Four Past Midnight By Stephen King

 Four Past Midnight

By Stephen King

 A collection of four long form stories.

In "The Langoliers" a plane leaves California bound for Boston and experiences as time shift. Several sleeping passenegrs wake to find everyone else has disappeared, leaving behind bits and pieces of their belongings. Those who wake must figure out how to land the plane, and what they discover when they do is horrifying. They have to get back to their own time in one piece.

In "Secret Window, Secret Garden" a divorced writer is menaced by a man claiming the writer plagiarized his story and he wants the writer to admit it. When Mort, the writer, goes about proving the story was his own, a series of calamities is visited on those he knows, with the visitor appearing to be hell bent on being right. Mort's mind starts reeling with who the visitor really is.

In "The Library Policeman" Sam Peebles borrows a couple of books from the library to use in giving a speech. When he fails to return them on time he is visited by a man from his past, sent by the librarian who is from another reality altogether. Sam has to face his own past and its demons in order to beat the librarian and the Library Policeman.

In "The Sun Dog" fifteen-year-old Kevin receives a Polaroid camera for his birthday. But the same image keeps appearing no matter who takes the picture or what they take a picture of: a menacing dog that seems to be moving with each image, coming toward the frame and whoever is on the other side aiming the camera. Kevin looks for help from Pop Merrill, only to be swindled out of the camera by Pop, the camera he thinks he's destroyed. Pop tries to sell it, but when he fails he becomes a pawn in the Sun Dog's game. Kevin has to find a way to send the Sun Dog back to the picture plane.

This was an interesting collection of stories. I liked all of them. I would say "The Sun Dog" was the most fantastical, but they were all that on some level. Each involved the twisting of time in some way and the horrors that lay beyond our time. These stories were readable and interesting, the characters were well-drawn and compelling. King says Mort is his last time writing about a writer. Is it?

Each story was preceded by a note from King on where the ideas for each came from, which I found fascinating. I wish all writers did that all of the time. He also noted that "The Sun Dog" was one of three of the last of the Castle Rock stories, with The Dark Half preceding it and Needful Things following.

The themes:

"The Langoliers"- wasting time, losing time, losing control.

"Secret Window, Secret Garden"- guilt and what happens when the window between reality and unreality breaks?

"The Library Policeman"- battling the traumas of our pasts, facing our fears.

"The Sun Dog"- how our obsessions can come to control us or take on a life of their own.

Mentions from other King works:

In "The Langoliers" there is a mention of The Shop from Firestarter.

"Secret Window, Secret Garden" is set in Derry, where other stories have taken place or have mentioned it, such as IT.

"The Library Policeman" is where King says the idea for Christine began. There is also a self-mention of King as a writer of bad books.

"The Sun Dog" takes place in Castle Rock and mentions Shawshank Prison from "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," Sheriff Pangborn from The Dark Half, Cujo and those he killed in that book. Alludes to the film adaptation of Christine. Pop Merrill is Ace Merrill's (from "The Body") uncle.

All in all I really liked this collection. I thought the stories, though not perfect, were strong and all dealt with a common theme of time which linked them together. I give it 4 stars.