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A review by rymrgard
Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Tod. Vier Kurzromane by Stephen King
2.0
This is not a bad book. It‘s just not for me, not at this time.
Maybe it‘s because I‘ve been told over and over again that this is King‘s best shortnovels collection, but I can‘t help being disappointed. I DNFed this at about 80%, roughly 2/3 done with The Body.
I liked Shawshank Redemption but it wasn‘t as phenomenal as I expected it to be. Still, I‘m glad I read it and this story is the reason why I picked this collection up in the first place, so it definitely wasn‘t a waste of time.
Apt Pupil I disliked, but finished. It certainly didn‘t help that one of the voice actors for the German audiobook version wasn‘t the best (if it had just been the other I might have enjoyed it more).
The Body was fine up until the point I stopped, but it didn‘t grip me. I‘m not in the mood for childhood nostalgia and I certainly don‘t look back to my years being a 12 year old fondly (nor do I think that my friends back then were the best friends I ever had. In fact, I cherish the ones I have now much more than any that came before them) — so I guess it‘s understandable that the emotions this story tries to evoke (with much success, if reviews are to be believed) left me rather cold. This doesn‘t make this story a bad one — just the timing.
The Breathing Method I haven‘t tried, so can‘t comment on that one.
If I owned this collection as a novel or if I had borrowed it from the library I would have finished it — especially since I had already come so far.
But since I listened to it from Audible — and returning a book one has finished, though possible, is rude and bad practice — I decided to stop here. Realising that opening the app felt more like a chore or a job waiting to be finished than entertainment feels like enough justification to DNF (a skill I‘m trying to learn this year).
Maybe I‘m also just oversaturated with King for the moment — I have read a lot of Stephen King in a row, which I usually don‘t — so maybe, if I feel like it, I will return to both The Body and The Breathing Method one day — or Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, at least.
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This was read in March, 2024. No date is added since I added the stories individually.
2.5 stars
Maybe it‘s because I‘ve been told over and over again that this is King‘s best shortnovels collection, but I can‘t help being disappointed. I DNFed this at about 80%, roughly 2/3 done with The Body.
I liked Shawshank Redemption but it wasn‘t as phenomenal as I expected it to be. Still, I‘m glad I read it and this story is the reason why I picked this collection up in the first place, so it definitely wasn‘t a waste of time.
Apt Pupil I disliked, but finished. It certainly didn‘t help that one of the voice actors for the German audiobook version wasn‘t the best (if it had just been the other I might have enjoyed it more).
The Body was fine up until the point I stopped, but it didn‘t grip me. I‘m not in the mood for childhood nostalgia and I certainly don‘t look back to my years being a 12 year old fondly (nor do I think that my friends back then were the best friends I ever had. In fact, I cherish the ones I have now much more than any that came before them) — so I guess it‘s understandable that the emotions this story tries to evoke (with much success, if reviews are to be believed) left me rather cold. This doesn‘t make this story a bad one — just the timing.
The Breathing Method I haven‘t tried, so can‘t comment on that one.
If I owned this collection as a novel or if I had borrowed it from the library I would have finished it — especially since I had already come so far.
But since I listened to it from Audible — and returning a book one has finished, though possible, is rude and bad practice — I decided to stop here. Realising that opening the app felt more like a chore or a job waiting to be finished than entertainment feels like enough justification to DNF (a skill I‘m trying to learn this year).
Maybe I‘m also just oversaturated with King for the moment — I have read a lot of Stephen King in a row, which I usually don‘t — so maybe, if I feel like it, I will return to both The Body and The Breathing Method one day — or Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, at least.
___________________
This was read in March, 2024. No date is added since I added the stories individually.
2.5 stars