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US Mall 1 - Different Seasons (Signet)
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List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $3.23
Your Save: $ 4.76 ( 60% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Signet
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780451167538
ISBN: 0451167538
Label: Signet
Manufacturer: Signet
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: 1983-08-29
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: 2004-03-02
Studio: Signet
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: It is the tale, not he who tells it
Comment: Having never read anything by Stephen King before, I thought I'd give this one a try - mostly because this is one of the few books out of which came a good movie (The Shawshank Redemption). I had seen Apt Pupil on TV before, and even though I wasn't too mindblown, I decided to read the novella it was based on.
The first pages didn't really hook me much, style-wise, but quickly I was quite into it and kept reading for hours and hours, which never happens with a bad story. I read the whole thing in two readings or so, and decided I'd read more from that book. That's when I read The Body.
The Body is most likely my favourite story from this volume. I found it very impressive, very well-written, and profound in many ways. I was happily surprised to find out that Stephen King was actually a great author (or at the very least, that he could be a great author - again, I emphasise that I can't compare with anything else he wrote).
Then I read the first novella of the book, the one the Shawshank Redemption movie is based on, and it was a good read, but having seen the movie (and liked it a lot), I was biased, and so I assume I would have been quite impressed had I not seen the movie and remembered it so well.
The Breathing Method, in my humble opinion, is the least of these four stories. It's far from bad, but it doesn't have the epic proportions of the other stories. This one feels much more like a short story than a novella. It covers much less ground, and it's a story within a story, so you don't really settle down on one character; all of this is alright, I'm just saying it's more a short story than a novella for these reasons. I didn't dislike it but it's definitely not as good as the previous stories.
All in all, I was thoroughly impressed by Stephen King. I didn't really know what to expect with this book, except for the plots of the stories whose movies I had seen. It does sound like King wrote this to show that he could write good stuff, and stuff that didn't involve supernatural freaks and other entities from B movies (excepting The Breathing Method, which does have some sort of supernatural-ness going on). I think The Body is definitely a most excellent novella and I'd recommend it to everyone: it's about four kids who go on a trip to discover the dead body of someone their own age. It's extremely touching, and the narrator of this is a writer, and you can see, I suppose, King's own reflections about his career. King exposes a rather vast vocabulary, a usually intriguing style, and not a dull page in that massive book. I read in other reviews here that this is very different from what King writes: I can't say, but this is absolutely excellent. King does things I wouldn't do as an author (like free indirect style), but it fits his stories and style, so you get used to it when it's used at all.
With this book alone, Stephen King earned my respect. I admit I didn't give the author much credit before - mostly because of some of the terrible movies based on his work - but because of Different Seasons, I know the man has real talent. Whether he applies it to his other books, I cannot say, but now I know he is probably vastly underrated.
Extremely recommended. Perhaps more to readers who aren't usually King's readers, or simply to readers who can read something other than horror from King. I again insist that The Body is one seriously good novella; and I haven't seen the movie, and I had never heard of it when I read this one. If nothing else, give The Body a try.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Spawned 3 movies...
Comment: One of the handful of books that I read instead of listening to. Enjoyed the novella format. Another 4 adventures on wood pulp. note: If you've ever wondered why Shawshank's screenwriter Frank Darabont didn't get an oscar...he was up against a little movie named 'Forrest Gump'. Bad timing, wouldn't you say?
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Strong collection of novellas
Comment: Different Seasons collects four novellas by Stephen King although none of them can rightly be called horror stories. Of the four, three have been turned into movies. The first, "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" was developed into The Shawshank Redemption (Single Disc Edition) and if you've seen the movie you'll find it was a reasonably faithful rendition. As I read the story in it's first person narrative form, it was impossible to keep Morgan Freeman's voice out of my head (that's a good thing). For those who haven't seen the film, the story is about a banker, Andy Dufresne, who is falsely convicted murdering his wife. I suppose that there's no new ground broken in this prison yarn, but it is a highly entertaining read even so.
The next novella is Apt Pupil, also developed into a move with the same name (Apt Pupil). The setup involves an all-American teenage boy who befriends a nazi war criminal that is living under an assumed identity in his town. The boy knows full well who he is and seeks him out because he wants to hear every last detail of life in a death camp. It's a grim story, but a compelling one. Both characters are monsters, of course, but their story holds a fascination that is hard to resist.
The Body was adapted to the screen as Stand By Me (Special Edition). I'm afraid I struggled with this story to the point that I couldn't even finish it. I was doing fine with the narration of the boy and his friends but there are lengthy excerpts of a story supposedly written by the main character later in life that form a "story within a story." Unfortunately, the writing style was reminiscent of a very poor hard-boiled detective novel and ultimately I couldn't get through it. There's more than one of these excerpts and it forms a significant percentage of the novella. I won't say that The Body is either good or bad, I'll just suggest that you be prepared for the noir style of the excerpts if you read it.
Finally, the Breathing Method is the shortest story of the lot and the only one not to grace the silver screen. It's somewhat similar to Ghost Story, which is probably why King dedicated it to Peter Straub. It involves a mysterious men's club and the stories they sometimes tell each other. It's not a true horror story, though it is a bit creepy with some suspenseful undertones. Like most King stories, it's the characterization and atmosphere that makes it a pleasure to read.
While I didn't care for The Body, I enjoyed the other three stories and recommend the book to anyone interested in some non-horror fiction from Stephen King. He's a master of creating interesting characters and putting them in stressful situations to bring out their best and worst characteristics and this book is no exception.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mostly satisfying, always interesting
Comment: This is a fine collection of four novellas from Stephen King. The best, "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" and "The Body," have both been adapted as films that can justifiably be regarded as modern classics ("The Shawshank Redemption" and "Stand by Me," respectively). These two stories are also early examples of King stepping outside the genre boundaries within which he had become such a literary megastar. Of the remaining stories, "Apt Pupil" is also a good tale and much more in line with King's usual frightening fare. "The Breathing Method" is an odd duck, an interesting misfire. The meat of the story makes for a suitably creepy episode, and the framing story, which features a group of old men who tell each other scary stories in an otherworldly mansion, whetted my appetite for more information about this setting. However, the two parts of the story bear little relation to each other and make for an unsatisfying experience.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Free SF Reader
Comment: King's second collection of four novellas, or a couple of novellas and a couple of short novels, or three short novels and a novellas, or whatever you want to call them. He calls them the shorter version, deliberately giving the book a title not suggestion of 'telekinesis, vampires of telekinetic kids' as he details in the afterworld.
In a little bit of a departure, the first, and actually the best story is an odd sort of prison escape tale, no horror elements to be scene, beyond any other prison story, that is.
All in all, a very fine selection of tales.
Different Seasons : RITA HAYWORTH AND SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION - Stephen King
Different Seasons : APT PUPIL - Stephen King
Different Seasons : THE BODY - Stephen King
Different Seasons : THE BREATHING METHOD - Stephen King
Laundering down the wall.
A story told about a really lengthy escape plan. The narrator here is a fixer who is able to get all sorts of stuff smuggled into a prison.
The story he is telling is of a man convicted of murder, who happens to also be a financial wizard, using this ability to earn goodwill and a position as a librarian, and a cell to himself.
4.5 out of 5
Ratzi self-manipulation.
A high school boy discovers the secret of an old man living nearby - and it is a big one. Deciding to use this knowledge for his own ends, he discovers that an old man like this is a harder target than he thought, and more than a match for a somewhat innocent young man.
This relationship does not have a good effect on the young man's state of mind.
3.5 out of 5
Dead boy slug camp.
A group of boys in Castle Rock find out about a corpse, and decide on an expedition that involves more than a little beat of fear and terror on their part, at various times throughout their trip.
There are plenty of bad jokes and the odd funny story too, given a group of around 13 year olds.
3.5 out of 5
A junior member of a law firm is invited to a slightly odd club, that initially appears to be just a group of members that like to tell stories of different sorts, but just before xmas, the story must be 'uncanny'.
He begins to suspect something strange when some of the furnishings and books in the club seem very unique.
4 out of 5
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: It is the tale, not he who tells it
Comment: Having never read anything by Stephen King before, I thought I'd give this one a try - mostly because this is one of the few books out of which came a good movie (The Shawshank Redemption). I had seen Apt Pupil on TV before, and even though I wasn't too mindblown, I decided to read the novella it was based on.
The first pages didn't really hook me much, style-wise, but quickly I was quite into it and kept reading for hours and hours, which never happens with a bad story. I read the whole thing in two readings or so, and decided I'd read more from that book. That's when I read The Body.
The Body is most likely my favourite story from this volume. I found it very impressive, very well-written, and profound in many ways. I was happily surprised to find out that Stephen King was actually a great author (or at the very least, that he could be a great author - again, I emphasise that I can't compare with anything else he wrote).
Then I read the first novella of the book, the one the Shawshank Redemption movie is based on, and it was a good read, but having seen the movie (and liked it a lot), I was biased, and so I assume I would have been quite impressed had I not seen the movie and remembered it so well.
The Breathing Method, in my humble opinion, is the least of these four stories. It's far from bad, but it doesn't have the epic proportions of the other stories. This one feels much more like a short story than a novella. It covers much less ground, and it's a story within a story, so you don't really settle down on one character; all of this is alright, I'm just saying it's more a short story than a novella for these reasons. I didn't dislike it but it's definitely not as good as the previous stories.
All in all, I was thoroughly impressed by Stephen King. I didn't really know what to expect with this book, except for the plots of the stories whose movies I had seen. It does sound like King wrote this to show that he could write good stuff, and stuff that didn't involve supernatural freaks and other entities from B movies (excepting The Breathing Method, which does have some sort of supernatural-ness going on). I think The Body is definitely a most excellent novella and I'd recommend it to everyone: it's about four kids who go on a trip to discover the dead body of someone their own age. It's extremely touching, and the narrator of this is a writer, and you can see, I suppose, King's own reflections about his career. King exposes a rather vast vocabulary, a usually intriguing style, and not a dull page in that massive book. I read in other reviews here that this is very different from what King writes: I can't say, but this is absolutely excellent. King does things I wouldn't do as an author (like free indirect style), but it fits his stories and style, so you get used to it when it's used at all.
With this book alone, Stephen King earned my respect. I admit I didn't give the author much credit before - mostly because of some of the terrible movies based on his work - but because of Different Seasons, I know the man has real talent. Whether he applies it to his other books, I cannot say, but now I know he is probably vastly underrated.
Extremely recommended. Perhaps more to readers who aren't usually King's readers, or simply to readers who can read something other than horror from King. I again insist that The Body is one seriously good novella; and I haven't seen the movie, and I had never heard of it when I read this one. If nothing else, give The Body a try.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Spawned 3 movies...
Comment: One of the handful of books that I read instead of listening to. Enjoyed the novella format. Another 4 adventures on wood pulp. note: If you've ever wondered why Shawshank's screenwriter Frank Darabont didn't get an oscar...he was up against a little movie named 'Forrest Gump'. Bad timing, wouldn't you say?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Strong collection of novellas
Comment: Different Seasons collects four novellas by Stephen King although none of them can rightly be called horror stories. Of the four, three have been turned into movies. The first, "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" was developed into The Shawshank Redemption (Single Disc Edition) and if you've seen the movie you'll find it was a reasonably faithful rendition. As I read the story in it's first person narrative form, it was impossible to keep Morgan Freeman's voice out of my head (that's a good thing). For those who haven't seen the film, the story is about a banker, Andy Dufresne, who is falsely convicted murdering his wife. I suppose that there's no new ground broken in this prison yarn, but it is a highly entertaining read even so.
The next novella is Apt Pupil, also developed into a move with the same name (Apt Pupil). The setup involves an all-American teenage boy who befriends a nazi war criminal that is living under an assumed identity in his town. The boy knows full well who he is and seeks him out because he wants to hear every last detail of life in a death camp. It's a grim story, but a compelling one. Both characters are monsters, of course, but their story holds a fascination that is hard to resist.
The Body was adapted to the screen as Stand By Me (Special Edition). I'm afraid I struggled with this story to the point that I couldn't even finish it. I was doing fine with the narration of the boy and his friends but there are lengthy excerpts of a story supposedly written by the main character later in life that form a "story within a story." Unfortunately, the writing style was reminiscent of a very poor hard-boiled detective novel and ultimately I couldn't get through it. There's more than one of these excerpts and it forms a significant percentage of the novella. I won't say that The Body is either good or bad, I'll just suggest that you be prepared for the noir style of the excerpts if you read it.
Finally, the Breathing Method is the shortest story of the lot and the only one not to grace the silver screen. It's somewhat similar to Ghost Story, which is probably why King dedicated it to Peter Straub. It involves a mysterious men's club and the stories they sometimes tell each other. It's not a true horror story, though it is a bit creepy with some suspenseful undertones. Like most King stories, it's the characterization and atmosphere that makes it a pleasure to read.
While I didn't care for The Body, I enjoyed the other three stories and recommend the book to anyone interested in some non-horror fiction from Stephen King. He's a master of creating interesting characters and putting them in stressful situations to bring out their best and worst characteristics and this book is no exception.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mostly satisfying, always interesting
Comment: This is a fine collection of four novellas from Stephen King. The best, "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" and "The Body," have both been adapted as films that can justifiably be regarded as modern classics ("The Shawshank Redemption" and "Stand by Me," respectively). These two stories are also early examples of King stepping outside the genre boundaries within which he had become such a literary megastar. Of the remaining stories, "Apt Pupil" is also a good tale and much more in line with King's usual frightening fare. "The Breathing Method" is an odd duck, an interesting misfire. The meat of the story makes for a suitably creepy episode, and the framing story, which features a group of old men who tell each other scary stories in an otherworldly mansion, whetted my appetite for more information about this setting. However, the two parts of the story bear little relation to each other and make for an unsatisfying experience.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Free SF Reader
Comment: King's second collection of four novellas, or a couple of novellas and a couple of short novels, or three short novels and a novellas, or whatever you want to call them. He calls them the shorter version, deliberately giving the book a title not suggestion of 'telekinesis, vampires of telekinetic kids' as he details in the afterworld.
In a little bit of a departure, the first, and actually the best story is an odd sort of prison escape tale, no horror elements to be scene, beyond any other prison story, that is.
All in all, a very fine selection of tales.
Different Seasons : RITA HAYWORTH AND SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION - Stephen King
Different Seasons : APT PUPIL - Stephen King
Different Seasons : THE BODY - Stephen King
Different Seasons : THE BREATHING METHOD - Stephen King
Laundering down the wall.
A story told about a really lengthy escape plan. The narrator here is a fixer who is able to get all sorts of stuff smuggled into a prison.
The story he is telling is of a man convicted of murder, who happens to also be a financial wizard, using this ability to earn goodwill and a position as a librarian, and a cell to himself.
4.5 out of 5
Ratzi self-manipulation.
A high school boy discovers the secret of an old man living nearby - and it is a big one. Deciding to use this knowledge for his own ends, he discovers that an old man like this is a harder target than he thought, and more than a match for a somewhat innocent young man.
This relationship does not have a good effect on the young man's state of mind.
3.5 out of 5
Dead boy slug camp.
A group of boys in Castle Rock find out about a corpse, and decide on an expedition that involves more than a little beat of fear and terror on their part, at various times throughout their trip.
There are plenty of bad jokes and the odd funny story too, given a group of around 13 year olds.
3.5 out of 5
A junior member of a law firm is invited to a slightly odd club, that initially appears to be just a group of members that like to tell stories of different sorts, but just before xmas, the story must be 'uncanny'.
He begins to suspect something strange when some of the furnishings and books in the club seem very unique.
4 out of 5
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