recent non-horror novels are well-regarded and might give these a try when I have finished Stark’s Parker series.
I think King probably writes too much for his own good and so his ideas can be stretched too thin or regurgitated.
Podicle says
I think he’s a good short story writer and that most of his novels could be cut down to a decent 20-pager. They usually have a clever idea stretched over 600 pages of hack horror writing. He also suffers from the curse that afflicts most horror writers, which is the let-down of the reveal. Lovecraft was the king of this, inventing a rich mythology, building dread with curious and intriguing mysteries and then destroying it completely at the climax by trying to describe the essentially indescribable. This is why M.R James was so brilliant. He never gave you the reveal, just enough of a glimpse to keep you wondering. His characters were always bit players on the edge of some larger story.
Bingo Little says
I agree with this.
Both “It” and “The Stand”, which I’d suggest are his two best books, have terrible, terrible third act problems. “It”, in particular, is pretty much laughable over the final 50 pages or so.
Hawkfall says
Funnily enough I think the scariest thing of his that I’ve read is the short story Gramma, which is in, I think, Skeleton Crew. The ending, doesn’t have an explicit Reveal, in that the scary stuff is starting in another room, and in the background.
I love M. R. James too, I love how the devil is in the details. I think he enjoyed writing about old churches, remote country inns and dusty libraries as much as King does writing about Maine.
niscum says
I love Needful Things too. I read it around the time it came out and then a couple of time shortly after in the late 90s. IT had the same impact on me when I read that in the mid 80s. At his best he’s a brilliant writer and as has been observed his real knack is getting under the skin of the small town American.
Locust says
I always enjoy his writing, even when the plot is ridiculous – yes, I even enjoyed Tommyknockers!
(The only thing I can’t stand is bad writing, you can have the best plot ever but if your writing is clumsy and full of errors I’ll throw the book away. Silly plot but immaculate writing? I’ll stick with it, gladly)
Favourites include The Shining, 11.22.63, Revival, Dead Zone, Duma Key, Under the Dome (that silly ending is only a few pages of an otherwise fantastic book, I don’t mind). Yes, It and The Stand are great but I doubt that I’ll ever read them again – too long.
His dullest books for me are Carrie and Christine (I almost didn’t get through that one, extremely dull). And I had a lot of issues with Doctor Sleep (two good short stories that didn’t fit together IMO).
JustB says
@kid-dynamite I love Firestarter.
For me his leanest and best and most terrifying and humane book is Cujo.
The Stand is great, GREAT, up until the pilgrims make it to Vegas. Then the bum falls off it.
I don’t mind Needful Things, but it gets a bit daft by the end. Good main characters, though – he’s good at warm, human protagonists who talk like actual people.
His place in history is assured, clunkers notwithstanding. At his best, there are few better.
Kid Dynamite says
Haven’t read Cujo for probably twenty five years, but I think the sentence “Tad played with the ducks” will stick with me till I die.
Poppy Succeeds says
He wrote Pet Sematary and Misery, both masterpieces, but the problem is he got too big to be edited, and his writing, while brilliant — there are very few writers who are as good at moving the reader from one sentence to the next — isn’t lyrical enough to support what he occasionally wants to achieve. He’s great with character, little pen portraits and telling details that bring them to life, but not so good on descriptive passages, and he persists with lengthy and detailed dream sequences despite the fact that a.) he’s not that good at them and b.) nobody bothers to read them anyway.
My favourites are the ones I grew up with: Carrie, Cujo, Firestarter, Thinner, Pet Sematary and Misery etc. Funnily enough, IT was the one where I started to feel the wheels come off. I gave up on Tommyknockers but loved Needful Things. Since then I’ve given up on The Talisman, Gerald’s Game, Rose Madder, Bag of Bones, Dreamcatcher and Under The Dome, but did enjoy 22/11/63 and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
But yes, something of a hero still. I’d love to sit out on the porch with him one sultry Maine evening, watching the 18-wheelers trundle past.
Bingo Little says
Spot on, well said.
badartdog says
Yeah – I loved all up until the later chapters of It – it’s a long time since I rea it but I seem to remember it all got a bit distasteful.
retropath2 says
Loved him from 80 to 95, his latest being always my holiday potboiler of choice. But they got longer and longer and longer, with ever more strained twists and turns as he tried desperately to hide the fact that he was making it up as he wrote. Haven’t bothered since.
Here’s a much easier list: good Steven King Films………
The 2 prison ones, Carrie (original) and Misery. That’s it.
Started Cujo on sunday. What tosh!
walker1 says
Surely Stand By Me qualifies as a “great” Steven King film? I’m no lover of horror films so haven’t seen many of his (although I enjoyed Shawshank and Misery) but Stand By Me is quite wonderful. The scene when Gordie steals away from their “camp” and spots the deer is utterly delightful.
Gary says
Agreed. And the shot of Gordie running in front of the train is superb.
Bingo Little says
It’s a fantastic film. A total classic.
Ahh_Bisto says
Both Stand By Me and Misery were directed by Rob Reiner who had an extraordinary purple patch at the start of his career between 1984 and 1992:
1984 This Is Spinal Tap
1985 The Sure Thing
1986 Stand by Me
1987 The Princess Bride
1989 When Harry Met Sally…
1990 Misery
1992 A Few Good Men
Then in 1994 came North.
Ahh_Bisto says
I still enjoy the films Christine and Dead Zone despite their flaws.
The full 1979 TV serial of Salem’s Lot (dir. Tobe Hooper) was well done. I remember being amazed at the time that it was made for television, not for cinema. There was a terrible, butchered version that was released in the cinema some years later and which was the only version available to but on video for a long time.
Ahh_Bisto says
* buy on video
niscum says
Didn’t like the prison ones (films or stories – way too schmaltzy).
I’d say, Carrie, The Shining, Misery (brilliant) and Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates again).
IT was diabolical.
Ahh_Bisto says
Tim Curry as Pennywise. Awful camp performance. Kept waiting for him to claim he was being misrepresented and was simply a sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania.
Kid Dynamite says
I love that every time someone in this thread dismisses a particular book, a few posts later it’s one of someone else’s favourites. The man’s got something.
Charlie Gordon says
The Shining, Salem’s Lot, The Stand, It & Misery represent his zenith. But I would also raise a hand for his short story collections and in particular Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight.
Ahh_Bisto says
The last book I read was Bag of Bones which I quite enjoyed if I recall. Undoubtedly my heightened enjoyment of King was during my teens with Salem’s Lot and The Shining being my favourites. I also have a fondness for The Stand. I think his quality as a writer is harder to judge fairly because on the one hand he writes in a genre dominated by hacks and in which his writing style has fundamentally changed the conventions of horror. He is a great horror writer but he is not a conventional horror writer.
However, I think his significance as a writer is mainly in terms of popular culture rather than in art and literature. He has raised the bar for what passes as popular literary culture but I often find his books don’t go to the next level to place them in the realms of his simply being one of the great literary writers. I feel that his style is overly substantive in detail to the point of distraction – particularly for characters – and often I find myself wishing he’d try some other technique to draw perspective on his characters, narrative, setting and plot. I wish he’d leave his own comfort zone in the same way that he wants his readers to leave theirs. He is great at drawing out our empathy towards characters but really only does that to hurt us when they are hurt, to scare us when they are scared.
That is the dichotomy of his writing style. An example is the book Salem’s Lot which I still love. A few years ago I read Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. It terrified me far more deeply than King’s indebted effort and managed to do so within a comparatively few pages. Often I find his wish to stretch the conventions of the genre too protracted for its own good. He tries too hard to elevate his oeuvre into worthiness when he should kick back and revel in the possibilities that horror has to confront our demons at a more primal or poetic/lyrical level, delved deeper into the undercurrents of our parochial lives rather than simply hold a mirror to them. He just doesn’t quite do enough to make all those words count and to justify their inclusion.
Beezer says
Christine. Read when I was 15. Every 15 year old should read ‘Christine’.
‘The Talisman’ with Peter Straub. I have an aversion to fantasy (even dare I say Terry Pratchett’s stuff) but this beguiled me no end.
Bargepole says
And a mention for its sequel Black Housewhich is also very good.
On the topic of his excellent short story collections, looking forward to reading the new volume published this week.
JustB says
That’s ironic. 😉
JustB says
Dammit, that post was supposed to reply to @ahh_bisto. Never mind.
ianess says
I have never read any of his novels. However, his style guide, ‘On Writing’, is magnificent.
slotbadger says
I’ve always struggled with his novels, with one or two exceptions – but I keep returning to his short stories. Confined to a few thousand words, he can be amazing. Old favourites include ‘Quitters Inc’ ‘The Library Policeman’ ‘The Raft’ and ‘The Jaunt’. Then there are his novellas which can be equally wonderful – thinking here of ‘The Long Walk’, ‘The Langoliers’ and ‘The Running Man’
I got the audiobook of 22/11/63 and abandoned it a quarter of a way through, due as much to an increasing irritation with the voice of the bloke reading it, as with the rambling, endless descriptions of halcyon 50s Americana
Gatz says
I don’t get him. I read a few in my teens, some more about a decade ago on the recommendation of friends who’s taste I usually trust, and one more (a re-read of one of the teen books – Christine) a few months ago. The occasional neat character sketch isn’t enough to pad out the dull writing at extraordinarily tedious length, and I only realised that I had read Christine about 200 pages in when a particular phrase seemed familiar – so little of it sticks. All of this might not matter for something to read to pass a long journey, but when you get to the end there is always, at least in my experience, a really disappointing ending which leaves the reader feeling that he has wasted his time. Mark me down as unimpressed.
Jackthebiscuit says
Big fan, I have been reading his books for the best part of forty years.
FWIIW, my personal favourite is The Stand, followed by Salems lot, Dead Zone & the shining.
Poppy Succeeds says
What I find incredible about King is that he claims to write no fewer than 2,000 words a day but also reads for between four to six hours a day.
So far so good. Most of us could mange that, especially if we swore off the internet.
However, King must also deal with the business of being Stephen King. He’s got prefaces and speeches to write, radio shows to present, God knows whatever other King-rleated business to deal with.
How he finds the time, and more importantly, the headspace, is something that has always fascinated me. People I know who write fiction talk of needing to literally be inside their work, and find it difficult to concentrate on anything else. Presumably King must be able to drop in and out of his work at will. His command and concentration must be absolutely phenomenal.
Poppy Succeeds says
‘Manage’ and ‘related’ I mean.
Locust says
And he managed to do that for years on drugs and booze as well, writing long, complicated novels (if they were all good is another question) that he barely remembers writing.
mikethep says
Like a lot of people, it seems, I had a King phase about 25 years ago, and then put him aside. But I recently read 11/22/63 and Mr Mercedes, and hugely enjoyed them both.
Another thumbs aloft for his book on writing, too. For those interested in that sort of thing, On Writing by George V Higgins (Friends of Eddie Coyle, Coogan’s Bluff) is highly recommended. Another writer who knew what he was doing.