Stephen King Revisited

By Matthew McConkey "The Fifth Step" , published in  Harper’s  magazine in March of 2020, was eventually collected in King's collection, You Like It Darker , in 2024. The story blew me away, simply put. Why? Because it harkened back to King’s earlier work. There was a certain, unexpected conclusion to the short that I literally never saw coming, and I had to re-read the last few paragraphs to make sure I had actually read what I thought I had.   This story, reminiscent of Stephen King's work, begins simply. You get an image in your mind of Harold Jamieson, a 68-year-old retired NYC Sanitation chief engineer who is just taking his life seemingly one day at a time in his advancing years. While sitting on his favorite bench in Central Park, reading a newspaper, a man sits down at the other end, much to Harold's annoyance.  This stranger strikes up a conversation with the old man and wants to pay him to listen to what he has to say. Harold waves off the money and li...

  By Matthew McConkey   When I'm asked, as I often am, what I think are King's most underrated books, I have a quick response. It's a fast response because my list hasn't changed over the years. And some of his underrated novels are favorites of mine.  So, here are my 10 Underrated Stephen King Books in no particular order: Lisey's Story - This novel explores long-term marriages at the forefront and the secret worlds that husbands and wives share and create together. It's about a type of undecipherable language that long-time married people have that outsiders can't understand. It's also about the death of a life partner and what has to be done in their wake. It's one of those novels that you have to have some marriage years under your belt to get, like 20-plus years, to fully understand what one has to go through after the death of a spouse.  From a Buick 8 - This novel will never be on anyone's list of good books by King. At least I've ne...

  By Matthew McConkey I’ve got to say something here: This is one of King’s best stories that isn’t predicated on the supernatural. Usually, King is really good in this sandbox, writing a straight drama. And that’s pretty much what Billy Summers is.   I didn’t read it when it was released in 2021. I bought it and put it on my bookshelf because I had a backlog of books at the time. Around Thanksgiving of 2024, I was finally able to get this book down from the shelf and read it. It was a little slow getting it going, King’s fault, not mine, but that is typical Stephen King in most cases. As a Constant Reader, we know that the storyteller is eventually going to get us to the story. His tried-and-true recipe applies here.  The novel has a fairly straightforward plot: a hitman is hired to eliminate someone. What’s different about this job is that it’s going to be Billy’s final hit. However, we all know nothing is that simple in the world of Stephen King.  When I fin...