Stephen King is known as a masterful writer of horror novels, many of which have been turned into successful movies. But before he gained fame with such spine-tinglers as Carrie, It, and The Shining, King was a struggling high school English teacher who wrote short stories for men’s magazines to help make ends meet. In 1977, Doubleday published twenty of these stories as an anthology under the title Night Shift.
Most of the stories in Night Shift are enjoyable and at least two are quite gripping. A third story, “Children of the Corn,” would probably have given me a jolt if I hadn’t already seen the movie version. I’ll discuss my two favorite stories and then deal with the others in a general way.
“Jerusalem’s Lot” tells the story of Charles Boone, a mid-19th Century gentleman of some means, and the horrifying discoveries he makes in the large house he inherits from his cousin Stephen, and in the abandoned village of Jerusalem’s Lot. The story unfolds in a series of letters that Charles sends to his friend “Bones.” In the early letters, Charles describes the house, its furnishings, and the surrounding terrain, which borders the ocean. The tone of these early letters is generally cheerful with some minor expressions of curiosity and apprehension. The tone of Charles’ letters gradually changes to puzzlement. Some of the puzzlement comes from the unfriendly attitudes of his neighbors, who are reluctant to have any dealings with him or his manservant, Calvin. More puzzlement arises from disturbing noises coming from within the walls of his inherited house; noises that Calvin describes as “blundering,” “thudding,” and “scratching”… “as if something were struggling to get out.” When Charles, along with Calvin, investigates the nearby deserted village of Jerusalem’s Lot and follows that up with a trip into the house’s cellar, his puzzlement devolves into outright terror. Adding to his terror are passages from his grandfather Robert’s diary, which reveal some hideous details about what Charles’ family was up to in years past.
Jerusalem’s Lot is effective as a story because you sympathize with Charles all the way through. He struggles to remain rational and composed even as his new inherited world collapses around him and, in the end, the choices he makes demonstrate a desire to save others from the horrors that have befallen him.
The other story that gripped me was “Strawberry Spring,” which deals with the unsolved murders of several young women at a New England college in the spring of 1968. I could relate to this story because I was in college myself in 1968 and because the story’s fictitious murders seemed eerily similar to real-life murders that have occurred at colleges, most recently at the University of Idaho. The frustration of the police and the fear of the students come through nicely in this story, which is made all the more realistic by references to popular songs of that era as well as notable people such as Walter Cronkite.
There is nothing supernatural about the characters or plot in “Strawberry Spring,” and that is true of several other stories in Night Shift. “The Ledge,” for example, revolves around a perilous task a crime boss imposes on a man who’s having an affair with his wife. “The Woman in the Room” concerns a man who must make a dangerous and difficult decision about his terminally ill mother. Stories that do have a supernatural element often concern a character who’s afflicted with a life-threatening problem that only he knows about and that no one else can help him solve. That’s the case with Arthur (“I Am the Doorway”), an ex-astronaut who returned from his final mission with a grotesque affliction, and Jim Norman (“Sometimes They Come Back”), a high school teacher who must deal with some bullies he thought were long gone from his life.
The only story I did not like was “Graveyard Shift,” which had dreary characters who faced a danger that seemed too much like the dangers in “Jerusalem’s Lot.” There were also stories — I won’t say which ones — that left you guessing as to whether the protagonist came out okay or not.
While most of King’s main characters are men, “I Know What You Need” features a coed protagonist who is romantically pursued by a fellow student; a guy who always seems to do the right thing at the right time and place. Booth, the protagonist of “One for the Road,” also is unique as a 70-something Good Samaritan, who with his friend Tooky, tries to help a family stranded in a snowstorm. Unfortunately, this family’s car is close to Jerusalem’s Lot, the same village that bedeviled Charles Boone over a 100 years earlier.
As you might expect from an author who has sold millions of books, King’s writing is smooth and suspenseful. He knows how to build up tension slowly and then hit the reader with a plot twist or a surprise ending. I know some readers find King’s figures of speech to be strained and even awkward, and a few are this way. But others add grit and fire to his stories. Consider this passage from “The Mangler,” describing a laundry-folding machine that comes to life: “The mangler leaned toward them, within an ace of being free …. It leered at them; the safety bar had slammed up and what Hunton saw was a gaping mouth filled with steam.”
If you like Stephen King’s novels, you will probably enjoy most of the stories in Night Shift. They would make good bedtime reading — if you don’t mind risking a nightmare.