That almost never happens.Īll of the novellas are related by characters with two selves-the light, good public face that most of the world sees and then the dark, evil face or self that comes out during the worst times. I read this story in broad daylight on the subway and it terrified me, yet was so engrossing that I almost missed my stop. It’s like a palpable mass that is much more frightening, I think, than the rats could ever be.
That’s what got me the most in this story-the crippling guilt that the farmer and his son carry around with them after doing the deed. Shortly after the man murders his wife, rats begin to plague him, but these aren’t normal rats-they’re supernatural rats the size of house cats, which seem to equal the amount of guilt that he carries around with him. Since he can’t talk his wife into what he wants, he decides to kill her, enlisting the help of his fourteen-year-old son, and that of course is just the beginning of their problems. Her husband wants to add the land to his and farm it. She has inherited land from her father that’s worth a lot of money and wants to sell it and move to the city where she can open a shop.
This story ended up being my favorite in the book, dealing with a farmer right before the Great Depression who has a contrary wife. So happy, I cracked it right open on the subway trip home to read the first story of the collection, “1922.” I had finally picked up Peter Straub’s latest collection of short stories and resigned myself to that when I made one last pass near the One-Week Book Express and found a library cart nearby with King’s new book on it. I visited the shelf three different times at the Mid-Manhattan Library, hoping the supply would be replenished, but each time there would be no King-only Laurell K. I haunted the library’s one-week express bookshelf, looking for Stephen King’s latest four novellas titled Full Dark, No Stars.
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