Different Seasons
by Stephen King
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Read in July, 2008
I picked this collection of stories up because I was curious to see how various stories have been adapted to the big screen. It just so happens that the basis of two of the best movies ever made, The Shawshank Redemption and <u>Stand By Me<u> were based on the stories, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", and "The Body," both found in this collection. Another story, "Apt Pupil," was also made into a film, but I have yet to see it. After ...more
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Read in June, 2008
An unconventional Stephen King book, this is a collection of four novellas, three of which have been made into some of the more well-received King films. The books falls really between three and four stars, but I thought it was closer to four and rounded in that direction.
The first novella is Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption--which of course became the film the Shawshank Redemption. This is a solid story, though the movie may actually be superior to the written word in this rare in...more
The first novella is Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption--which of course became the film the Shawshank Redemption. This is a solid story, though the movie may actually be superior to the written word in this rare in...more
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Read in January, 2004
recommends it for:
anyone who likes Stephen King, or anyone who doesn't like horror (please see review)
"Different Seasons" is a collection of 4 novellas by Stephen King. It is not typical King fare - none of these novellas fall into the "horror" genre that King is so well-known for.
The book starts out with "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," which is absolutely superb. If you liked the movie, you will like the novella. It's one of King's best non-horror pieces, in my opinion; the film version is also (again, in my opinion) the best adaptation of any of...more
The book starts out with "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," which is absolutely superb. If you liked the movie, you will like the novella. It's one of King's best non-horror pieces, in my opinion; the film version is also (again, in my opinion) the best adaptation of any of...more
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Read in February, 1998
recommended to Beau by:
Adamrecommends it for: practically anyone
I first read this book when I was at a lousy college in Oregon. A friend of mine was into Stephen King, and I'd just discovered that I liked him, and I plowed through all of this guy's King books in a semester, including The Stand.
This book has stuck with me the most, and it is the one I keep returning too. While the fourth "Season" The Breathing Method, never did anything for me, the other three stories in it, Apt Pupil, The Body (Stand By Me), and Shawshank, are astounding. ...more
This book has stuck with me the most, and it is the one I keep returning too. While the fourth "Season" The Breathing Method, never did anything for me, the other three stories in it, Apt Pupil, The Body (Stand By Me), and Shawshank, are astounding. ...more
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Read in September, 1990
recommends it for:
Someone who likes good stories
"Is horror all you write?" is the second most frequent question Stephen King encounters, (most frequent question: "Where do you get your ideas?") he tells us in the Afterward to this superlative quartet of novels. Although he is by now a world-class grand master of the horrific, he resists entombment in that genre. That he can transcend horror is proved triumphantly in these four works. At the same time, nobody in search of the utterly distinctive King brand of ...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Prison inmates, war criminals, summer friends and single mothers.
Different Seasons is a collection of 4 novellas, each set in a different season. The stories do not interlink except for a few minor references to each other here and there.
The most notable thing that will first hit you upon reading is that none of the stories are horror, as you may have expected from Stephen King. What you get are four beautifully crafted individual stories. However, it must be said that each story still does hint upon certain 'horror aspects', but I believe this to only be...more
The most notable thing that will first hit you upon reading is that none of the stories are horror, as you may have expected from Stephen King. What you get are four beautifully crafted individual stories. However, it must be said that each story still does hint upon certain 'horror aspects', but I believe this to only be...more
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recommends it for:
even people who don't like Stephen King
This is my favorite of King's books. That's probably because it has my favorite story ("The Body") that my favorite movie (Stand By Me) was based on. It's an amazingly emotional story with no actual horror in it. The movie is all based around the character of Gordy. The story, though, is more based around Chris, even though it's still told from Gordy's point of view. Makes for a completely different experience, and actually a better one.
"Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemptio...more
"Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemptio...more
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this is king's best work.
i'm a big fan of short stories, but the works in different seasons are too long to qualify. i guess they're "novellas" but for some inexplicable reason i never liked that word, so i'll just say that this is a book of 4 pieces that are each somewhere between a short story and a short novel.
you've probably seen at least one of the movies that was adapted from the stories here. Stand By Me is the film version of the story The Body. The Shawshank Redempt...more
i'm a big fan of short stories, but the works in different seasons are too long to qualify. i guess they're "novellas" but for some inexplicable reason i never liked that word, so i'll just say that this is a book of 4 pieces that are each somewhere between a short story and a short novel.
you've probably seen at least one of the movies that was adapted from the stories here. Stand By Me is the film version of the story The Body. The Shawshank Redempt...more
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Read in April, 2001
recommends it for:
Literary readers, King fans
Different Seasons is a collection of four short novels that prove the diversity of Stephen King’s writing. Apt Pupil follows an American teen who discovers an escaped Nazi lives in his town and antagonizes him until he shares what that time of hatred was like, unsettlingly showing that all the evil in the hearts of Germans sixty years ago can live in ours today. The Body is the other side of the coin, a story of friendship and bonding between boys who adventure to see a co...more
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Read in July, 2007
Stephen King at his best.
This version contained an epilogue I either hadn't read or had forgotten. King talks about being pigeonholed as a horror writer (and being OK with that), but that he has non-horror tales to tell. Three of his best are in here.
There are a great, great many bad Stephen King movies out there. But two of the best -- Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me -- come from the poignant tales in this book. Even if you think King writes pulp crap -- and he sometimes does -- yo...more
This version contained an epilogue I either hadn't read or had forgotten. King talks about being pigeonholed as a horror writer (and being OK with that), but that he has non-horror tales to tell. Three of his best are in here.
There are a great, great many bad Stephen King movies out there. But two of the best -- Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me -- come from the poignant tales in this book. Even if you think King writes pulp crap -- and he sometimes does -- yo...more
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King's delve into non-horror: though that may not be the correct term, because uncanny and supernatural fits under this genre quite nicely- all of them are that- the last one "Winter's Tale (The Breathing Method) the only one that really has the supernatural element. All are wrenching. And that's what King's gift is- what's made him the "Dickens" of our time in some circles- his ability to rise above such mundane terms and wars such as literary v. commercial, etc.
"The Br...more
"The Br...more
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Read in January, 2004
recommends it for:
Anyone
This book consists of four different stories - each representing a different season (obviously). The reason I think it is so great is becuase two of the four stories were made into two of my favorite movies of all time. "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" (became the movie The Shawshank Redemption), and "The Body" (became the movie Stand by Me). The stories are great - and for me was a bit of a reversal in having seen the movies numerous times only to read the boo...more
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The four novellas in this book are very diverse. Two of them, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" and "The Body" were superb. "The Shawshank Redemption" is one of my favorite movies, and the novella is probably one of my favorite stories. I was also excited that in the novella, you actually find out what crime Red is imprisoned for. "The Body" is a great story of friendship and adventure.
"Apt Pupil" is the main reason this book r...more
"Apt Pupil" is the main reason this book r...more
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Read in June, 2008
My companion had this on a recent backpacking trip... Out of reading material, I began reading this.
Now let me get this straight with y'all -- I'm the biggest baby in the world. I can't watch horror films because I cry, hide, and then have nightmares for days afterwards. I can't even sleep alone after watching/reading something scary. so it was with a little bit of trepidation (and, I'll admit, desperation) that I picked up this book.
The four novellas aren't horror, although they a...more
Now let me get this straight with y'all -- I'm the biggest baby in the world. I can't watch horror films because I cry, hide, and then have nightmares for days afterwards. I can't even sleep alone after watching/reading something scary. so it was with a little bit of trepidation (and, I'll admit, desperation) that I picked up this book.
The four novellas aren't horror, although they a...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Horror fans
This book contains The Shawshank Redemption, The Apt Pupil, The Body, and The Breathing Method. I recall the Shawshank Redemption as being one of the most lasting impressions of my childhood theatrically in its depiction of the cruel life that prisoners face, and the glory at the eventual escape of the protagonist; the book was a near linear recollection of the film for me, and if you have seen the film, you have essentially read the book along with Red's individual narrative. I enjoyed The Apt ...more
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Read in November, 1995
I previously had "The Body" has a separate book, but that isn't how I read it. I read the body as part of the collection Different Seasons. This story made a huge impact on me. First, it solidified me as a Stephen King fan. (speaking of which there are people coughing all around me in the library and I'm getting weirded out - Captain Trips).
I had read a couple of Stephen King before this, but this was the first one I loved. I was fourteen at the time and could really ...more
I had read a couple of Stephen King before this, but this was the first one I loved. I was fourteen at the time and could really ...more
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It's an odd coincidence, but I think the two best Stephen King-inspired movies came from stories in this book. Which is really weird, because "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" and "The Body" are NOT my favorite Stephen King short stories. And yet somehow the movies' creators had the good sense to make as direct a translation from story to screen as they could. In the case of "The Shawshank Redemption" the translation was just about word-for-word.
"Apt ...more
"Apt ...more
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Read in September, 2002
Date read is approximate. My favorite Stephen King book, even if I'd temporarily forgotten the title. This would be 5 stars, except that the final story is nowhere near as good as the first three.
Part of why I like this book is that it shows Stephen King at his most varied--none of the stories are alike. Shawshank is a slow building story with a great ending. The second story is a coming of age tale with some horror in it. The Nazi story is just really creepy, and keeps getting worse as...more
Part of why I like this book is that it shows Stephen King at his most varied--none of the stories are alike. Shawshank is a slow building story with a great ending. The second story is a coming of age tale with some horror in it. The Nazi story is just really creepy, and keeps getting worse as...more
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This collection has two amazing stories, one really good story, and one rather craptastic one. Three out of four ain't bad. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is obviously the story that the movie Shawshank Redemption was based on, and both the novella and the movie are excellent. Same goes for The Body. The script for Stand by Me took a lot of the dialogue from the novella word for word. Apt Pupil is a really horrific story, it kind of breaks up the warm fuzzies you get from the ot...more
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Read in January, 1993
Read this book moving from Cincinnati to Utah. I was in the moving truck and we drove across those states. He must've been lonely as I read, but we were really estranged by that point. I remember briefly talking to him about the book with the notion that he wouldn't/couldn't understand. Couldn't understand why I liked the book or really understand me. Was that a product of my age at the time or a real component of my relationship with my Dad? We've never really gained a relationship since then a...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.94 (5488 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.94 (5045 ratings) number of reviews: 217popular shelves
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"The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a tellar but for want of an understanding ear. "
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