The most heart-rending book he has ever written?

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Takoren

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Nov 25, 2015
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Awwww... thanks for the hugs blunt. Even though it was many, many years ago at this point, I still bear a few, deep emotional scars. A hug is always nice. :smile2:
I totally get it, right there with you. Even today I assume people I'm just meeting aren't going to like me, that if people are nice to me, it's merely politeness, etc. I kinda resonated with Harold in The Stand for those reasons.

I think the reason I really resonated with Arnie in Christine is that I know what it's like to be bullied all day at school and then come home and be bullied by your parents as well. Seriously, they would sometime bully me about being bullied, as both of them were convinced that no child would ever bully another child unprovoked. I keep wondering if they even really had childhoods.
 

Takoren

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Nov 25, 2015
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Try it again. Mostly snarky neighbour stuff.
Definitely. I'm reading or re-reading all his works in order, short stories included. By that I mean that I'm reading them all (again, short stories included) in the order they were originally published. I'm probably just over two thirds of the way through The Stand (just finished the first Boulder Free Zone public meeting), which is a re-read, and the 40th story down the list. Needful Things is number 100, but I'll get there.
 

doowopgirl

very avid fan
Aug 7, 2009
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Definitely. I'm reading or re-reading all his works in order, short stories included. By that I mean that I'm reading them all (again, short stories included) in the order they were originally published. I'm probably just over two thirds of the way through The Stand (just finished the first Boulder Free Zone public meeting), which is a re-read, and the 40th story down the list. Needful Things is number 100, but I'll get there.
I think you'll enjoy it.
 

carrie's younger brother

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2012
5,428
25,651
NJ
I totally get it, right there with you. Even today I assume people I'm just meeting aren't going to like me, that if people are nice to me, it's merely politeness, etc. I kinda resonated with Harold in The Stand for those reasons.

I think the reason I really resonated with Arnie in Christine is that I know what it's like to be bullied all day at school and then come home and be bullied by your parents as well. Seriously, they would sometime bully me about being bullied, as both of them were convinced that no child would ever bully another child unprovoked. I keep wondering if they even really had childhoods.
Exactly!!!

((((((((Takoren))))))))
 

Arkay Lynchpin

Preserve wildlife; pickle a squirrel.
Dec 4, 2015
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Melbourne, Australia
The most heart-rending book He has ever written?

The one still sitting in the draw.

An Author’s Voice can only offer a modicum of words to help the audience identify with the hurt (too many more and our grey matter would disintegrate with the effort of realization); it’s up to us to know, understand, and feel the rest.
 

sam peebles

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Sep 17, 2008
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Massachusetts
Hearts in Atlantis.

I held this one off for a couple of years, not expecting it to be my cup of tea, nevermind rending my heart. I just wanted a happy ending for those two kids, now grown up, but King--correctly--refused to give me that saccharine and false conclusion. Instead he served me a cold dish of truth and realism.

And he warned me throughout the book that it was coming, but I still didn't see it. They discuss the unhappy ending of Lord of the Flies at length, and Ted mostly shrugs, stating flatly: "It's an ending."
 

AchtungBaby

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Dec 5, 2011
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Quite a few, so I'll make a list... ;-D

  • "Summer Thunder" - gutted me like nothing else I've read from King. Perfect ending to Bazaar.
  • Dark Tower VII
  • Joyland
  • Cujo
  • Hearts in Atlantis
  • "Ayana"
  • "The Things They Left Behind"
  • "The Last Rung On The Ladder"
  • Insomnia
  • Lisey's Story
  • 11/22/63
  • Pet Sematary
  • The Dead Zone
  • "Batman and Robin Have An Altercation"
  • "The Body"
  • Duma Key
    Its theme of total redemption/moving beyond ghosts of the past was something I really needed when I re-read it last.
Think that about covers it.... King knows how to pluck the heart-strings, doesn't he?
 

Patricia A

ReMember
Jul 10, 2006
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There are so many. The first stories that come to mind for me are The Dark Tower VII and The Talisman. Carrie comes to mind too. I was an angsty, shabbily dressed, unpopular teenaged girl when I read it and I felt a simpatico with Carrie. I felt so sorry for her that it took my mind off of feeling sorry for myself for the first time. It also prompted me to understand why mean kids are mean, and I was able to stop being so mad at, and or afraid of them.
I wished better for Carrie, but I knew she wouldn't get it. I had a feeling it was going to end badly for her and cried like a baby when it did.
 

Takoren

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Nov 25, 2015
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Well, I'm on Cujo now. You all were right. It's really working on me. I had the ending spoiled for me, and knowing what's going to happen (I'm about three quarters of the way done) I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle it. Today I read the part where
Tad is playing with the ducks
and found myself a big weepy mess.
 

Quentin36

New Member
Jan 27, 2016
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I haven't read everything Sai King has written, but I recently started a mass read-it-all project and I found myself effected emotionally on a much deeper level when reading 'Salem's Lot than I remember being the first time. Being a dad now might have something to do with it. The deaths of children, especially the baby, really got to me.

But Pet Sematary amps this up to eleven. To me, that's the one that I could barely finish because I could hardly bear Gage's death.

For that matter, I remember The Green Mile causing me to break down in tears in public. I had just read about Coffee's execution. Short stories that made me weep openly include The Last Rung on the Ladder and The Woman in the Room.

So what about you? What book of his did the best job of clefting your heart in twain?
So agree with you on Last Rung on the Ladder. The ending really struck a nerve for me.I love that story even though it makes me sad. ' I knew you would be doing something'.
I found Hearts of Atlantis to be very heart felt as well