The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams – by Stephen King

‘The Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ seems like a perfect title for a collection of short stories by Stephen King. Just in case the analogy might be hard to envision, King himself explains it in the book’s Forward.  My only complaint about such a title is that the majority of these stories won’t cause anyone to have nightmares.

Stephen King seems to be enjoying his moniker as a ‘horror’ author, but his readers know the limitations of the label.  Stephen King writes about so much more, and the short stories within this compendium cover a large gamut. A better title might be ‘Bazaar of the Bizarre’, but my guess is that, if King ever contemplated this as a title, he quickly dismissed it as a tad silly and contrived.

I believe this is King’s sixth (fifth?? seventh??) compilation of short stories, and I came away with the feeling that these were among his best. Of course, I’d be lying if I told you I can remember all the stories from his past collections. That’s the problem with short stories. The shorter the story, the less likely it resides in one’s memory. Still, though, the journey this time around is quite pleasant; even though I’ll probably forget half of these stories a couple of years from now.

Like all of King’s collections of abbreviated tales, there’s a mixed bag in both quality and length.  A few stories seem to have the potential to be something different; something more, but many times King wraps up the tale earlier than one would like. Overall, there were only one or two stories that I felt were subpar.  I also maintain that the great Stephen King still has limitations. He still can’t do a good job coming up with believable dialogue when young children are talking, and all of his characters spout more four-letter words than characters in a Martin Scorsese movie about the mafia.  There’s even a story about characters in their nineties in a nursing home where the nonagenarians filth and foul at an alarming rate.  Maybe it’s me, but 99% of the people I come in contact with simply don’t (thankfully) talk like this.

The pros far outweigh the cons though. Stephen King simply tells great stories. In fact, each of these tales features a brief introduction by King himself that lasts a page or two, and these reflections are just as endearing as the actual stories.  King can be quite funny as well.  One of my favorite stories here, ‘Obit’, had me cackling with laughter so loud, that when reading on my porch in the backyard, I’m sure my neighbors on the other side of the fence might have been concerned for by well-being. I should point out that this tale is not a comedy, but the characters’ humorous musings are what makes it (and many other stories here) so entertaining.

It's also been brought to my attention that several of these stories have been released before in some form (‘Under the Weather’, for example, was included as a bonus story in the paperback version of his four novella piece ‘Full Dark, No Stars’), and this fact seems to annoy a select few of the faithful.  I guess there are some diehards that will go to great lengths to obtain these stories when they’re first released in an unconventional manner (Kindle singles, bonus stories, magazine inclusions, etc.), so be forewarned that not everything here is necessarily ‘new’.  Most, like me, are fine with this, but there does seem to be a handful of angry Amazon reviewers that feel otherwise.

A great inclusion to the man’s work, and a handy collection if one doesn’t want to necessarily endure an 800-page work devoted to only one story of gore, guts, and……well…..the bizarre.