Hearts in Atlantis — Book Review
One of Stephen King’s most underrated collections is 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…
