January 2011's SK Flavor of the Month - Four Past Midnight, The Langoliers; Secret Window, Secret Ga

Hey guys. Sorry this is a little late. I'm trying to finish Poul Anderson's Brain Wave (which I'm reading due to the mention in The Tommyknockers).

This month we have two of the four novellas from Four past Midnight: The Langoliers and Secret Window, Secret Garden.

I remember really liking both of these and am looking forward to rereading them.

I've also been in the mood to watch the movie Secret Window with Johnny Depp.

That was actually a pretty decent flick. When I was a much younger, I remember liking The Langoliers mini-series, but I'm willing to bet it would be hard to watch now. :-)

Looking forward to the new re-reads. I'll probably start them after I finish the Iain M. Banks I am reading.

I'm planning on Netflixing the Langoliers miniseries after I finish the book. All I remember is that Bronson Pinchot played the crazy guy and Stephen King played his dad.

So I started the book last night and read the introductory note out loud to my wife as she was going to sleep (she asked me too, which doesn't say much for my droning voice). Anyway, after I finished it, she said "He can be pretty cheesy, can't he?" and this is from someone who reads Dean Koontz!

I've finished the first chapter of The Langoliers. The remaining passengers have woken up and the captain banged on the cockpit door.

I LOVED the section on the Arizona Jew! Even in his parody of Westerns, he was better than some of the pulpy western authors I read from time to time.

I fell off the King bandwagon and I need to get back on! I only read half of The Tommyknockers and I haven't picked up a King since. I'll make this one of my resolutions...to get my King read!

Hey, you have two months to work on Four Past Midnight. I hope you make it!

I just picked it up from the library I want to say I last read this in high school. So 10~12 years ago. Looking forward to it.

I enjoyed the Johnny Depp movie version of secret window and really disliked the tv miniseries of the Langoliers. Blech!

I'll post something intelligent at some point.

I don't know why I haven't finished The Langoliers already. It's pretty short and very good. I'm almsot done though. The Langoliers have just made their appearance.

Reading the story, does anyone but me find themselves wondering just what King was smoking when he came up with it? The whole thing is just so... bizarre, isn't it? That's not a knock at all. It is original and nobody reading the book through the first time is likely to guess at where it is headed.

Did anybody but me watch the '80's revival of The Twilight Zone? There was a story from there called 'A Matter of Minutes' (the one with the blue construction workers) that is vaguely similar to The Langoliers. Whenever I think of one I tend to think of the other as well.

Urg. Couldn't get into Consider Phlebas on my audio player. I should have known better. Huge dramatic space operas with 50 different non-human names really have to be read by hand. Banks will have to wait until I actually have some free time.

Anyway, so I booted up Four Past Midnight and finished "The Langloliers" in two days... I'm not really sure what to say about this particular novella at the moment. I think it needs more time to digest.

That having been completed, I was not particularly in the mood for "Secret Window, Secret Garden" and skipped over it for the moment in favor of "The Library Police", a story which, at 13, both scared the crap out of me and in at least one instance titillated me greatly. I'll hold thoughts of that until next month though, and will get back on track shortly.

I liked The Langoliers quite a bit. I do think that the make-up of the survivors was a bit... lucky I guess. But that's my only real gripe with it.

Secret Window, Secret Garden is just chugging right along. I don't want to talk too much about it and spoil any of the surprises.

It does read like a sort of half brother to The Dark Half though. Almost like King finished that book but still had some thoughts about writers and writing that he wanted to get off his chest and he whipped up this novella.

Since Secret Window, Secret Garden has he used an author as a main character?

Lisey's story is the closest I can think of but the author is not the main character.

Just finished langoliers. It was much better than I remember. I don't remember the blind girl dying in the movie but then again it's been a long time since I watched it. King seems to have this thing with differently abler folks having special gifts or powers. I am thinking the Stand, Rose Red, etc. I like the characters though.

I would have liked a little more. More backstory or reasons why sleeping saves them, etc. It felt rushed in a way like it could have been a whole novel in it's self. Good though and I am looking forward to Secret Window.

Bag of Bones is another book where the main character is an author.

Well, I finished both now. I'm still not sure what to say about The Langoliers. I enjoyed it in an almost apathetic fashion. When it was done I had almost no feelings what so ever about it, one way or the other. Strange, I rarely leave a King story feeling that way. I don't remember that reaction the first time I read it...

I do agree with Madcow in that I wish there was more explanation. It felt a little empty. But then again, in this kind of story, what can you logically explain? Especially without it running the risk of going all "novel" on him.

SWSG, was quite good. I have not read the book since I was thirteen and I saw the movie in between, of course. Consequently, as I read it, I pictured Johnny Depp and Maria Bello as the main characters (I hate it when that happens!). It was interesting as the plot began to diverge from the film. I wonder if its radical ending change is what inspired Frank Darabont to do something similar in the film version of The Mist? I also enjoyed all the foreshadowing that King wrote in. I don't think I picked up on most of that the first time around, though that may be due to my age at that time.

#12 - I see what you mean about The Langoliers. I liked it for the flat out weirdness of the story, but it was sort of 'what was that all about then?'

The last time I read this collection, I remember it being one of my favorite stories (tied with The Sun Dog). This time out, I much preferred Secret Window, Secret Garden.

I kept picturing Johnny Depp as Mort and John Turturro as Shooter. When I first heard that was who was playing Shooter I thought it was a mistake, but he proved me wrong. I don't remember the different ending. I'll have to watch it again and see.

I think the foreshadowing was excellent. There were a couple of heart stoppers in there. The first mention that Mort was holding a gun. The first time we hear that he might not be so innocent after all.

The end with Ted and Amy visiting the insurance investigator reminded me heavily of that final scene in Psycho, where the psychologist explains what happened. In both cases, it felt sort of tacked on, but (in Secret Window, Secret Garden anyway) there was so much to be explained. And the Dark Half-like twist at the end was a nice finale.

I kinda want to go on and read the next two stories, but I know I won't remember 'em enough later. I think i'll start on Peyton Place instead.

Eh, I already finished the next two as well. I hate to load a book up and then not finish it. Oddly enough, I have to read The Shining as my next book. My Pop Lit prof just assigned it!

After that, I'll finally finish The Windup Girl.

jseger, it's funny you mention Peyton Place. That book is talked about for a paragraph or two by one of the characters in "The Library Policeman"... Is that why you chose it?

I finished Secret Window, Secret Garden. It was fantastic. I had forgotten how different the ending is from the movie version with Depp. I like the book better, obviously. The supernatural/unexplainable part of it at the end is a nice twist and touch by King. The note, the ghost, just excellent. It reminds me of the supernatural part of Bag of Bones. Anyways, I am going to try and get some other things read. Hopefully I can keep this book from the library through February. We'll see.

This makes me want to watch the movie again though and compare all the differences between the two. Finally I am curious if King ever spoke about his own feelings on plagiarism and if he ever had any guilt about his own work? That is, I wonder if the pain of the story has any basis what so ever in real life?

#15 - No. In fact, I don't remember much about The Library Policeman at all, except for the poster of the kid and the steamroller.

I don't remember what pushed me to read Peyton Place (which I'm in the middle of now), but it'll be nice to see the reference when I read The Library Policeman.

#16 - I am curious if King ever spoke about his own feelings on plagiarism and if he ever had any guilt about his own work?

The Wikipedia article on Secret Window, Secret Garden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Window,_Secret_Garden, I was going to make it a pretty link but realized you would just think it was a touchstone!) talks a little about that. A crazy man broke in to King's house when his wife was home alone. He insisted that King stole some of his stories and had a shoebox that he said had a bomb in it. Turned out the box was full of erasers and paperclips.

Huh. No kidding. I learn something new everyday about King. I remember at one point reading about a break in at the King house, in reference to something or another, but I had no idea the extent of the "crazy".

Thanks for mentioning that!

Hey guys. Just wanted the miniseries of The Langoliers. Yeah, it was a low budget TV miniseries with primitive CGI, but it was pretty faithful to the book at any rate.

Coulda been better, but it wasn't bad.

I'm finally reading 'The Langoliers'! I vaguely remember disliking the mini series and I am very sure that I never read the book because of that. What a shame because I'm enjoying it so far. They are in the airport and Dinah is trying to convince them that they need to leave.

I'm so sad that I wasn't much of a reader when my kids were young and I missed so many great books. I am done with the first two stories- better late than never- and am eager to read the next two.

I enjoyed The Langoliers but I kept picturing the mini-series in my mind and that took away from the enjoyment of the story for me.

I really like SWSG. I am iinterested in the whole what -your-mind-does-behind-your-back stories. I saw the movie years ago but it didn't cloud my thinking about the story. I just can't wrap my head around Depp being Mort.

Finally finished the book today--I had never read it before but I had seen both movie adaptations of these two stories. I didn't mind that with "The Langoliers" but it did bother me a little with "Secret Window" since I knew what was going on ahead of time. Still, I enjoyed them both and the book as a whole.