Tag: Stephen King

A Face in the Crowd, by Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan

October 10, 2023

A Face in the Crowd

A Face in the Crowd has been available as an ebook since 2012 and became available in a hardcover physical format just this year. The protagonist of this story/novella is Dean Evers, an elderly widower living in Florida, having moved there with his wife before her passing. Originally a Red Sox fan, Evers has “adopted” the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as his second team and now whiles away his evenings in front of the television watching Rays games.

One evening, Evers notices someone in the seats behind home plate — Young Dr. Young, as Evers’s mother used to call him — Evers’s dentist when he was a boy. But Evers is aware that Dr. Young had passed many years ago, so how could he now be attending a Rays game?

After convincing himself that he’s not going crazy, Evers flips on the television the next night for more baseball, only to see another face in the seats behind home plate. Once again, it is someone from Evers’s past whom he knows to be dead. And it is the same the next game he watches. And the next game.

These appearances understandably affect Evers’s sleep, and he resorts to a cocktail of ambien and scotch to fall asleep each night. Through the story and his reminiscences, we learn a bit about each of the individuals who Evers sees in the stands and, of course, a bit about Evers himself. Finally, a face appears in the stands that leads Evers to finally understand what is going on.

I won’t spoil the ending here, though anyone with a twisted enough imagination can easily deduce the conclusion of this tale. I enjoy Stephen King and, of course, I enjoy baseball, so it’s always a lot of fun when I get the opportunity to read a baseball story written by King. The story is short, only 58 pages in printed format, and it reads quickly. I knocked it out easily in one evening. It’s a worthwhile piece of brief entertainment if have an hour to fill sometime.

Quote of the day

May 15, 2020

There are a few guys in baseball fortunate enough to be able to bring it late in their career: Roger Clemens was one, and Nolan Ryan was another one.  And I’d like to be that kind of a writer, who’s still able to bring the fastball.

~Stephen King

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The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King

May 13, 2017

I think I was in high school the first time I read Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (I’ve been reading Stephen King since I was fourteen — don’t judge).  So this recent foray through the book was actually a re-read.  I am always astonished at the details I had forgotten about whenever I read a book for the second (or third… or fourth…) time.  In this case, I was pleased to discover that this book is even better than I remembered it.

Girl_Gordon_coverThe novel tells of the adventures of Trisha McFarland, who gets lost in the New England woods after leaving the path while hiking with her mother and brother.  All she really wanted was a bit of respite from her family’s squabbling, but instead finds herself unable to find her way back to the path and travels deeper and deeper into the woods.  With her, all she has are a bottle of water, two Twinkies, a hard-boiled egg, a tuna sandwich, a bottle of Surge (can we make Surge mainstream again?), a poncho, a Game Boy, and a Walkman.

Trisha is a huge Boston Red Sox fan, and she is especially a fan of pitcher Tom Gordon, who was the Sox’s closer at the time the novel was written.  Each night, as she journeys through the woods, she places the ear buds of her Walkman in her ears and listens to Red Sox games.  During the day, she attempts to ration her meager supplies, and once they run out, she survives on berries and creek water.

Eventually, however, the stress of her situation causes Trisha to start hallucinating.  Among her hallucinations, she imagines Tom Gordon is traveling with her, and they have conversations along the way about the secrets of closing.  Her baseball knowledge is quite impressive for a nine-year-old girl, and the advice that her hallucinatory Gordon gives her helps Trisha to survive her ordeal.

I won’t go into detail on how the book ends, though I will say that this novel serves as another depiction of how much of a baseball fan Stephen King really is.  Oh yes, there is also a bear involved, but I won’t give away anything beyond that.  You’ll just have to read the book yourself — I promise it’s worth it.

Blockade Billy, by Stephen King

May 23, 2013

 

blockade billy

A couple days ago, I sat down and read Stephen King’s novella, Blockade Billy.  As a baseball fan and a Stephen King fan, I don’t know how I managed to not hear about this book for so long, but a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a review and knew that I had to check it out.

Very briefly, it is a story about a young, rookie catcher, William Blakely, as told by New Jersey Titans third base coach, Granny Grantham.  Billy is small in stature and a bit slow in the head, but he’s also a phenomenal ballplayer, whose willingness to stand in the way of any baserunner coming down the third base line earns him the nickname “Blockade Billy.”  Keep in mind, however, that the writer of this tale is Stephen King, not W. P. Kinsella.  I won’t give away the ending, but I will say that it was precisely the kind of twist that one would expect from the author.

It’s not quite as graphic as some of King’s other writing, but his trademark style and voice definitely shine through.  That being said, this obviously isn’t meant to be a bedtime story for the kiddos as they get tucked into bed tonight.  It does make for an interesting bedtime story for a grown-up, however, as the story is so short, I’m not sure it even qualifies as a “novella.”  Even with large print, the book is only 125 pages long, and I was so caught up in the story, it seemed even shorter than that.

If you’re looking for a short, entertaining-but-blood-chilling read, I’d definitely recommend Blockade Billy.