5/5

Amazing, just truly and simply amazing. These are four short stories and every single one of them is very very good. King's short story collections are usually pretty good, a little bit worse than his longer works, but this just blows it right out of the water.

The first one is the story that Shawshank Redemption was based on and it's just as amazing as the movie. I read the whole thing, about 100 pages, in just one sitting. I cared for every single prisoner and really wanted to see what would happen to Red.

The second one, Apt Pupil, is probably the third best of the bunch, and even then it's insanely good. Just a great explanation about how evil can "sleep" and be awaken by being exposed to other evil individuals. I bet some people might be slightly bothered by the way casualty brings the end of the story, but I still loved it. And I honestly do believe the kid was a sociopath from the start, even before meeting the old man.

The third one, The Body, is what "Stand by me" was based on. I also really liked this one, it's probably the second best and feels very personal. It's all about the logic of "being stuck in a bad place", both literally and figuratively, with both the idea of being around people that drag you down, even without intent, and how just being born in a bad place can be an inescapable prison.

The last one is the weakest of the bunch, the Breathing Method, but it's still really good. A story inside a story, but I really loved it. There's just a vague air of mystery around it that felt really satisfying. A great show of how King can develop what I can only call "casual supernatural", I wish he did work the mysterious club a bit more, though.

To conclude, this book is amazing and one of King's best work. It's a great introduction to his non-horror works. I don't think newcomers to his work should start with this book, but it's probably the first you should read after a couple of good horror stories. ( )

The only story I did not care for was The Body. To me, it felt very out of place despite the connection with the seasons. I loved the other three stories though ( )

3 out of 4 became movies. 1 out of 3 is better as a novella. Some of King's best writing. ( )

its tough to review a collection of stories like this so i gave the overall star rating a 5 since i think this is a great package. lets go over each story.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption:
very good and the characters are great but i do think its a tad too short and this is where i think the movie excelled better. i still worth reading as its still very good and i do love me a prison escape.

Apt Pupil:
this is the one i always wanted to read about as i think the idea behind it to be fascinating and i think the movie was alright but i always had a feeling that it felt like there was more to it. this one is good but wow this might be the most disturbing King book i read so far its quite shocking. no wonder the movie skipped over some of the content in this book. with that out of the way, this one is worth a read as it has some good character writing and build up but keep in mind that it gets very dark and depressing.

The Body:
this is my favorite story in this collection. the characters are top notch and to see them go on a little adventure is fun and you really understand where they came from. lots of fun debates and dialog and even though this story is rooted in the early 60's i feel its still easy to relate to as even when i grew up i always like going on a journey that seems like a life time long and the types of conversations we had as kids is still very true. this one comes highly recommended.

The Breathing Method:
ah yes the Breathing Method everyone's favorite haha. ok to be serious this story is not that bad, i think its ok. its weird but unique. now i have not read the Dark tower series yet (i plan on it) but i have heard that you might get more enjoyment if you read that series for a connection but as its own. its ok i was not crazy about it but i think it presented some neat ideas but could have been much more expended on. still worth a read but i think the other 3 are more consistently enjoyable for me ( )

This book contains four novellas by Stephen King. While this author is known for his horror stories, I wouldn't say any of them are in that genre - at best, "The Breathing Room" does have some horror elements. Instead, these tales seem to focus more on their characters.

"Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" was my favorite - Andy's character is very interesting, & Red works well as a narrator. "The Body" & "The Breathing Method" were also solid - I found the plot of the latter to be a bit more compelling, whereas the characters in the former seemed stronger to me. This worked well in terms of bringing diversity to the collection.

I couldn't finish "Apt Pupil." Todd is a terrible person from the beginning, even before his interactions with Dussander, & I just did not enjoy reading about him. If the plot had been compelling, that might have saved the story, but it drags quite a bit, at least at the beginning. However, I would still recommend this book based on the other three stories ( )

lol "short stories" is probably not the right shelf, because they're not exactly short. They're what's called novellas in English, I believe. I don't know if we have a Swedish word for that, probably something that I learned in school and forgot.

The name "Different seasons" is just "Seasons" in Swedish, and they fucking went with it, translating all the titles to one season each. It does not work at all. The Body is named after autumn, despite taking place during summer vacation and the first two stories span several years. It's only the last one, about winter, that kinda hits the mark, but nah, I don't like it. I liked the book though.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption Very good story. I've never seen the movie so I didn't actually know what to expect and I can't tell you if it's true to the novella or not, but all the same I truly did enjoy it. The ending was good, which is rare for something written by King (I say, loving most things he writes).

Apt Pupil This one is so fucking creepy, which, OKAY, it's a King novella, of course it's gonna be creepy, but it's not creepy because of anything supernatural, it's creepy because Todd is the worst character I've ever had to read about. Honestly the first 30 pages could've been a short story on their own, a really creepy one. The creepy vibe is kinda lost the longer it goes on, but I still enjoyed it and it was still truly a feel bad story.

The Body You know, I've seen Stand By Me a few times but I don't think I ever really "got" it before reading the novella. I'm not sure I get it now either, but I like it better than before. Everything except that scene with those gross creatures whose English name I can't remember or bother to look up (I don't wanna risk seeing pictures!!), but you all know what I'm talking about so it doesn't matter.

The Breathing Method This was not very good and honstely almost made four star it instead of five, but since it's such a short story I'll let it be. It's just so many men in it and it seems a bit misogynistic to write about pregnancy this way, so I just didn't like it. Then again it might not be about the pregnancy at all, it might be about a club, and then maybe it could have/should have been explored more. Maybe. ( )

This is definitely one of my favourite King stories. I loved the movie and I loved the novella just as much! ( )

Two of the best Stephen King short stories ever are in this book - The Shawshank Redemption and The Body, both of which became classic movies as well... ( )

Forty years on, early King novels are nearing 'classic' status in their genre (although nobody quite agrees on how old a book has to be, whether the author can still be living, etc.) This collection of four novellas deserves the status consideration, but whether it belongs to King's typical horror genre is debatable. Three of its four stories have made the leap to screen, two of which are classics in their own right. I've already read more of King's work than I intended to, but I didn't want to miss this one.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption - the character Red in this story is named so for his red hair, so I'd imagine he's white, but I kept hearing Morgan Freeman's voice anyway. It goes much like the movie does, as far as I remember, with the absence of Andy's playing music and maybe some other things. Knowing the ending allows every bit of foreshadowing and dramatic irony to leap out, and there's quite a bit of that to enjoy. Funny to observe, this book is now older than Red's prison sentence is long.

Apt Pupil - gave me more than I expected, the most gripping read of the four. King offers a study of how easily anyone (anyone!) can be brought under the sway of evil, if they ask the right (wrong) questions and encounter the right (wrong) mentor. Granted, Todd's heart is in the wrong place from go. When I lost all sympathy for him I began to read this as a story about two King villains trapped in a room together, forced to cooperate but unable to trust.

The Body - four young friends in 1960 embark on their most memorable adventure together, managing to pack nearly every coming-of-age lesson into one 24 hour period. Stephen King is probably evoking his own childhood, including every common expression from that time and place. Some of those are still cute, while others are hopelessly politically incorrect sixty years later. If you're not a Western white male, prepare to get zapped.

The Breathing Method - this also exceeded my low expectations, which I'd based on its being the only story not transferred to film and its most strongly belonging to the horror genre. Despite its revolving around a central event of that type, the framing story that nests it is engaging and drew me right in. It isn't wrapped up neatly with a bow but leaves some lingering mysteries, making this a good note to end on.

I read the original 1982 hardcover. In "The Body", Chris tells Teddy and Vern about the pistol but later they don't know anything about it. I'm curious whether that mistake was fixed in a later edition. ( )

Il Club del Libro
Libro del mese di Luglio 2018 ( )

This is, of course, the book that made fans for Stephen King that don't even know they're fans. My wife, for example, counts the Stand By Me and Shawshank Redemption movies as among the very best, but she doesn't like Stephen King.

Shawshank that starts this collection off is very much standard King fare. A quiet person who's driven beyond normal human measuring. Andy Dufresne is cut from the same cloth as Roland, Stu Redmond, the Loser's Club, Paul Sheldon, and many other King characters. There's nothing remarkable here, and yet, the whole thing's remarkable in the way that he slowly, easily, and with great care and patience, lays the entire story out for us.

The comes Apt Pupil, a story I didn't like originally, and didn't like this time around. Hey, it happens. Where the first story seemed to move along, not quickly, not slowly, but just right, this one seemed to drag and drag. It could be because I found no redeeming features in either of the two main characters, I don't know. To me, there was a genius little short story shoehorned into this novella when the Jewish concentration camp survivor comes to learn that he's sharing a hospital room with his Nazi torturer. That, my friends, would have made for a suspenseful little slice of hell. But it was not to be. Ah well. This story is the reason this book is rated a 4 instead of a 5 for me.

The Body, quite simply, is some of the finest writing King has ever produced. His observances of childhood, of life, of his own reputation as a writer...all of it. This story simply sings.

And finally, we have the oddity known as The Breathing Method, a strange little story that shouldn't work, and likely wouldn't have had it not been sandwiched within the much more intriguing framework of the club, also one of King's better creations.

Overall, the thing that struck me the most about this collection, that didn't really hit me the first time around, is that each story is about characters who go through a story, but that also have a story of their own. Sometimes, there's even a story within a story within a story. In each of the four novellas collected here.

Together, though I'm not fond of one of them, this should stand as one of King's top releases, and one that can be pointed to when discussing his genius. ( )

Includes 4 novellas, only one of which I read "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption". liked the novel's take on the story...it's very similar to the book except that the book is set in Maine, and the narrator isn't black. King is a lot more focused on the theme of hope, but also the idea that you find success when you take things slowly, play all of your cards, and take a chance. The movie makes it seem like Andy knows his whole plan the entire, but in the book, it's made clear that he probably didn't...he just took his opportunities as they came, and in addition to finally escaping, makes things better for every man in that prison. A really good way to look at life. Also includes "Apt Pupil" and "The Body", which was made into "Stand by Me".

King is a good storyteller; I can find no fault with his writing, but I guess I just feel like there's no place to go with it. I suppose that's why he's so popular...I'm not sure if that makes him great or not! Maybe he's so great he makes it look that easy; I don't know. I guess time will tell. ( )

Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption is a great story, but the movie is nearly perfect ("I hate to say it but the movie is better" tag); The Body/Stand By Me is a great story and a great movie ("great movie" tag); The Apt Pupil is sort of meh; The Breathing Method is a weird little story that would make a great creepy little movie! ("should have a movie" tag) ( )

I spaced my reading of this one out so I could read each story in the appropriate thematic season. It was wonderful. Each story fully embodied that time of the year. Ironically I finished the book nine months to the day that I started. Echoes of "The Breathing Method"...

Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption: 5/5
Apt Pupil: 4/5
The Body: 5/5 (One of the greatest works of short fiction of all time)
The Breathing Method: 4/5 ( )

There are 4 stories within these covers. All are within 100 - 200 pages, which gives you enough to sink your teeth into and enjoy the taste. None of these stories are horror driven, they are more suspenseful.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption - Condemned for the murder of his wife and her lover, Andy Defresne is serving a life sentence in one of the country's hardest prisons. Day to day life now includes rape, helping guards and the warden cheat the system, and hope for freedom.
After 27 years, Andy gets his freedom. The how is as exciting and unexpected as the rest of the story.
Shawshank Redemption was made into a movie.

The Apt Pupil - When a 13 year old boy discovers a Nazi war criminal living in his neighborhood, he blackmails him into telling about the war, the camps, and all the horrible things he has done.
Partway through you begin to wonder who is worse, the Nazi or the young boy. Both begin to have nightmares over the stories.
The Apt Pupil was made into a movie.

The Body - 4 boys go on a trek to see and claim fame over a dead body. The journey is filled with more adventure than any of them expected.
The Body was made into a movie called Stand By Me.

The Breathing Method - An unwed mother is determined to have her baby, despite public opinion and other issues. There is a supernatural element to this one. ( )

Stephen King is unrivaled. I was so surprised that the short story "Hope Springs Eternal" was the foundation for The Shawshank Redemption movie. The story is wonderful, but they had to add quite a bit to make such a good movie. However, it was done with no damage to the original story. ( )

I enjoyed this collection. I did not finish Apt Pupil, because it was too dark for me, but I loved both Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and The Body. And I thought The Breathing Method was interesting, but didn't feel as fleshed out as the other stories. Overall, I would recommend it. ( )

In the early 1980s, Stephen King wanted to create a collection of novelettes that were not horror stories - although the last story was clearly a supernatural one. Three of these four novelettes were made into movies! I've heard of most of them but have yet to review all the films.

These stories are broken down into seasons, in the order of spring, summer, fall and winter.

The first tale is Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption, also a film named simply "Shawshank Redemption", narrated by an inmate named Red and his involvement with the rough life of a prison inmate and its corruption among the guards and wardens, but also a story of a man falsely accused of a double murder, Andy Dufresne. The book has some hard-to-read graphic parts but overall is entertaining. I did enjoy the first person narrative through most of it.

The second story is The Apt Pupil, also made into a film with Ian McKellan, about a high school student who becomes fascinated with the Nazis. In his search he finds at a former war criminal is living in his neighborhood. Ironic that this man has avoided capture by Nazi hunters for decades, only to be found out by a teenager. The teenager is told of the real atrocities of the war to a degree where he begins to change, loses his innocence (if he had any at all) and both the war criminal and the teenager embark on a path of horror.

The third story, made into the film "Stand By Me" is called "The Body", an apparent coming of age story of four boys who discover the whereabouts of a dead boy hit by a train. The adventure begins with them getting there, what happens when they are discovered, and where are they now, told in first person by one of the boys who is now a famous novelist. The story is realistic, but peppered with a lot of vulgar language (just an observation, not a criticism).

The last tale is mysterious - a man makes his way to a "men's club" that is way more than it seems. It's broken down into four parts where we meet the narrator, find out a bit about him and his lonely life, discover a large room where stories are told and the results of that tale. It's a story within a story and the ending is a bit anti-climatic to me at least. As far as I know, this last story was not adapted to film.

Ever since Stephen King's "Green Mile" I've been interested in reading more of his stories. These are relatively quick reads with a dictionary handy and make for interesting reads while riding the streetcar to work. Recommended.

Made to Films:

The Shawshank Redemption (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Stand by Me (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]
Apt Pupil

( )

Different Seasons is a collection of four novellas by Stephen King that the author himself thought hard to publish because of their length as they are somewhere in the range between a short story and a novel. Each story is assigned to a different season, which I thought was quite a nice idea to structure the collection. I will review each of the four novellas separately to do them more justice.

"Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption"
The first novella in Different Seasons is “Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption“. Narrated by protagonist Andy Dufresne's fellow prison inmate Red, the story gives an account of Andy Dufresne's life in prison. Dufresne, a banker, was convicted for the double murder of his wife and her lover, which he claimed to be innocent of. As readers we follow his rough start of rape and abuse in prison to his final ascent to power in the hierarchy of the penitentiary.

"Apt Pupil"
"Apt Pupil", the second novella in the book, is centered around protagonist Todd Bowden, initially a good student and generally a curious boy. The story starts with Todd confronting German immigrant Arthur Denker at the latter's doorstep with his Nazi past. Arthur Denker is actually Kurt Dussander, a former SS officer and Nazi war criminal. While everything starts with Todd blackmailing Dussander into telling him stories about Dussander's role as a commander in a concentration camp the relationship slowly starts to shift to Dussander being the one pressuring Todd Bowden. I found the exploration of the abyss of the human mind at the example of the two characters in this story particularly frightening and seeming all too real and plausible. The novella gave me shudders at various points and made me come away highly thoughtful and profoundly disturbed after each reading session.

"The Body"
This story is a rare case where I have seen the movie first and read the story afterwards. The movie is actually the reason I wanted to read the story and bought this collection. I have to say that I liked the book as much as I liked the movie as it expresses a certain youthful carelessness and freedom which I sometimes miss being an adult. So what is the story about? Summed up briefly, four friends hear about a dead body in the woods near the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. They decide to go and see it and in addition to relating their adventure the story explores the boys' different personal backgrounds. The whole story is told in retrospect by one of the boys who was twelve at the time and is now a grown-up and the only one of the four who is still alive.

"The Breathing Method"
The fourth novella in the collection is probably the most classical King horror. On the surface it is about an unmarried woman, Sandra, who is pregnant. As the story is set in the 1930s this a big issue as society is still very critical about 'illegitimate' children. Her doctor, however, is quite forward-thinking and treats her like any other patient, maybe even better as he admires her courage and her way of dealing with her situation. He suggests a breathing method, which was also unusual in the thirties, to help her through childbirth. When on a wintry December night Sandra is in the final stages of her labor she takes a cab to the hospital. Right in front of the hospital the cab crashes into an ambulance and Sandra is decapitated in the accident. However, her body mysteriously still continues to breathe until her doctor can deliver the child. Oh, and her head is still able to thank the doctor, in case you were wondering. On another level, the story might be about a mysterious men's club where this story within the story is narrated on a night before Christmas. I have not quite figured out what to make of this, though.

I enjoyed this collection of novellas a lot. As I am generally drawn by King's stories my rating of four stars might be a bit biased, but then again stories in this book have been turned into quite successful movies. I found Stephen King's assessment of his own writing quite witty and maybe an explanation for my (and so many other people's) literary cravings:

"Most of [my novels] have been plain fiction for plain folks, the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and a large fries from McDonald's."

( )

In this collection, we get to take part of four different novellas; one for each season of the year.

For spring, there's Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption that tells the story of two convicted men, one guilty, one innocent, and how their partnership slowly becomes a friendship as they together dream about escaping the prison once and for all.

Apt Pupil is the summer tale about a young boy who finds a taste for brutal violence after he befriends a neighbour who turns out to be an old Nazi soldier in hiding. He blackmails the old man into telling him all about the evil deeds of the Nazis, and even though they leave him with vicious nightmares, something inside of him keeps coming back for more.

In the season of red and yellow leaves, The Body lets us follow four boys on their journey to find the dead body of Ray Bower. But the thought of seeing a dead body for the first time quickly becomes less exciting as the adventure turns out to be more grim than they'd ever thought.

As a round up with snow and Christmas tales, a couple of old men gather at a mysterious club in The Breathing Method to tell each other stories. This time it's for a haunting story about a woman determined to give birth, no matter what.

As usual, Stephen King manages to keep the reader spellbound with his amazing writing. There is not one bad story in the book, even though they are all so different. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is a classical story about prisoners longing for freedom in a way that reminds me of The Green Mile a lot whilst Apt Pupil is a nightmare story about how evil can be found even in the smallest, seemingly most adorable and gentle children. My boyfriend adviced me to read Apt Pupil with a warning along the words of, ”It's the most terrifying fucking story I have ever read”. As someone who has read American Psycho, I don't whole-heartedly agree but maybe half-heartedly. It is really a scary process the child goes through during the novella; as well as the old Nazi.

I have read The Body before and it's one of my favourite stories of all times. I have so much love for it; the characters, the story, the narrative, the descriptions, the locations... everything. I can relate to Gordie and Chris so much, Teddy and Vern as well, but especially Gordie and Chris. It makes the story emotional to read, even more so than it probably would've been even if I couldn't see myself in them. It's hard to find the right words to describe what I feel for The Body because I honestly feel there's none. It just is.

I said there were no bad stories in the collection but if I'd have to point out one, it'd be The Breathing Method. It felt unfinished in a lot of ways and I had a hard time keeping my focus and interest in the story. There should have been more about the mysterious club itself as there was too much to just be a background detail but also too little to be a proper part of the story itself. However, the story told was amazing. I really enjoyed that one. But honestly? I'd rather seen that story being told as the main story rather than a story within a story. ( )

... ( )

In realtà ho letto soltanto il racconto che dà il titolo al libro - da cui era stato tratto un film commovente con River Phoenix. Stephen King avrebbe potuto essere uno scrittore anche senza l'horror, almeno così sembra da questo racconto. ( )

"The Breathing Method" **2 STARS**

I really saw no point to this story. The only exciting moment was the very end. ( )

"The Breathing Method" **2 STARS**

I really saw no point to this story. The only exciting moment was the very end. ( )

"Different Seasons" is probably my favorite collection of SK novellas.
"Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" is so beautiful. Andy Dufrense is sent to Shawshank for murdering his cheating wife and her lover, only he's innocent. He meets Red, who actually is guilty of murder. Red is the go to guy who can get you things in prison, and over the years he gets a few things for Andy: rock polishing tools, a poster of Rita Hayworth. The ending is just brilliant.
"Apt Pupil" is quite frightening, actually. A teenage boy named Todd figures out his neighbor was a Nazi during WW2 and insists he describe to him, in graphic detail, all the atrocities he committed.
"The Body" is the one the movie "Stand By Me" is based on. It's actually a very sweet story about childhood friendships. Four young boys who are all misfits in some way decide to go hunt for a dead body rumored to be in the woods by the railroad tracks. Supposedly SK saw a dead body when he was just a kid and was traumatized by it, and that gave him the basis for this story.
And finally. "Breathing Method", about a woman who is determined to give birth to her baby no matter what. All in all a solid collection of stories. ( )