-Matthew McConkey
“My nephew, Jon Leonard, dug around in my old stuff, a lot of it unfinished and long forgotten. He made a photocopy of one particular six-page fragment with a note attached, saying it was too good not to finish. I read it and thought he was right. Those first pages were written when I was thirty. I finished it when I was seventy-five.”- SK
The Answer Man is a novella that was unpublished until King decided to include it in 2024’s You Like It Darker. It’s a supernatural-esque tale that doesn’t go overboard on the unseen. King does a great job of making this story feel like it could happen in the real world. When I was reading it, I swear it felt like a story from The Twilight Zone.
The story centers on Phil Parker, a young lawyer in Depression‑era New England, who chances upon a curious roadside booth. A man—the “Answer Man”—offers to reveal Phil’s future for a modest fee. As Phil returns over the decades, each insight seems to guide him toward success, love, and status. Yet hidden within those truths lies heartbreak: loss, grief, and life's unpredictability. In his twilight years, one final truth offers Phil peace, proving that knowing sometimes leads to healing, not harm.
This was a story that I liked a lot. It wasn’t overbearing with the supernatural, nor was it boring. It was essentially one man who received some personal answers about his future from a mysterious figure. The mysterious man at a roadside booth is one of King’s cooler characters. There’s no origin story with him; he’s not evil, and he’s odd as he is mysterious.
When it comes down to it, I would put this one into my Stephen King Top 10 novellas of all time. It’s a good exploration of a person’s expectations and how, sometimes, life doesn’t meet them. It’s also a story of how one can lose it all and still be okay. There’s an optimistic tone in this story, considering all that Phil loses. In the end, as an old man, he gets the answers he wants, and that is of great comfort to him.
So why does The Answer Man work?
The Answer Man works because I love the character of the Answer Man, just sitting there at his roadside booth, ready to answer questions for a fee. The answers he gives are truthful and direct. King doesn’t go into why this answer man appears, how he came to be, or even what he really is. He resides in a fold of reality where those who find him enter. There’s a complete mystery to the Answer Man, and that really works for the story. He doesn’t trade answers for anyone’s soul. He just wants your money.
The Answer Man works because I like Phil Parker. He seems to be a really good man, and he’s just trying to do the right thing in life. He’s just doing what every family man in the world is trying to do: just be good at life and love his family. There is an honesty to Phil that King writes about, and I can see this man in everyday life. There was nothing special about him, but there was. Sometimes in the ordinary, that’s where the most special people, places, and things are. Phil wanted what we all want: answers.
The Answer Man works because the story isn’t predicated on The Answer Man himself. He’s the driver of the story, but it’s about Phil living life, going through the years and motions, and running into the strange man on the side of the road at three different times during his life. What works the best comes at the end of the story when Phil, an old man, finally gets to sit with The Answer Man and ask questions for free. This is where the story neatly closes, which King does exceptionally well. Phil wants to know if we go on after death. Is there a heaven and hell? Do we get reincarnated? Will we see those we loved and lost once again? Phil wants answers, and the Answer Man finally gives them.
The Answer Man answers at 3/5