Four Past Midnight is a collection containing the following "short" stories:1. The Langoliers (233 pages)2. Secret Window, Secret Garden (146 pages)3. The Library Policeman (195 pages)4. The Sun Dog (149 pages)Generally speaking, Stephen King begins with amazing concepts that are soon dragged down by poor execution. To make it more fun, look for the following the next time you read a King novel and see how many you can find:- FLAT, IMPARTIAL TONE. Whether he is describing the main character's morning routine or the final climactic moment where he or she is on the verge of death, battling a fierce supernatural creature, King just takes it all down like a courtroom stenographer. He sprinkles in some flashy similes, occasional pop culture references and, rarely, a few words of truly good writing, but these bits and pieces stand out against a bland background. It is easy to picture him coming up with one such gem suddenly in the shower, at the only moment when he isn't actually trying, and racing across the house, naked and soapy, to jot it down before he can forget it again. - REDUNDANCY. After rinsing and drying off, King lovingly coddles his favourite inventions. He uses and reuses words, phrases, references, and concepts among his books and there's nothing wrong with that, per se, but he will also use the same word or phrase multiple times in a paragraph or even in a sentence.- SELF-REFERENCE. It might not happen in every story, but King tends to reference his own works a fair bit. You can decide for yourself whether this is actually witty or just egotistical. - UNREALISTIC DIALOGUE. Spoken ideas are not constructed the same way as ideas that are written down... unless you're a character in a King novel. King's character dialogue is more or less just like the surrounding narration, which makes his characters sound scripted. - STORY ABOUT A WRITER. King's books are almost always about authors. If the main character is not an author, another significant character will be.- UNECESSARY MONSTERS. King loves to invent monsters for his stories, but they aren't usually necessary. It is much more thrilling to imagine familiar creatures and objects acting strangely or violently than it is to watch monsters, which one would naturally expect to behave that way. It is also disruptive because King's monsters tend to be complex, sparsely-described, and in a constant state of metamorphosis, making it extremely difficult to form a mental image of them.- KNOWLEDGE WITH NO LOGICAL SOURCE. Rather than take the time to construct a path for the characters to obtain knowledge in a reasonable way, King relies almost completely on intuition and gut feelings, psychic connections between people, the influence of supernatural objects or beings, and tremendous leaps in logic.- DEUS EX MACHINA. When it looks like all the character's problems are about to be over, but you're only halfway through the book's length, hold on to your pants - a supernatural force is about to seize control and knock the story back on track. On the other side of the coin, if it all looks hopeless for the characters, then someone is probably about to win the battle by spontaneously obtaining knowledge, as mentioned before.- RAPID AGING. Being a character in a story falling under the genre of thriller or horror is understandably stressful, but King's characters take it especially hard. Watch for characters whose hair turns white or grey overnight or who otherwise display outward signs of having had several years taken off of their lives during the course of the story due to trauma.[WARNING: THE REST OF THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.]_______________________________________________________________________The following reviews contain examples of the above listed, spoilers, and a fair bit of bashing._______________________________________________________________________THE LANGOLIERS:The writer in The Langoliers is Jenkins and he is also the main character gaining knowledge with no logical source. Jenkins explains just about every aspect of the characters' situation with theories based on his experience in writing mystery novels. Fact and fiction collide every time he opens his mouth but, for the most part, the other characters buy right into it. The only thing more maddening than their incredible suspension of disbelief is how Jenkins always manages to be right, even though most of his ideas seem to come from nowhere and can hardly be justified by the "I've written a lot of stories" excuse. Dinah also knows too much, coming to a variety of her own conclusions using intuition or by spontaneously gaining knowledge. She can also hear the langoliers long before anyone else can, can look through other people's eyes, and appears as an apparition because, in this story universe, being blind apparently gives you superpowers.Overall, it is difficult to take The Langoliers seriously. The dialogue isn't bad, for a King novel, but the character relationships, the plotline, and the actual premise of the story are heavily contrived. The story generally lacks substance and contains two especially painful bits. The first is that Albert has an imaginary alter-ego - Ace Kaussner, the fastest Jew west of the Mississippi. This could have been cute if the character were a little kid with a vivid imagination, but why is a seventeen-year-old, college-bound individual who is sound of mind and described as being "fiercely bright" wandering around leaking out so much cheese? The second is a bit of stumbling prolongation: after successfully passing through the rip in space-time, one would expect the characters to find themselves back in the normal world. Instead, King forces the suspense to pointlessly continue several more pages with the justification that time somehow hasn't caught up with the characters yet. It is as if King could tell the story was lacking something and was afraid to end it, but didn't know how to fix the problem.The langoliers, themselves, are King's typical difficult-to-imagine, vicious-without-a-cause critters. Their nature is largely explained by the only character in the story who isn't of sound mind. They aren't terribly impressive to read about and the story would probably have been better without them. SECRET WINDOW, SECRET GARDEN:Secret Window, Secret Garden was easily the best story in this collection. Perhaps it was only a fluke, but King managed to compose a story that was thrilling without involving a steaming pile of surreal fantasy and bad logic. The writing was very tight. Every aspect of the story is explained, though the reader still must suffer a minor touch of deus ex machina: just as Mort is about to kill Amy, Evans seems to appear out of nowhere to rescue her. His reasons for being there are later explained, but it is still a bit thin, especially when you consider that he made himself known at the last possible second and not before, allowing Mort to do some serious damage. This point aside, King ties up all the loose ends quite nicely. The main character is still a writer, but the characters aren't bad, the dialogue could be worse, and there is an utter lack of poorly-constructed monsters. Secret Window, Secret Garden was actually a good story, though King was one-upped by the movie version, which had a much-improved ending - it made more sense, it was cleaner, it cut out the dull epilogue, and it was both creepier and more memorable. THE LIBRARY POLICEMAN:Sam is the writer in this story - the reason he visits the library in the first place is to check out some books to help him compose a speech. Fortunately, the speech is not included in the story, which is dull enough on its own. The real meat of it is contained in the forty pages or so that Dave spends explaining everything. Even though he was apparently completely sotted the entire time he was interacting with Ardelia and even though his knowledge of what she really was is extremely limited, Dave manages to give a very detailed account of his dealings with her and is absolutely certain of what's going to happen next. After Dave is finished pulling (correct) explanations out of his hat, Sam defeats the monster, relying entirely on intuition. His method and its origins are completely outlandish, but the best idea to defeat a monster in a King novel is apparently to just have no idea what you're doing while you're doing it. Basically everything surrounding Dave's story and Sam's face-off with the monster is filler. In addition to being difficult to form a mental image of, the monster turns out to be a pretty big let-down, since the creature receives a very great deal of build-up for how brief the final battle is and how little it manages to fight back. This story probably would have been better if King had invested more in the library policeman and the idea that it could be a real being and less in Ardelia. These were really creatures of two different stories who somehow got thrown in together to fight over the spotlight.THE SUN DOG:The Sun Dog starts off as being downright chilling, but starts to go downhill when the dog in the photographs begins morphing unnecessarily into yet another poorly-described monster. The dog monster's origins and motivations remain completely unexplored throughout the course of the story and this is no great loss, but the final show-down between Kevin and the monster is awkward, at best. Rather than having the dog lunge spectacularly out of an image, King dives into a bizarre metaphor for child labor. In the process, he melts a camera, kills a man in an indeterminate way, and stretches the size of a photograph far beyond the limits of the reasonable. Kevin defeats the monster thanks to a little dose of sourceless knowledge - after a series of nightmares, he knows that Pops still has the camera. He doesn't have a hunch or want to check to soothe his nerves, he just KNOWS, even though he destroyed the camera, himself. After finding that Pops does, indeed, still have the camera in his possession, Kevin knows exactly how to defeat the dog monster with no explanation at all. The predictable ending to this story was for Kevin to take a picture of the dog monster to return it to the Polaroid world and then destroy the camera. For once, it was a let-down to see a story behave unpredictably. When Kevin takes the monster's picture, it randomly turns to stone and then falls back through the photograph it was born of, which smolders dramatically away into nothing. Father and son share a mushy moment of poor dialogue and then we get a painful epilogue in which a completely unrelated electronic device threatens Kevin, telling him that the dog monster is alive and well and angry. Wow.
I borrowed this indiscriminately from a friend in anticipation of a long Greyhound bus ride (uncannily similar behavior to that of John Shooter, a character in the second novella of four within this volume). Seeing the name on the cover, I knew it would at least hold my interest, if not contain some real storytelling gold. I was mostly correct. The novellas in "Four Past Midnight" certainly keep the reader going and, with varying levels of depth, one finds that they remember these stories after reading them, for one reason (they are often frieghtening) or the other (they're simply well- written and, in the case of one, quite three-dimensional and relatable). Whoever chose the order in which these stories would be presented chose correctly; "The Langoliers" is the best of the four novellas, and it's pasted right on the front to start things off with a compelling bang. I find it at best bothersome and at worst troubling that King's work is always lumped in as "horror"- certainly SOME of it is horror, but not "The Langoliers", I'd argue. There's a very erratic, very insane character whose inner monologue often dominates the story. There's a little blind girl with extrasensory perception. And there are monsters, sort of, at the very end. However, I'd classify this story much more readily as adventure or suspense, or fantasy- more of these elements are present. A dozen or so passengers of a plane awaken to discover everyone else on the flight has disappeared; this is just the beginning, and as the layers of the normal world are slowly peeled away, the complexity and depth of the plot and characters saunters on in a well-paced manner. I find myself in awe of King's character development here. He manages to introduce healthy, comfortable dimensions for almost the entire dozen passengers, and does so with ease. The story's tension almost seems to build on its own. However exciting, though, the elements present here, I'll repeat, are much more like suspense and fantasy than horror. This is excusable for two reasons: marketing required the lumping in order to sell all four stories together, and it's good anyways so nobody cares. The second tale, "Secret Window, Secret Garden", was clearly the weakest of the four, which is what makes it most surprising that this was the one that was chosen to be adapted to screen first. It was packaged, processed, rewritten entirely, chewed up and spit out by hollywood with a snappy trailer, some eerie music, and Johhny Depp with a sexy haircut. This made it successful; however, it didn't add anything to the intrigue of the film or it's source material. The story, while admittedly expertly crafted, comes across as rather slow and boring. It's pretty short too, which may add to the feeling upon finishing it of "what even HAPPENED in that story?" The answer seems to be, not much. I was less annoyed by the ending (which many readers and viewers of the film found to be a cop-out) than I was of the dull content, however well-paced it was. Stephen King could make a story about paint drying satisfactorily compelling. To adapt an old Shakespearean standby, Not all novels are Stephen King, but not all Stephen King is "The Drawing of the Three" (that book, to be fair, is MY favorite, not necessarily his widely considered best).Ahh, the Library Policeman! As the horror stuff of this book goes, this one hits the nail on the head; if "The Langoliers" is the best of the book, this one is a close second. Tension, imagery, character, even a bit of romance- all the correct ingredients are there, and King knows how to stir the pot just right. His "twists" aren't the kind that make you gasp- they're the kind that make you, at first, go "really?", and then later, go "wow." He takes settings, characters, plots in directions you never would've expected them to go. Here's a fun game- read twenty pages of a King story, and try to guess which character'll be most developed by the end. It's impossible; he almost always "pulls a fast one", as if he decided halfway through that this or that character seemed more interesting then the one he'd had lined up to star the show. He's always right, and consequently, these "sneaky" main characters are often the best ones. In the case of "The Library Policeman", the sneaky character is Dirty Dave. In "The Sun Dog", the final story, Pop Merill is such a character, and he delivers delightfully as a wonderful love-to-hate kind of character. The Sun Dog, while somewhat less effective than its predecessor, has its roots deep in the horror genre (think "Cujo" plus that "Goosebumps" book with the evil camera). Clearly, for the spooky stuff, you wanna flip to the later half of the book. However, no story will REALLY disappoint, I can guarantee.Despite how they sound, it's always a pleasure reading King. However, it's not a surprise it took him a few years to get major publication. Imagine having to pitch some of these stories: about an evil librarian (a SERIOUS story, mind you!) or an Evil camera that...takes pictures of a dog. Nonetheless, bravo. Worth checking out, long bus ride or no.
What do You think about Four Past Midnight (1991)?
The overall theme of this collection, whether Stephen King realizes it or not, is that lazy little sin we call sloth. If you're a no-account layabout, the Langoliers will come and eat you up. If you're too lazy to write your own material, John Shooter might come calling. Can't be bother to take back that library book? Here comes the Library Policeman to suck you dry. And if you wanna make a fortune not by working but by profiting off other people's misfortune, the Sun dog might make you a Scooby snack.I do have a personal favorite here, along with a personal story for each of these short novels, but I must ask your pardon, because both shall remain a mystery. Two of these books bring back memories of people whom I'd rather not name. I will be obtuse when mentioning them, perhaps not telling you even as much as their sex. Let the rumor mill run. The Langoliers - Five stars. Craig Toomy is one of King's classically flawed characters . All too often King writes about over-the-top baddies of both the supernatural and real-world variety. Where Toomy deviates from King's normal build is that you actually feel bad for him. He was a little boy raised by a tyrannical father. Then his over-protective mother stepped in. If there's a recipe to build a sociopath, I don't know a better one. The tale itself is fantastic and fantastical, with a clear theme. Seize the day, or something is liable to run away with it.Secret Window, Secret Garden - I have a very special memory attached to the movie version of this one. That memory involves activities in a movie theater. I still haven't seen the end of the film adaptation, and I don't plan to. I'd much rather remember what happened in that theater. The book itself is a kind of fraternal twin of The Dark Half. To tell you why would be to spoil the book, and I will not. Suffice it to say that Secret Window, Secret Garden will always be an important story to me and one of King's twistier tales. Five balls of gas for this one, too.The Library Policeman - This is probably my favorite horror novella from King. It's his creepiest by far, and I believe that the creature herein shares several traits with Derry's infamous dancing clown. The mystery element is handled well, and the denouement is one of King's best. Five easy stars.The Sun Dog - I was fine until I got to this story. I cannot read or speak about it without crying. The story itself is not a tear jerker (far from it), it's the emotional baggage I carry, events in my life that just happened to go down while I was reading this book for the first time. The Sun Dog is an extended prologue to Needful Things, and if you want to travel down a long and windy road, I suggest starting with The Dark Half, moving to The Sun Dog, and then finally coming to a stop at the end of Needful Things. One helluva journey, if you ask me. (I miss you, my friend. I miss you so fucking much. When these moments pass, I'm good for a while. But when that wound is reopened, I bleed. And, goddamn it, does it hurts.) All the stars. In summation: To the average reader, this collection might not seem as good as Different Seasons, but to me, it means so much more than the words on the page. And, while I sit here remembering and swiping at my eyes, I'm returned to a time best forgotten. I will always fondly remember the back row of a cinema in Montgomery, Alabama, but I will also forever wish I could have a certain friend back. So there's some pleasure with the pain, and not one without the other. Final Judgment: Who stole the Kleenex?
—Edward Lorn
I thoroughly enjoyed this compilation of Kings, it had the perfect cheesiness that is Sai King. I know some may not like his stuff and say that his work goes to you, not you to it, and somehow that makes his writing terrible? Sure, sure - you're just a scaredy cat who can't take the boogeyman. Admit it - go on, do it. I'll wait...Done?OK, good. Here's the low down:The Langoliers...How cheesy was this? People wake up on a a plane with the rest of the passengers gone, disappeared. All that's left is their personal belongings, even items that belonged...inside their bodies. I watched this movie when I was a kid and remember it being somewhat terrifying (because massive pac-mans were eating up everything in existence), now as an adult I couldn't help but laugh at it. The story itself was entertaining, you could say that it was classic King. The story alone deserves at least three stars.Secret Window/Secret GardenI'll keep this one short: I thought the story was very predictable, I could see coming a mile away. Yet another of King's works that was made into a movie, with Depp no less, and even the movie I thought was tame and very predictable. Two and half stars for this sucker.The Library PolicemanI would say this was my favorite of all the stories in this collection. It just had a very intriguing plot to it, although, leave it to King to throw in a brutal rape scene. Jeez, when you're listening to this on audio it makes you want to puke your pants, which I didn't, but you can imagine....OK, maybe don't do that. A local guy making a speech at the rotary club wants to really 'wow' the crowd so he goes to the library for some help, there he meets the 'librarian'.... or is it? Cue the dramatic music!! Things go terribly wrong from there.The Sun DogI won't say much about this one, why? Because I didn't really like it, it had no intrigue. Not for me anyway, and I liked the video game Fatal Frame, which is also about a "ghostly camera". I think I may have steam-rolled through this one, there wasn't much about it that made it memorable for me. Maybe another go around in the future, but for now that's how I feel.All in all, I enjoyed this one.
—Jason P
It took me awhile to get through this re-read, simply because I'd been squeezing the individual stories in between other books.But this was a fantastic journey once again. Four quite different stories, each had a definite touch of creepiness. "The Langoliers", "Secret Window, Secret Garden", "The Library Policeman", and "The Sun Dog" make up this collection. While each had different types of characters and settings, they all had one thing in common: the thin fabric between reality and unreality. For just a little while, we readers were able to peek with the characters and see a glimpse of the other side.
—Chris
