Hearts In Atlantis
Read Hearts In Atlantis Online
Authors: Stephen King
PRAISE FOR STEPHEN KING AND
HEARTS IN ATLANTIS
“This is a spellbinding piece of literature . . . . New characters become old friends as the reader struggles with them through each test and trial (some of which are classically Kingian), hoping ultimately to survive in the end.”
âLibrary Journal
“King
nails
the '60s and its legacy.”
âPublishers Weekly
“An overtly autobiographical and heartfelt work.”
âThe Village Voice
“Page after page, a truly mature King does everything right and deserves some kind of literary rosette. His masterpiece.”
âKirkus Reviews
“One of the most impressive books of fiction published this year.”
âLocus
“You will see Stephen King in a new light. Read this moving, heartfelt modern tragedy and weepâweep for our lost conscience.”
âBookPage
THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON
“A gem . . . Superb.”
âSan Francisco Examiner
“An absorbing tale . . .Â
Tom Gordon
scores big.”
âPeople
“A delightful read, a literary walk in the woods.”
âUSA Today
“Impressive . . . A wonderful story of courage, faith, and hope . . . It is eminently engaging and difficult to put down.”
âThe Wall Street Journal
“A fast, scary read . . . King blasts a homer . . . . [He] expertly stirs the major ingredients of the American psycheâour spirituality, fierce love of children, passion for baseball, and collective fear of the bad thing we know lurks on the periphery of life.”
â
New York
Daily News
“King paints a masterful, terrifying picture of every child's (and maybe adult's) worst fear . . . . King uses that creepy-crawly paranoia to perfection.”
âSt. Louis Post-Dispatch
BAG OF BONES
“For those of you who think Stephen King writes only horror fiction, think again . . . . In
Bag of Bones
, King offers readers a rare blend of luminous prose, thought-provoking themes, and masterful storytelling.”
âThe San Diego Union-Tribune
“What I admire most about
Bag of Bones
is its intelligence of voice, not only the craftsmanshipâthe indelible sense of place, the well-fleshed characters, the unstoppable story lineâbut the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination.”
âAmy Tan
“
Bag of Bones
is, hands down, King's most narratively subversive fiction. Whenever you're positiveâjust positive!âyou know where this ghost story is heading, that's exactly when it gallops off in some jaw-dropping new direction.”
âEntertainment Weekly
“This is King at his clever, terrifying best.”
âMademoiselle
“Contains some of [King's] best writing . . . This is King's most romantic book, and ghosts are up and about from the get-go . . . . The big surprise here is the emotional wallop the story packs.”
âNewsweek
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Part 1: 1960 Low Men in Yellow Coats
I: A Boy and His Mother. Bobby's Birthday. The New Roomer. Of Time and Strangers.
III: A Mother's Power. Bobby Does His Job. “Does He Touch You?” The Last Day of School.
IV: Ted Goes Blank. Bobby Goes to the Beach. McQuown. The Winkle.
VI: A Dirty Old Man. Ted's Casserole. A Bad Dream.
Village of the Damned
. Down There.
VII: In the Pocket. The Shirt Right Off His Back. Outside the William Penn. The French Sex-Kitten.
X: Down There Again. Corner Boys. Low Men in Yellow Coats. The Payout.
XI: Wolves and Lions. Bobby at Bat. Officer Raymer. Bobby and Carol. Bad Times. An Envelope.
Part 2: 1966 Hearts in Atlantis
Part 4: 1999 Why We're in Vietnam
Part 5: 1999 Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling
This is for Joseph and Leanora and Ethan:
I told you all that to tell you this
.
Number 6: What do you want?
Number 2: Information.
Number 6: Whose side are you on?
Number 2: That would be telling. We want information.
Number 6: You won't get it!
Number 2: By hook or by crook . . . we will.
The Prisoner
Simon stayed where he was, a small brown image, concealed by the leaves. Even if he shut his eyes the sow's head still remained like an after-image. The half-shut eyes were dim with infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon that everything was a bad business.
W
ILLIAM
G
OLDING
,
Lord of the Flies
“We blew it.”
Easy Rider
1960: They had a stick sharpened at both ends
.
L
OW
M
EN IN
Y
ELLOW
C
OATS
I. A BOY AND HIS MOTHER. BOBBY'S BIRTHDAY. THE NEW ROOMER. OF TIME AND STRANGERS.
Bobby Garfield's father had been one of those fellows who start losing their hair in their twenties and are completely bald by the age of forty-five or so. Randall Garfield was spared this extremity by dying of a heart attack at thirty-six. He was a real-estate agent, and breathed his last on the kitchen floor of someone else's house. The potential buyer was in the living room, trying to call an ambulance on a disconnected phone, when Bobby's dad passed away. At this time Bobby was three. He had vague memories of a man tickling him and then kissing his cheeks and his forehead. He was pretty sure that man had been his dad.
SADLY MISSED
, it said on Randall Garfield's gravestone, but his mom never seemed all that sad, and as for Bobby himself . . . well, how could you miss a guy you could hardly remember?
Eight years after his father's death, Bobby fell violently in love with the twenty-six-inch Schwinn in the window of the Harwich Western Auto. He hinted to his mother about the Schwinn in every way he knew, and finally pointed it out to her one night when they were walking home from the movies (the show had been
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
, which Bobby didn't understand but liked anyway, especially the part where Dorothy McGuire flopped back in a chair and showed off her long legs). As they passed the hardware store, Bobby mentioned casually that the bike in the
window would sure make a great eleventh-birthday present for some lucky kid.
“Don't even think about it,” she said. “I can't afford a bike for your birthday. Your father didn't exactly leave us well off, you know.”
Although Randall had been dead ever since Truman was President and now Eisenhower was almost done with his eight-year cruise,
Your father didn't exactly leave us well off
was still his mother's most common response to anything Bobby suggested which might entail an expenditure of more than a dollar. Usually the comment was accompanied by a reproachful look, as if the man had run off rather than died.
No bike for his birthday. Bobby pondered this glumly on their walk home, his pleasure at the strange, muddled movie they had seen mostly gone. He didn't argue with his mother, or try to coax herâthat would bring on a counterattack, and when Liz Garfield counterattacked she took no prisonersâbut he brooded on the lost bike . . . and the lost father. Sometimes he almost hated his father. Sometimes all that kept him from doing so was the sense, unanchored but very strong, that his mother wanted him to. As they reached Commonwealth Park and walked along the side of itâtwo blocks up they would turn left onto Broad Street, where they livedâhe went against his usual misgivings and asked a question about Randall Garfield.
“Didn't he leave anything, Mom? Anything at all?” A week or two before, he'd read a Nancy Drew mystery where some poor kid's inheritance had been hidden behind an old clock in an abandoned mansion. Bobby didn't really think his father had left gold coins or rare stamps stashed someplace, but if there was
something
, maybe they could sell it in Bridgeport. Possibly at one of the hockshops. Bobby didn't know exactly how hocking things worked, but he knew what the shops looked likeâthey had three gold balls hanging out front. And he was sure the hockshop guys would be happy to help them. Of course it was just a kid's dream, but Carol Gerber up the street had a whole set of dolls her father, who was in the Navy, had sent from overseas. If fathers
gave
thingsâwhich they didâit stood to reason that fathers sometimes
left
things.
When Bobby asked the question, they were passing one of the streetlamps which ran along this side of Commonwealth Park, and Bobby saw his mother's mouth change as it always did when he ventured a question about his late father. The change made him think of a purse she had: when you pulled on the drawstrings, the hole at the top got smaller.