Night
Shift by
Stephen King
A collection of twenty short stories from the King of
Horror, Night Shift is a good fit for
anyone without the patience or attention to sit through a whole novel. Most of
these stories were written and sold to various publications in the seventies –
the heyday of King’s writing, in my humble opinion – before being anthologised
in this tome.
Some readers may castigate me for saying this but I prefer
the King’s earlier works – The Shining,
Salem’s Lot, The Dark Half – to his later books – Needful Things, Gerald’s Game. The truth is that I’m not a fan of
his writing style (having being brought up on a diet of British books, I find
his style a little too informal, a little too direct), but there is no denying
the fact that he is a good storyteller. As evidenced from these short stories.
Practically every one (with maybe only 2-3 exceptions) is a gripping tale that
holds the reader tightly without letting out till the end of the story. And
that is why the short story format is great in this instance. Instead of
obsessing over a thick book for 2-3 days and letting normal duties slide, the
short story can be finished within forty minutes to an hour and after that,
you’ll be free to go and handle your daily grind.
Twenty tales is too many for me to introduce so I’m only
going to talk about the six that I like most. If you hate spoilers, stop right
here.
