One of Stephen King's most underrated collections turns 25 this year.
Stephen King has been writing about precocious children for most of his career. From The Shining, Firestarter, The Dark Tower, and It, to more recent works like Fairy Tale and The Institute, King has always been fascinated about the process of growing up and losing one’s innocence, but never fails to also capture the unique magic of childhood—the sweetness as well as the horrors.
Hearts in Atlantis is a collection of interconnected novellas and short stories. The first of these novellas, Low Men in Yellow Coats, generally goes underappreciated but I think serves as one King’s most successful explorations of childhood to date. Taking place in 1960, it follows eleven-year-old Bobby and the relationship he forms with the unusual older man who has recently moved into his building. This is the best story of the bunch but calling it a novella doesn’t do it justice—it’s certainly longer than many novels I’ve read and takes up the bulk of the book. I perhaps think that I enjoyed it the most simply because I spent the most time with it, but there are several elements that really made it stand out.
Bobby’s relationship with his mother is complex. There is love between them, but it’s not unconditional, and following along with Bobby’s insights into his mother’s psyche makes for wonderful reading. Bobby walks a tightrope to keep on his mother’s good side. King paints this relationship with a particularly stinging sadness—and stands apart from his other works in how he forces us to linger on a child’s relationship with a dysfunctional adult.
On the other hand, Bobby’s relationship with Ted, his new upstairs neighbour, is one that will touch your heart. Bobby’s father died when he was an infant, and perhaps there’s nothing new in a boy developing a father-son relationship with a kind, older gentleman, but this one feels special. There’s something so heartfelt about the specific way these two bond, and the ending will have you yearning for more.
Ted is a bit of a mystery, and unless you’ve read along with King’s fantasy series The Dark Tower (which I thoroughly recommend), you’ll probably finding yourself wondering just how crazy Ted might be, but I wouldn’t consider the series to be required reading for enjoying the story. Tons of King’s stories tie into his magnum opus, but he always does it with the understanding that most readers won’t have read The Dark Tower.
Overall, Hearts in Atlantis is worth reading just for Low Men in Yellow Coats. There isn’t as much in terms of the horror and scares one might expect from King here, but it certainly contains one of his most tenderly drawn relationships ever. Moving on, Hearts in Atlantis is the name of the second novella. Taking place in 1966, this story follows the turmoil of Pete Riley, freshmen at University of Maine. Pete is addicted to a card game called ‘Hearts’ and his infatuated with a girl called Carol (who plays a prominent role in Low Men in Yellow Coats). Plot-wise, there’s not much going on in this story, but King creates a fascinating picture of University life right as young men are being conscripted to Vietnam, just before protesting the war became commonplace.
The main tension of the story comes from the fact that if Pete flunks his classes, he’ll lose his scholarship, get kicked out of college, and end up getting drafted. It’s life or death, but his entire floor at his dorm can’t seem to escape the pull of Hearts. Watching him spiral, and trying to pull himself out of it, makes for fun reading, and King creates a large cast of entertaining secondary characters that form the heart of the story. King is the master of horror, sure, but he’s also the master of creating minor characters that shine like stars for the brief moments they’re on the page. I enjoyed this novella, but didn’t quite have the same impact me as the first one.
Blind Willie is the first of the short stories, and also the best. There’s a fun mystery in tracking Willie Shearman as he goes about his day. I won’t spoil anything that happens, but it’s safe to say that he’s a very unusual man. Learning why he’s turned out this way is where the emotion of the story is. It ties into the previous novellas, and I found it very effective, although the ending did leave me hanging a little, ending on a turning point in the plot that never gets resolved.
Why We’re in Vietnam follows John-Sullivan, Bobby’s childhood friend from the first novella, as he attends the funeral of one of his army buddies, and reflects on his experiences in Vietnam. There isn’t a huge amount of tension to be found here, but there is a catharsis to be found in the rage John Sullivan and his old lieutenant exude at how poorly the war was run, and how vets struggle to reintegrate with society. It’s perhaps a more cerebral story than I’m used to from King, but that said, there’s still a ghost in it, so I really can’t complain. The final story, Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling, serves as a coda to the whole book. I won’t get into it for spoiler reasons, but it really tied things up nicely, bringing a touching conclusion to a plotline that had been running in the background of the previous stories.
Overall, Hearts in Atlantis is a worthwhile collection from King. If you’re a fan, I would definitely recommend tracking yourself down a copy to experience some of his best, underrated stories, and if you’re new to him, I think you’ll find yourself surprised at the range and depth of his writing.
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