Oh, Stephen...

I find myself reading Stephen King's collection of short stories, Everything's Eventual. It's got some pretty decent stories (Like 1408, which is a movie, and I think Riding the Bullet and stuff like that).

But I think the majority of them are just...so-so. I read what have to be three of the most random King short stories ever: "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away", "The Death of Jack Hamilton", and "In the Deathroom".

I know King writes more than horror. He's known for his horror, but some of his non-horror stuff is really good too. But, then again, this collection so happen to be mostly horror & dark tales. My point is, these stories are just random period. Random as in, "Wtf was that?"-random.

First, All That You Love...is about a salesman who's about to kill himself. He also collects bathroom graffiti. That's about it. The ending is ambiguous with the salesman, one Alfie Zimmerman, still trying to decide his own fate.

It's actually pretty intense until you get to the end. Then you realize the whole damn story is really vague. He's a salesman with issues, but what issues? He collects bathroom graffit, why? He's worried about leaving his collection behind and being seen as crazy so he runs out in the snow. There's not really any rationale in suicide so maybe that's the point, but still. It feels like this story is just a collection of potential ideas that don't really get off the ground enough...

Next, The Death of Jack Hamilton is just odd. Yes, that Jack Hamilton, a Dillinger cronie. It's pretty well written and interesting enough, but it's just so damn random. Wtf is it doing in this collection? It kinda throws off everything in the collection...I guess it's King flexing some historical fiction muscle, which is nice enough I guess.

In the Deathroom, I'm still not even sure what it's about. Some guy named Fletcher is caught in what I can only assume is the Cubano Gitmo. I don't really know. He fakes a seizure and takes everyone down Rambo-style. And it has a happy ending! I don't get it, Stephen.

Anyway...I just wanted to get that off my chest, since those three stories have been kind of getting on my nerves. And I'm currently not busy right now :P