Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King

Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There was a time, several years ago, when I would not read anything by Stephen King. He had a reputation of writing horror books, and, well, I'm not into horror stories. Catching a glimpse of The Shining, the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie based on King's book of the same name didn't help. If you've seen Kubrick's version, you understand; it's not something to watch if horror isn't your thing.

But several years ago, I viewed Dolores Claiborne (the 1995 movie featuring Kathy Bates as Dolores), and decided to read the book.

"Okay," I thought, "maybe it's time to give King a second chance."

That chance came with 11/22/63, back in 2017; this is truly an amazing book.

After recently watching the 2001 movie treatment of Hearts in Atlantis for the umpteenth time, and mentioning that I needed to read the book, my youngest handed me his copy.

"I think you'll like it," he told me.

Hearts in Atlantis is made up of five interconnected stories: "1960: Low Men in Yellow Coats," "1966: Hearts in Atlantis," "1983: Blind Willie," "1999: Why We're In Vietnam," and "1999: Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling". The first two stories - Low Men... and Hearts... - make up the bulk of Hearts in Atlantis. However, the other three stories fill in many gaps, tying up loose ends and giving closure.

For those who've seen the movie, featuring Anthony Hopkins, the movie follows "Low Men in Yellow Coats" fairly closely, with a couple of extra bits from the last couple of stories.

While reading Low Men, one can picture the movie (if one has watched it), seeing where the movie differs. The movie doesn't ruin the reading, any more than reading the book would ruin the movie. (Spoiler alert: at the end of this first story, Bobby gets into trouble, something not shown in the movie.)

The other four stories within the book follow other characters, with the last story (Heavenly Shades) bringing Bobby and Carol - who now goes by a different name, for reasons brought out in the other three stories - back together.

The paperback version of Hearts in Atlantis is 672 pages, not quite as long as some of Stephen King's other books, but not quite a quick one-day read. But if you're looking for a great read, this is it.

And, for the record, my son was wrong. I don't like this book; I love it.

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