Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Many people who write about horror literature maintain that mood is its most important element. King disagrees: “My deeply held conviction is that story must be paramount…All other considerations are 2ndary–theme, mood, even characterization & language.”

These fine stories, each written in what King calls “a burst of faith, happiness & optimism,” prove his point. The theme, mood, characters & language vary, but throughout, a sense of story reigns supreme. Nightmares & Dreamscapes contains 20 short tales–including several never before published–plus one teleplay, one poem & one nonfiction piece about kids & baseball that appeared in the New Yorker. The subjects include vampires, zombies, an evil toy, man-eating frogs, the burial of a Cadillac, a disembodied finger & a wicked stepfather. The style ranges from King’s well-honed horror to a Ray Bradbury-like fantasy voice to an ambitious pastiche of Raymond Chandler & Ross MacDonald. And like a compact disc with a bonus track, the book ends with a charming little tale not listed in the table of contents–a parable called “The Beggar & the Diamond.”–Fiona Webster