The Art and Craft of Stephen King: The Story Behind Every Novel, Novella, and Short Story by Guy Astic and Frank Lafond
Credit due to Guy Astic and Frank Lafond, authors of the
massive, encyclopedic entry into Stephen King’s universe titled The Art and Craft of Stephen King: The Story Behind Every Novel, Novella, and Short Story, for providing fans with a
wonderful reference to all of King’s work, and in some cases, making intertextual
connections to allow readers to see references to characters, places and events
that frequently occur from Derry to Castle Rock. Astic and Lafond have covered
nearly all of the bases in King’s writing and filmography, providing the
background to the stories, novels, and novellas, while also noting literary
allusions and influences that King incorporated in his writing. Each chapter of
the book closely examines one book, with some chapters focused on short story
collections, examining themes within the collections, while also noting how the
stories may relate to other novels that arrived later in King’s career. I
especially loved the sidebars “For King Addicts”, where the authors provide
some deeper level knowledge for King fans, whether it’s personal connections
and history from King related to a specific book, or what was happening in King’s
life at the time of the writing of the book. It’s fascinating to learn some of
these hidden tidbits about some of my favorite books by one of my favorite
authors. Each chapter also has a section that focuses on the screen adaptation
of the book, allowing fans to learn more about how these novels were adapted
for the big screen and helped to further cement King’s status as the modern
master of horror. While I loved learning more about the writing behind these
books, I think learning about the film adaptations was also fascinating—especially
as they note how King’s bankability took a hit in the 80s after the success of Carrie.
I actually didn’t realize that George Romero initially wanted to adapt The Stand,
but due to budget constraints and the lengthy book, it was never adapted to the
big screen, yet has had 2 television miniseries adaptations. Similarly, there
have been about 10 films adapted in various forms from Night Shift, although
there are nearly that many sequels to Children of the Corn. This chapter
examined the variability in adapting King’s work for the screen, especially as King
has often not been involved in the screenwriting process for many of these films.
He infamously ended up directing Maximum Overdrive based on the Night
Shift story “Trucks”. I remember loving Maximum Overdrive when I was
like 10, and reading about the production of the film made me want to watch it
again. The section on this book also made me want to check out some of the
lesser-known adaptations from the 90s like The Mangler and Sometimes
They Come Back. This book also has one of the most recent King adaptations,
The Long Walk, which was first published under King’s pseudonym, Richard
Bachman. In fact, the Bachman books are also included in this collection—even Rage,
which has been taken out of print. Astic and Lafond have left no Castle Rock
unturned in their examination and exploration of King’s work.
While I enjoyed this massive 650 page book, I think it would
work better as a physical book. I am grateful to Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
and NetGalley for sharing an advanced digital copy of this wonderful book with
me, but as other reviewers have mentioned, the digital formatting was not ideal
for a book like this. I think the various photos, promotional materials, and
other King ephemera would be better enjoyed in clear photos in a physical copy
of the book. The scanned images were a little blurry, and whether it was the
scanning or formatting of the digital files, the smaller type of the pages were
harder to read than other digital books. Nevertheless, this book has proven to
be one of the Needful Things for King’s number one fans. I’ll be on the
lookout (or maybe the Overlook) for a physical copy at my local bookstore, allowing
me to get lost in King’s mythical and malevolent worlds, whether it’s the sewars
of Derry or the dome of Chester’s Mill. This is an amazing reference for King’s
world. Highly recommended!
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