from THE NEW YORKER.
A couple, who fight over meaningless things, (his smoking, her weight) stop at a roadside store to pick up a ball for her niece. The husband and their dog wait in the car. It's a very hot day and after too long of a wait for her small errand, a woman comes out to tell him his wife has collapsed. He goes inside and waits until EMS arrives and confirms her death. She is only 35. He returns to the car where the dog has also died from the heat. I am not sure I would identify this as a King story if not for the references to Castle Rock. It was written in 2009.
4 comments:
Weird. I read King's collection THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS when it came out in late 2015, and this story was in it, but I have no memory of it at all.
Currently reading a SF Megapack collection of stories by Carl Jacobi, which is fairly entertaining.
The new Crippen & Landru collection of S. S. Van Dine stories is different from their usual. It starts with "Philo Vance" retelling a series of true crimes, many of which were European, in his usual unbearably annoying "dropping the final g" style that makes them almost unreadable to me. ( I read one of his books and that was more than enough.) I've read those, but I am not counting them as short stories read. Then there is a series of stories he wrote a decade before he invented Vance, published as by Albert Otis, but the introduction makes me wonder if I will be able to get through them, what with Van Dine's apparent anti-Semitism. There are also a few comics he wrote, based on short films. THE ALMOST PERFECT CRIME is the title.
When one has King's audience, one does get to reach for different effects and can see them published. THE NEW YORKER likes to sell copies, as well.
Jeff, is it that you will give anything from C&L a chance? Or that you hadn't subjected yourself to Van Dine for a while?
I noticed that in stories and books Stephen King wrote around 2008-2012, there was a high death rate.
Todd, I'm a subscriber, so I get all their books automatically, at a 20% discount. Otherwise, this is definitely one I'd have skipped.
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