I think this is a great example of King doing his ensemble pieces/characters extremely well. He manages to give each character their own weight in such a relatively short space.
I wrote in an earlier post that I've read Night Shift many times over the years. Now I must confess, I've always skipped over "Trucks". I do not like this story. Never made it past the first few paragraphs (I did force myself to read it yesterday). Difficult to articulate exactly why, but I'll give it my best shot. It's not the ludicrous premise. At least half the stories in this collection are just as bizarre if not more so. It doesn't stop me from enjoying them. Come to think of it, I've never read Christine either. Sai King is always swinging for the fences, usually with good result. I guess, I just don't dig the whole murderous machines trope (unless said machines were actively designed for murder, then I can enjoy). Chock it up to a failure of imagination on my part, I suppose. Another great review though Shaina! Always a pleasure to read your take.
Your take is how I thought I would react. The silly premise, the murderous machines. But the underlying story just gets me for some reason. Ordinary people trying to survive against the impossible.
I also love the prose in this one. Those last few paragraphs are just right for me.
Because his material mostly doesn't work on screen (unless you have a very talented scriptwriter/director/etc for the adaptation), it's the case with many things, which is why we will never see Ubik. Then again, they say Pet Sematary, the movie is better than the book. True?
Books usually win, hands down when it comes to adaptations because, for one reason or another, the adaptation fails to capture our imagination as the books did... Pet Sematary was pretty good. Both book and film. One can enjoy both.
I think this is a great example of King doing his ensemble pieces/characters extremely well. He manages to give each character their own weight in such a relatively short space.
Agreed Susan. Great characters.
I wrote in an earlier post that I've read Night Shift many times over the years. Now I must confess, I've always skipped over "Trucks". I do not like this story. Never made it past the first few paragraphs (I did force myself to read it yesterday). Difficult to articulate exactly why, but I'll give it my best shot. It's not the ludicrous premise. At least half the stories in this collection are just as bizarre if not more so. It doesn't stop me from enjoying them. Come to think of it, I've never read Christine either. Sai King is always swinging for the fences, usually with good result. I guess, I just don't dig the whole murderous machines trope (unless said machines were actively designed for murder, then I can enjoy). Chock it up to a failure of imagination on my part, I suppose. Another great review though Shaina! Always a pleasure to read your take.
Your take is how I thought I would react. The silly premise, the murderous machines. But the underlying story just gets me for some reason. Ordinary people trying to survive against the impossible.
I also love the prose in this one. Those last few paragraphs are just right for me.
Appreciate the comment as always Ian!
I think I have similar feelings about the machines trope, but now I am curious for read this.
Great write up, Shaina, thanks as always. (Sorry I'm late to this one. Have had a slight Substack backlog in my inbox 😅)
It's amazing this great story became such a terrible, terrible movie.
True of so many King stories! Why are they so bad?!
Because his material mostly doesn't work on screen (unless you have a very talented scriptwriter/director/etc for the adaptation), it's the case with many things, which is why we will never see Ubik. Then again, they say Pet Sematary, the movie is better than the book. True?
No way! I mean, it’s better than a lot of screen adaptations but the book is way better. Of course I usually think that ;)
Books usually win, hands down when it comes to adaptations because, for one reason or another, the adaptation fails to capture our imagination as the books did... Pet Sematary was pretty good. Both book and film. One can enjoy both.
It is a strange phenomenon.