Lovecraft’s style, only much better written than the old master of purple prose. What struck me while reading it was it read like a very good pastiche of H.P. It is written in the epistolary style as a series of letters and diary entries during the month of October, 1850. He wrote it while still in college, but it wasn’t published until 1978. “Jerusalem’s Lot” – The opening story of the collection acts as a (kind of) prequel to King’s 1975 vampire novel Salem’s Lot. Rare PS Publishing edition, illustrated by Dave McKean Which leads us to Night Shift, King’s first collection of short stories. I realize that I’m waffling a bit myself, but I just wanted to say how much I’ve come to prefer King’s shorter works. How about omitting needless pages and pages of backstory, Stephen? No? Well, who am I to argue with one of THE bestselling authors of the last 50 years. In it, King refers to the classic American writing guide, The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and highlights the guideline to “omit needless words.” Of course, it’s all subjective but just imagine if King had applied it more forcibly to his own writing.
I have always thought one of the pieces of advice in his excellent memoir On Writing was ironic. In my review of IT back in May 2020, I complained about King’s penchant for ‘overlong’ writing in some of his doorstoppers. I’ve written about Stephen King before on this blog. “The house was built in unhappiness, has been lived in with unhappiness, there has been blood spilt on its floors, there has been disappearance and accident.” -JERUSALEM’S LOT by Stephen King
0 kommentar(er)
