Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

INCOMPLETE REVIEW PLEASE IGNORE "Hearts in Atlantis" is one of Stephen King's most accomplished collections. This is in main due to the fact that it is not a horror collection. All too often King is pigeon-holed as a horror novelist but it is when he ventures away from the horror genre for which he is infamous that his writing comes to true fruition. Those who would argue look at the big screen success of "The Green Mile", "The Shawshank Redemption" ...
...and clichés of the horror genre King seems to write more naturally, with more freedom and as a result with much more expression. "Low Men In Yellow Coats" In the first story King follows the life of a ten-year old boy growing up in the sixties. Leading a relatively mundane life and starved of affection from his widowed mother, Bobby longs for excitement and seeks this in the books he reads. When Mr Ted Brautigan turns up in the flat above Bobby, ...

dididave 03.03.2005 (06.03.2005) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

...hardest genre to write, but HEARTS IN ATLANTIS does it admirably. It takes someone who is late in life, perhaps, to write so well on Vietnam, to lend us the experience of mellowed hindsight, and this insightful novel was long-simmered and worth waiting until the close of the century for. If, like King, you were a child in the fifties (IT) and a college student while the sixties raged, you have more perspective than say, I (born a year after 'Nam ...

Doctor_Belch 17.02.2004 (18.02.2004) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

...they may be around. Hearts In Atlantis ------------------ This 2nd story is set in 1966. It cenres around Pete Riley going to university. A craze of playing Hearts is sweeping the dorm he is living in, and has a bad effect on all of their grades, so much so that some drop out completely. Also a main aspect of this story is anti-war protests. There is an uprising in the university of anti-war supporters, much to the dislike of the principal, who ...
...of the students who are left end up supporting each other and standing up against the way the place is run. Blind Willie ------------ The 3rd story is set in 1983. It is about Bill Sherman who leads a double life as a blind beggar. It tells of parts of his life, notably his time in Vietnam. In this story things start to tie together witht the previous.stories. Why We're In Vietnam -------------------- The 4th story, set in 1999 is about John ...

Cdm 21.05.2001 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

Hearts in Atlantis is a mixed bag of 5 stories from the man whose recent books have been very hit and miss, Stephen King. The first, "long men…" is a treat for Dark Tower fans and may leave casual readers entertained, but feeling that they are missing the big picture. The second, "Hearts in Atlantis", is the books ace and it truly is worth buying the paperback edition of this title just to read this tale of obsession with a card game set against ...
...more closely to Vietnam, I found hard to identify with, but all are competently written and will probably strike more of a chord with someone who lived through the war. On the strength of the "Hearts in Atlantis" tale and the Dark Tower tie-in, I'd give this book 4/5. ...

Dave350 13.12.2000 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

First off, if you have seen the film don't let that effect your judgement of the book, in fact try to wipe it from your memory completely. As usual the silver screen has masacred the writings of a great author. This book comprises of five stories, the first of which being title 'Low men in Yellow Coats' is about the life of a ten year old boy named Bobby Garfield and the last great summer of his childhood, his best friends Sully John and Carol Gerber ...
...own troubles and prejudeces which are evident when an old man moves into the empty flat upstairs with his possesions in paper bags. The new arrival is a man named Ted, who is soon to become a special friend of Bobbies, and also a teacher of specialist subject such and literature , illegal gambling and life downtown. Ted also becomes the father figure so obviously missing from Bobbies life since the death of his father. Much of this story will be ...

Troggman 28.07.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

...creatures and supernatural events. Hearts in Atlantis is something different, but the difference is so subtle that you can hardly have it. This is an horror book, but the horror cames from the daily life. The horror of a lost generation, of the end of the American Dream and the loss of the naivety. King tells us about his generation, that was at first divided and then destroyed from the Vietnam war. They found themselves in front of a sort of ...
...to stay at home to challenge against this war. But at the end they all found only desperation and the loss of any possible hope. After the Vietnam America waked up from a nightmare to discover that nothing, never, should have been the same. Thruogh this war America grew up and became another place, a new country. In this book King tells us this history, that's also his personal history, mixing it with a bit of supernatural events, in four wonderful ...

shaoli2 04.09.2003 (10.01.2004) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

To start this review I must first say that I am a Stephen King fan, although I should also mention that I do not consider SK to be merely a horror writer. This book certainly proves this, and it also shows that SK is just as comfortable writing emotional thought-provoking and intriguing novels as he his horror. It seems to me that King has changed considerably from his Misery/ Shinning / It et al days... Recent works including the stunning Dark ...
...Bones etc. King appears to have moved away from out and out horror into a more thought-provoking and sometimes even stranger novels. This one is no exception... it basically involves five separate but interlinked stories all based in the sixties and the Vietnam war. I have to say I bought the book with considerable reluctance as I'm not a big fan of the kind of inbetween length stories, neither short nor novel length, that obviously constituted this ...

Mercury 14.11.2000 (21.02.2001) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

I received this book as a present from my boyfriend, and as I have been a fan of Stephen King for quite some time now I was eager to read it. The book is a collection of five short stories. The first is based around three young friends. The main character, Bobby, meets a strange, but friendly, old man named Ted who speaks of the 'low men in yellow coats' and describes himself as a 'breaker'. The story is told from Bobbys' point of view and is slightly ...
...is an interesting story which grips you and makes you want to read the other stories, which each focus on one of the main characters' teen and adult lives set during the Vietnam War. These stories are all very good in their own way, however, none of them are really chilling like the first story. They are more character stories, which is unusual from King. But as any reader knows, Kings' character building is part of the reason his books are so darn ...

cjezra 13.08.2000 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

Young Bobby Garfield befriends an old man, Ted Brautigan, who moves into the apartment upstairs. Ted becomes a wonderful, trusted friend - a much-needed rock in Bobby's world, which is marred by his appallingly dysfunctional mother. Via the old man, he discovers more about his dead father's murky past; but he is also drawn into Ted's disturbing world. Ted is being tracked by the "Low Men In Yellow Coats", and they're closing in. Bobby tries to help ...
...supernatural power that failure is inevitable. Equally inevitable is Bobby's subsequent slide into delinquency and petty crime. The above is the first (and by far the longest) in a collection of five linked stories in the book. The remaining four stories follow characters from "Low Men" as they go through life, and we see that the Vietnam War marks their lives as drastically as Bobby's more fantastical childhood experiences marked him. This is a ...

pvincent 17.06.2001 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

...into and addicted to playing Hearts for money. This eventually features the girlfriend from the first story. I really enjoyed this chapter of the book, as I too am currently on my first term of university, as well as it being an exciting read and showing some interesting things about human behaviour. This, in my opinion, is by far the best story in the book, and could easily be released as a book in its own right. I would say that this story is amongst ...
...has been a resounding success to me, but the next three stories, for me, could easily have been cut out. They are much much shorter than the first two and seem almost without point, and are for the most part completely uninteresting. These two feel tacked on, as if King needed to fill a quota of page numbers, or just got lazy towards the end. Getting through these last three was quite hard going, as I struggled to maintain my interest. I would recommend ...

readingac1 15.01.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

...one of King's usual books, Hearts In Atlantis takes us through a journey of over 30 years, centered over the destruction of America's people through the Vietnam war. The complete book contains 5 stories, the first about 3 best friends in their childhood town. This is situated before the vietnam war, and shows what life was like. The second set in college during Vietnam, the title story, containing the girl from the childhood book. The book continues ...
...character) re-visits his childhood town. This book assesses the impact of Vietnam on America in a gripping and motivating way. This book has a meaning hard to explain unless you read it. It is a wonderful, interesting book if you have the stamina to read all the way through it, but it's well worth the effort. ...

Hannah45 18.07.2000 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

Stranger than Fiction... I am still not sure what to make of this book by King. The first section Low Men in Yellow Coats starts well and seems to be going places and you are really pleased this is such a big book! Then all of a sudden it jumps and you find yourself trying to work out who is who and where have the main characters gone. Then just as you think you have got it clear in your head (Which you haven’t trust me!) It jumps again and you ...

Musicbox 08.07.2000 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

Hearts in atlantis , well fantastic smooth flowing and wonderful, great theme and the character relationships magic, wonderful depth to them. Loved it and left wanting more !!!!!! Everyone could relate to the feelings of at least one of the charactrers giving a real feel to the story,. Great to read a story without unnecessary gore but with plenty of atmosphere. I love it when a story affects your everyday life and makes you wonder, gets you looking ...
...self. Not in the usual King style but that isnt unusual at the moment , his writing has changed a lot since Carrie . This one definately made me want to read on well after the story ended, it didnt feel like trying to stretch a point and feeling of formula that I hate so much! ...

theolcia 06.03.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King

I looked forward to the new Stephen King book with glee and anticipation. I was sadly disappointed. This book, although readable was nowhere near as good as his others have been. I found myself in the uneviable position of being able to put this book down and not be in any hurry to pick it up again. There are four stories, all which follow on from each other, but only the first was remotely attention grabbing. At one point I abandoned this book completely ...

Toria 24.07.2000 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King