Tracing The Trails Of The King : Different Seasons, part two
As promised, albeit a week later than I had expected originally, here are my thoughts on the remaining stories in Different Seasons. Let’s get right into it!
Apt Pupil is about as chilling as it gets for me in terms of a study of human behavior. What I love the most about The story is how you start out feeling somewhat synoathetic for both characters and by the end there is pretty much no sympathy for either.
The story on one level is a classic examination of how obsession can affect a person. When teenager Todd Bowden finds out that his next door neighbor was a nazi war criminal, he is immediately drawn to the dark and morbid history of the man. With the confirmed knowledge that his neighbor, Arthur Denker was actually known Nazi Karl Dussander, responsible for countless murders at a German war camp, he uses that to blackmail his neighbor. This starts off fairly simply, as Todd demands that he tell him all the gruesome stories about the camps until it gets to the point where Todd actually forces Denker to wear his old uniform and march around his home in formation.
It goes without saying that this intense submersion In such violence and death chips away at the sanity of both men. I don’t want to give too much away here but the relationship between Todd and Denker proceeds to get darker and darker as each find themselves driven to horrendous, violent acts as the reality of their lives descend into madness. As the reader I find myself wondering if these crimes were always present within their two psyches as they managed to bring the worst out in each other? Would there always have been something that triggered their actions and this just happens to be how it works out for them? I’m not sure. On one hand I can feel sorry for Denker because he is literally dragged down this path by Todd, who is pretty much a little bastard from the start. But he has to own the responsibility for what he does, that can’t all be placed on Todd’s shoulders. And while Todd might have benefited from having someone there to help him through some obvious mental and emotional problems, he too makes his own choices and does the things that he does.
Forgive the pun, but the story is an apt blueprint for the simultaneous creation of two monsters. Or maybe it was the awakening of two monsters, already dormant.
As I read some online about this story, I came across an interesting connection with The Shining. Jack Torrence has a number of introspective moments throughout the book in which he is trying to work out a story he had been trying to get down. He refers to one of the central characters by the name Denker. Because of the repeated use of the name, some have theorized that Apt Pupil is actually Torrence’s book. King has not confirmed this but he has stated that he wrote the story immediately after writing The Shining. I don’t always fall along with these kind of fan-fiction tie-ins between his books but I will admit this is a fun one to entertain.
The Breathing Method is the one story from Different Seasons which hasn’t been adapted into a major motion picture. Or, at least to the best of my knowledge it has not yet been made. There have been rumblings over the years about a film but so far not much action.
There isn’t a lot I can say about the story itself without spoiling the ending, but one aspect that I was particularly attracted to was the notion of an exclusive gentleman’s type club, dedicated to the macabre and the supernatural, and that in addition to reading and playing pool and drinking, they pass the time by telling each other stories. Sounds like my kind of place. This club would make another appearance in a later King collection, Skeleton Crew, in The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands. I also thought there were familiar shades in the Chowder Society which appears in Peter Straub’s book, Ghost Story.
I also loved the structure of the story. As with The Body and Shawshank, this was told in the first person but what sets it apart is that you hear it from two different perspectives. The frame story is told by a mid-level lawyer in a prestigious firm who garners an invitation to this exclusive late night club. While there one night, he hears a particularly compelling story told by a doctor and once that story begins, the point of view shifts. It’s the kind of thing that if you were to describe it to your writers group online, you’d likely be shouted out of the room for breaking the “rules”. Despite this, I thought King pulled it off nicely and made it into a compelling narrative technique.
Breathing Method is a perfect example of the importance of the credibility of the narrator. Is the story he tells true? Or is it too fantastic to believe? Personally I find the most entertainment from sitting in that room, feeling like I’m right there along with the others, taking in a great story, true or not.
In a way, it’s kind of a metaphor for the experience of Constant Reader.
Apt Pupil and The Breathing Method might not be the heavy hitters of Different Seasons. It’s hard to make noise when you’re lost in the shadows of giant films like Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. But if I were to match the two stories against each other, I think the B-side actually comes out ahead.
Apt Pupil is my favorite story of the book by far and I think it slightly edges out The Body. And in terms of a complete story and what it brings to the table, I also like Breathing Method just a little bit more than Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption. Don’t get me wrong, they are two of my favorite movies of all time but as I made clear in the first part of this review, the books ain’t the movies.
But don’t take my word for it. Pick yourself up a copy of Different Seasons. See how the chips fall for you. Regardless of which of the four is your favorite, it’s still going to be a great story.
My name is Chad Clark, and I am proud to be a Constant Reader.
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