GENERAL INFORMATION
TITLE: FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT
AUTHOR: STEPHEN KING
PAGES: 676
PUBLISHER: BCA BOOKS
YEAR: 1990
GENRE: SCI-DI / HORROR / SUSPENSE FICTION
COVER TYPE: HARD BACK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Past_Midnight
BLURB FROM THE BACK COVER
Past midnight, something happens to time, that fragile concept we employ to order our sense of reality. It bends, stretches, turns back or snaps, and sometimes reality snaps with it. And what happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality shatters and the glass begins to fly? These four chilling novellas, a feast fit for King fans old and new provide shocking answers.
After all, past midnight, is Stephen King’s favourite time of day…
REVIEW
I loved Four Past Midnight. I’ve read it many times but not for a few years. I forgot how good it is. Reading it again was like stumbling a long lost, beloved friend. Four Past Midnight is a shining example of just how great King can be.
Two novellas in this collection, The Langoliers and Secret Window, Secret Garden have been adapted for the screen. The Langoliers was a TV mini-series in 1995 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Langoliers_(TV_miniseries) starring Dean Stockwell. Secret Window was a movie released in 2004 starring Johnny Depp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Window).
THE LANGOLIERS: Ten strangers wake up aboard a red-eye flight from LA to Boston to discover themselves in an eerily empty world. They discover the plane passed through a rip in time and are stuck in the past. They survived because they were asleep. They need to find a way to go back through the time rip and return to the present. It won’t be easy because The Langoliers, strange creatures who devour the past are closing in.
The Langoliers is a great science fiction story. The premise is great. The characters are well written. The creatures are creepy as hell. The only thing that spoils my enjoyment of this tale is the TV mini-series. It’s pretty shit as far as King adaptations go and taints my enjoyment of the novella.
SECRET WINDOW, SECRET GARDEN: A stranger turns up on the doorstep of a famous writer and accuses him of stealing his story. The writer claims he has proof he published the story first. However, various events conspire to prevent him from obtaining this proof including his house burning down.
Secret Window, Secret Garden is a great suspense story. I especially love the way he gradually reveals the writer has split personality and John Shooter, the accuser is actually the writer.
THE LIBRARY POLICEMAN: A small town businessman borrows some books from the library to help him write a speech for the rotary club. He’s late returning the books, which actually go missing. The librarian, Ardelia Lortz sends The Library Policeman after him. Ardelia is actually a monster who feeds on the lives of children. The Library Policeman is the manifestation of a man who raped the businessman when he was a child.
I think this is the strongest novella in Four Past Midnight. It’s my favourite anyway. I think it’s creepy as hell. It’s the first supernatural tale in the collection.
THE SUN DOG: A boy receives a Sun 600 Polaroid camera for his birthday. It doesn’t matter what he take a picture of, the only thing that pops out are pictures of a monstrous looking dog that moves closer and closer to the camera and looks like it’s going to burst out of the lens into his world. He’s swindled out of the camera by Pop Merrill, an old con who tries to sell it to collectors of supernatural artefacts. Pop starts to sleepwalk and use the camera until the dog bursts into this world.
The Sun Dog is the second supernatural tale in this collection. It’s set in Castle Rock, a fictional town that features in multiple King works. I love the concept of this novella. I thought it was creepy as hell.
THE OPENING LINE
Brian Engle rolled the American Pride L1011 to a stop at Gate 22 and flicked off the FASTEN SEATBELT light at exactly 10:14 P.M… (The Langoliers)
FINAL THOUGHTS
There’s a good mix of genres and styles in the four novellas contained in Four Past Midnight. The novellas fit well together. On an individual basis the novellas are startlingly good. As a collective whole they blow me away.
RATING
The Book Lover's Boudoir 