| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Bobby's mum takes in a lodger, Ted Brautigan, who turns the boy on to great books such as Lord of the Flies. Unfortunately, Ted is being hunted by yellow-jacketed men--monsters from King's Dark Tower novels who take over the shady part of town. They close in on Ted and Bobby, just as a gang of older kids menace Bobby and his girlfriend, Carol. This pointedly echoes the theme of Lord of the Flies (the one book King says he wishes he'd written): war is the human condition. Ted's mind-reading powers rub off a bit on Bobby, granting nightmare glimpses of his mum's assault by her rich, vile, jaunty boss. King packs plenty into 250 pages, using the same trick Bobby discerns in the film Village of the Damned: "The people seemed like real people, which made the make-believe parts scarier."
Vietnam is the otherworldly horror that haunts the remaining four stories. In the title tale, set in 1966, University of Maine college kids play the card game Hearts so obsessively they risk flunking out and getting drafted. The kids discover sex, rock and politics, become war heroes and victims, and spend the '80s and '90s shell-shocked by change. The characters and stories are criss-crossed with connections that sometimes click and sometimes clunk. The most intense Hearts player, Ronnie Malenfant ("evil infant"), perpetrates a My Lai-like atrocity; a nice Harwich girl becomes a radical bomber. King's metaphor for lost '60s innocence is inspired by Donovan's "sweet and stupid" song about the sunken continent, and his stories hail the vanished Atlantis of his youth with deep sweetness and melancholy intelligence. --Tim Appelo
Review
‘An incredibly gifted writer, whose writing, like Truman Capote’s, is so fluid that you often forget that you’re reading’ (GUARDIAN )
‘Splendid entertainment...Stephen King is one of those natural storytellers’ (Frances Fyfield, EXPRESS )
‘As a storyteller King is unbeatable’ (MIRROR )
‘Will make perfect holiday reading’ (DAILY MAIL )
‘Gripping...no King fan will walk away unsatisfied’ (THE TIMES )
‘Fans of King will find themselves on pleasingly familiar ground here; newcomers (if there are still any left) will find BAG OF BONES as good a place to start as any’ (SUNDAY TIMES )
‘Confident, seamlessly accomplished’ (Jonathan Keates, OBSERVER )
‘It chills as it creaks as it reads’ (MAIL ON SUNDAY )
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
'Hearts In Atlantis' belongs to the second group of works, such as 'The Green Mile' and 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption'. They are unsettling novels and stories that 'lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried', to quote from 'The Body'.
King's self-proclaimed theme in this latest book is the 60's, a decade that I am too young to have seen. He strikes a deeper chord, however - running through the five moving stories here is a strong motif of good and evil, of crime and retribution. Each important character has a conscious choice to make, and each must eventually accept the consequences of their decision.
As usual King writes with aplomb, and is able to capture convincingly the tone and atmosphere of his times. The supernatural stands out in chilling contrast to his deft treatment of the everyday. He shows remarkable skill in depicting both youth and old age, although if I had one minor complaint it would be that his 11-year-old characters in the first story seem a little precocious.
Resisting considerable temptation, I placed this book on my Christmas List. It left me moved, drained and reappraising my choices and direction in life. I can think of no higher recommendation than to say that I don't know when I will find the strength to pick it up again.
The way the stories all linked together was great. When I noticed it was more than one story i was expecting that it was another short story book but dont be misled all the stories have something to do with the other and they all leave you wondering what else happened next.
Not all my questions were answered about the people involved in the book by the time I finsished it but I was pleased with the ending, which was in my view a very good piece of work.
Low Men In Yellow Coats gets you hooked, and Hearts in Atlantis acts like a drug on your body. Wherever you are, until you've finished this book, it will call to you-begging you to pick it up and read 'just one more chapter'. Nothing else matters while there are unread pages, not even university course work. When you've read this book, you'll understand my reference, though i dont suppose "I was reading Stephen King" would be accepted as Mitigating circumstances-I think it should.
Read it, its unmissable. Anyone who thinks otherwise, doesn't know King.
This book consists of 3 short stories and I'm currently on the third one. Read more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Fiction > Anthologies
- Books > Fiction > Classics
- Books > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction
- Books > Horror > Anthologies
- Books > Horror > Contemporary Horror
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
