Stagioni Diverse. Con il racconto Stand By Me Ricordo di un'estate (1982 original; edició 1993)

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 ( )

Insieme di racconti che non hanno certo bisogno di presentazione o della mia recensione sicuramente carente. Mi soffermo solo un istante sul racconto che dà il titolo alla raccolta. Dopo la pagina introduttiva, che già di per sé è un piccolo capolavoro, uno dei King migliori si addentra in un ambito a lui assai congeniale. Tratta dell'amicizia, di quella vera, di quella che oggigiorno spesso si sminuisce nel suo profondo significato, di quella che, ben oltre le vicissitudini della vita, come una lenta marea sotterranea, attraversa, potente, tutta la nostra piccola esistenza donandosi e rendendola speciale. Fatta eccezione di It, nulla più di questo racconto potrebbe racchiudere ed esprimere in maniera così perfetta una simile magia. ( )

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 don't remember a lot about this one, beyond the fact that I definitely read it as a teenager.
( )