Skeleton Crew

ReviewI'm not generally a fan of short stories, but I am a big fan of Stephen King. I've read two collections by him prior to this one: [b:Hearts in Atlantis 11602 Hearts in Atlantis Stephen King https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374048926s/11602.jpg 3166850] and [b:Different Seasons 39662 Different Seasons Stephen King https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329662611s/39662.jpg 2248680]. I thought both of them were stronger collections. The main difference is those contain fewer, but longer stories I think.This one has been on my radar for a long time, in particular because of The Mist, which is the first (and longest) story. It's actually a Novella, where the rest are short stories. It's supposed to have “major” ties to his Dark Tower series, and one of the few in that category I haven't read already. Personally I found it being a “major” connection to be a stretch, especially compared with most of the others. So if like me, you're wanting to read all the associated works, I personally think you can skip this one without much issue.There are 3 stories worth calling out for this collection of 22 (although calling 2 of them stories is overly generous). The best story was probably Mrs. Todd's Shortcut. I thought it was fantastic. I also really enjoyed The Monkey and Gramma.Paranoid: A Chant and For Owen round out the bottom. I guess if you have little fragments of writing you think are interesting, sticking them in such a large collection is the best way to publish them, but I think the collection would have been stronger without them personally. As to the rest you can consult my list of ratings below.AudioThis book has 13 unique narrators, some of them reading several stories. Will Patton, Frances Sternhagen, Paul Giamatti, and Norbert Leo Butz were the best narrators of the group. None of the narrators were bad, but most of them were unmemorable. You can see my full ratings below for each performance.RatingsStory - Story Rating - Narrator - Narrator RatingThe Mist - 3 - Will Patton- 4.5Here There Be Tygers - 2.5 - Kyle Beltran - 3The Monkey - 4.5 - Matthew Broderick - 3Cain Rose Up - 1.5 - Kyle Beltran - 3Mrs. Todd's Shortcut - 4.5 - Dana Ivey - 3.5The Jaunt - 3 - Robert Petkoff - 3The Wedding Gig - 2.5 - Paul Giamatti - 4Paranoid: A Chant - 1 - Will Patton - 3The Raft - 3 - Stephen King - 3Word Processor of the Gods - 3.5 - Norbert Leo Butz - 3.5The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands - 2 - Paul Giamatti - 4Beachworld - 2.5 - Michael C. Hall - 3The Reaper's Image - 2 - David Morse - 3Nona - 3 - Norbert Leo Butz - 3.5For Owen - 1.5 - David Morse - 3Survivor Type - 2.5 - Norbert Leo Butz - 3.5Uncle Otto's Truck - 3 - David Morse - 3Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1) - 3 - Dylan Baker - 3Big Wheels: A Tale of The Laundry Game (Milkman #2) - 3 - Dylan Baker - 3Gramma - 4 - Frances Sternhagen - 4.5The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet - 3.5 - Michael C. Hall - 3The Reach - 2.5 - Lois Smith - 3

My reread of Skeleton Crew ~14 years later did definitely damper my feelings on it. Previously I held it up with Paper Menagerie as one of my favorite short story collections. It definitely isn't. This is the 3 star-est 3 star collection full of average-to-decent stories that shined much brighter in my memory due to The Jaunt, The Raft, and Survivor Type, all of which I still loved on reread. A couple others are still pretty good- The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands, Gramma- but one of the longest ones, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, was a huge slog and there were a lot of unmemorable ones. Next time, I will just read those top three, which still rank among the best short stories I've ever read, especially The Jaunt.

This was quite a strange collection of writings. There isn't really any theme that the publishers stuck to. We get novellas, short stories, poems, and to be perfectly honest, what seem like unfinished ideas. Genres range from sci-fi to body horror to Lovecraftian to supernatural. Submissions go from high school age all the way to current at the time (1985). I hate to write 22 separate reviews, but I think that's the only way to do it. I'll average out each story minus the poems.

1) The Mist - 4/5 - Great storytelling. This is King's bread and butter. Ending didn't land, but overall very good.

2) Here There Be Tygers - 2/5 - I mean, I guess it's really good for a high school student, but nothing special about this one.

3) The Monkey - 2/5 - Generic spooky story here. Think that Family Guy episode where Stephen King says a lamp is haunted or whatever. What if a monkey toy was haunted. Unoriginal and boring.

4) Cain Rose Up - 1/5 - Some early writer weirdness on this one. Seems to be immune to King's anti-gun self-censorship like Rage was.

5) Mrs Todd's Shortcut - 3/5 - I really liked this concept, but didn't work for me as a super short story. I think some things could've been fleshed out. I feel like the set-up was really cool and then a time skip happened.

6) The Jaunt - 5/5 - Awesome sci-fi storytelling on this one. King doing Asimov in King fashion. I was as rapt by the father's storytelling as the children were. And even though I knew what was going to happen, I was still terrified at the ending.

7) The Wedding - 1/5 - Doesn't seem to have much of a point than to be an excuse to use racist and fatphobic language. It's a discussion for another time, but King does this often and is at his worst when he does it.

8) Paranoid: A Chant - NR - A quick little poem about insanity and paranoia. Neither good nor bad, but I couldn't do an entire book of this.

9) The Raft - 3/5 - Honestly, I was very disappointed in this one. This story led to my favorite Creepshow vignette so I was looking forward to it quite a bit. The characters did weird, dumb stuff that no one would do. The ending wasn't nearly as fun as the movie version. Cool idea, not very well executed.

10) Word Processor of the Gods - 3/5 - King likes to write about writers. This one was OK, but works better as a teleplay. In fact, it did get filmed as an episode of Tales from the Darkside. More fatphobia.

11) The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands - 2.5/5 - I mean, it wasn't bad. It also wasn't super good. The entire plot is given away in the title, so the rest of the story seemed unecessary.

12) Beachworld - 2/5 - Not exactly sure what to make of this one. It reads like the lost chapter of the Heavy Metal movie. Kinda pointless, to be honest.

13) The Reaper's Image - 3/5 - More early King weirdness. I did like this one, but it wasn't terribly original. Some people see Grim Reaper in a painting, disappear, not much else to say.

14) Nona - 2/5 - Male rage.

15) For Owen - NR - Cute little poem for King's son. Kinda just thrown into the mix without rhyme or reason.

16) Survivor Type - 4/5 - One of the best stories in the book and not for the weak-stomached. King hype's himself up on this one, but it's not even as gory as The Raft. Corrupt doc is stuck on an island with a bunch of heroin, so he autocannibalizes. I always love horror for the “what if this happened to me?” factor. I have a few nitpicks, but overall, this one was quite enjoyable.

17) Uncle Otto's Truck - 3.5/5 - Really liked this one until the end. Unfathomably silly.

18) Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1) - 2.5/5 - Previously unpublished, this was more of an idea than a story. We get a set-up but not much beyond that. The fact that the next story involves the milkman makes me wonder if the character was shoe-horned into the whole thing as an afterthought.

19) Morning Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2) - 2/5 - I hated the way the characters talked to one another. And I don't understand how the reader was supposed to know who the Milkman was or why he's important in this story. Ending seems tacked on.

20) Gramma - 3/5 - This is a classic King ending flub. I think what makes this story so scary is that a lot of us know what it's like being a kid and having to deal with adults who scare us. In a kid's imagination, anything can happen. Is gramma a witch, a monster, a serial killer? King had me by the throat up to the climax and then lost me.

21) The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet - 4/5 - Another one about magical typewriters, huh? No, actually, the first part of the story just seems like people in the book publishing biz having a social get-together. As the editor begins telling his story, the reader joins in on the madness. Who are the sane ones? Who are the insane? Is insanity rooted in truth?

22) The Reach - 3.5/5 - A nice, heartwarming little book end. An old lady who lives on an island has never been to the mainland. A little muddied of a plot, but overall very good.

Average comes out to 2.8/5.0 so I'll give it a 3.

Pretty big disapointment for a second King's short stories collection. Third of it felt like writer's exercises, third of it was boring and the rest couldn't make up for more than three stars.

The first really good short story is The Jaunt about a crazy scientist and his invention.
I don't like the Mist and rest of stories before Jaunt felt like lazy and/or too long writing.

Best story is definitely Survivor Type about an insane castaway.

Other stories that stood out were The Wedding Gig and The Raft. And that's it. Gramma and The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet had great writing but some aspects of the story and their endings just didn't make them appeasing enough.

If you want early King's short stories you're better off with Night Shift.

Scheletri, in originale “Skeleton Crew” è la terza raccolta di racconti di Stephen King, pubblicata nel 1985, tre anni dopo la precedente, “Stagioni diverse”, e cinque anni prima della successiva, “Quattro dopo mezzanotte”. È stato pubblicato originariamente in edizione rilegata da Putnam e ristampata molte volte nel corso degli anni, in edizione rilegata e in edizione economica. Nel 1986 è stata pubblicata da Scream Press un'edizione limitata, in mille copie, illustrata da J.K. Potter.

Il libro contiene 22 opere, diciannove racconti, una novella, “La nebbia” e due brevi componimenti poetici, diciannove delle quali già presentate in precedenza su pubblicazioni periodiche o antologie e tre inedite, che coprono un periodo di ben diciassette anni, da “L'immagine della Falciatrice”, scritto quando King aveva solo diciotto anni, a “La ballata della pallottola flessibile” completato nel novembre 1983.

Una delle curiosità di questo libro è che la raccolta contiene anche alcuni lavori strettamente personali, compresi “Per Owen” che è una poesia scritta per il figlio e “La nonna”, una storia terrificante vista dalla prospettiva di un undicenne che sembra ricordare King e la nonna invalida. Molti di questi racconti sono stati presi per opere televisive come “La zattera”, “La nonna”, “Il word processor degli dei”, oppure veri e propri film come “La nebbia”.

Praticamente mi sono trascinato questo libro per quasi tre mesi, un tempo indicibile per i miei ritmi anche se rallentati come negli ultimi tempi: King continua a essere per me come le montagne russe, un continuo sali/scendi vertiginoso con punte di massimo godimento e discese nelle più tristi valli di lacrime; come questo per l'appunto.

Personalmente non amo particolarmente la forma letteraria del racconto, devono essere proprio belli per entusiasmarmi, e questa raccolta di King conferma - ma ne è consapevole l'autore stesso e lo ammette in premessa - che è un terreno difficile e scivoloso. Infatti praticamente non salvo quasi nessuno dei racconti di “Scheletri”, molti li ho pure trovati prevedibili o inconcludenti.

Sicuramente non consiglierei questa raccolta di racconti a qualcuno che non ha mai letto King, lascerei questo libro ai solo veri appassionati, forse restringerei il campo ai solo fanatici del Re. Oltretutto per me King non dà mai il meglio nei racconti, e certo non nella prima metà della carriera. Ma li adora, come lui stesso dichiara ogni volta che ne ha l'occasione, così continua a scriverne, con buona pace di tutti.

Sono racconti di fantascienza, horror, gialli, fantasy, ma anche storie di persone e situazioni credibili, questa è la lista con le mie personali valutazioni divise per racconto:

* La Nebbia: * Tigri: * * La Scimmia: * * Caino Scatenato: * * La scorciatoia della signora Todd: * Il Viaggio: ** * Marcia Nuziale: * * Ode del Paranoide: * * La zattera: ** * Il word processor degli dei: *** * L'uomo che non voleva stringere la mano: *** * Sabbiature: ** * L'immagine della falciatrice: * * Nona: ** * Per Owen: * * L'arte di sopravvivere: ** * Il camion dello zio Otto: * * Consegne mattutine: * * La nonna: ** * La ballata della pallottola spuntata:
* Il braccio: *

Praticamente, uno stillicidio.

Va beh Stephen, ci si becca la prossima volta, ok?