Hearts in Suspension

by Stephen King

This publication marks the 50th anniversary of Stephen King’s entrance into the University of Maine at Orono in the fall of 1966. The accelerating war in Vietnam and great social upheaval at home exerted a profound impact on students of the period and deeply influenced King’s development as a writer and as a man.

King’s fictional treatment of this experience in his novella “Hearts in Atlantis” (reprinted in this volume) tracks his youthful avatar, Peter Riley, through the awakenings and heartbreak of his turbulent first year at UMaine. In his accompanying essay, “Five to One, One in Five,” written expressly for this volume, King sheds his fictional persona and takes on the challenge of a nonfiction return to his undergraduate experience. The stereoscopic combination of these narratives, told with King’s characteristic blend of canny insight and self-deprecating humor, create a revealing portrait of the artist as young man and a ground-level tableau of this highly charged time.

In addition, twelve fellow students and friends from King’s college days contribute personal narratives recalling their own experience of those years. These recollections—engaged, irreverent, and affecting—bring dimension and texture to the collective witnessing of a formative time in their lives and a defining moment in the country’s history.

This book also includes four installments of King’s never-before-reprinted student newspaper column, “King’s Garbage Truck.” These lively examples of King’s damn-the-torpedoes style, entertaining and shrewd in their youthful perceptions, more than hint at a talent about to take its place in the American literary landscape.

A gallery of period photographs and documents augments this volume.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Essays, Horror, Writing

373 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2016

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Fred Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I hate to lay a 3 star rating on one of my favorite authors, I feel it is justified in this case. This book is divided into several sections - a collection of King's student paper articles from the University of Maine, essays by his classmates on the "times", a reprint of the novella "Hearts in Atlantis" and some fresh bio material from King called "Five to One, One in Five". I enjoyed the novella when it was first published. Like King, I am a baby boomer who went to college in a small New England town so identify strongly with the story (and with King) so I would award 4 stars based on that previously published story.

However, the essays by friends tended to vary in quality and content and although it was a nice walk down memory lane, other than Jim Bishop's contribution, I was not too impressed.

I did find the bio section King wrote interesting but what drove me nuts was the use of footnotes. The material footnoted could easily have been incorporated into the narrative as they were informative in nature, not referential. He used 65 footnotes in 76 pages of material which caused the reading experience to be a jerky journey indeed. Not sure why he went overboard in this fashion but it really spoiled the flow for me.

On to another topic related to King. I notice his upcoming books are joint author publications, "Gwendy's Button Box" with Richard Chizman and "Sleeping Beauties" with his son Owen King. This is a trend that seems to me to be profiteering, following in the footsteps of James Patterson and Janet Evanovich where they team up with someone else to do the writing then slap the name of the more famous author in bigger type and laugh all the way to the bank. I know that King has teamed with Peter Straub in the past but since I found those less satisfying than King working alone, I think I will pass on the new ones. Sorry, Steve.

[Medhat The Fanatic Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 4th signed Stephen King book is finally here!!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh. Maybe I should have waited a year or so to read this one. Waaaay too soon after that stupid mess of an election cycle to read something so politically-charged. Of course, maybe my stupid ass should have remembered the book was basically 350+ pages of thoughts & ideas from King and his fellow students at UMO during the height of the Vietnam war. D'oh.

[Jeffrey Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoa nelly. In all my reading of Stephen King through the years my top favorite King books have been The Dead Zone & Hearts in Atlantis so when I first read that the novella Hearts in Atlantis was going to be the focus of a book edited by Jim Bishop, a former King teacher at UMO and it was being put out by the University of Maine Press I went directly to the web site for the University of Maine and ordered myself a copy. It arrived this past Monday and I have been steady reading in my spare time since. What a delightful book. Not only do we get the original novella, King's fictionalized account of his freshmen year at UMO, but we also get a new essay by Stephen King about those years as they happened and a new intro to the story by the author. Along with that is a few selections from "King's Garbage Truck" a column he wrote for the UMO campus paper, a section of illustrations from that time and a essays from a dozen people who were at UMO at the same time King attended. Most of these centered on the activism of the time and the writings they all were undertaking. A lot of them talk about a seminar course in the fall of 1968 offered by Bishop and his teaching colleague Burt Hatlen. Some of the class discussions took place at Bishop's home and what seems to be remembered the most is the magic of that time by those who participated. One thing I would have liked to have seen here amongst the other essays is one by Tabitha King but alas...
Overall those this is an outstanding look at a favorite novellla from a favorite book by King. The books itself is very handsome and well made. It is a wonderful delight and one of the best reads for me of the 2016. What a great book.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was in high school I sort of set up a mythology to follow, and have found it difficult to escape from ever since. You see, I went to Lisbon High School, and saw Stephen King's books prominently displayed in the library, and heard the tale of the teacher, whom I also had, who told King he didn't write very well. And then for my sophomore year of college I transferred to the University of Maine. If you can guess that King attended both these institutions, you have a better grasp of the obvious and how little it really matters in the grand scheme of things than I've managed over the years. I mean, plenty of Maine kids have the same story, right?

When I was at UMaine, there was a fortieth anniversary celebration of King's years there, and I attended an event commemorating it, where King spoke (literally the closest I've ever actually come into contact with him...way back in the seats from the stage where he sat comfortably reminiscing).

So at the fiftieth anniversary mark, one of King's old professors helped put together a book about it, and...of course I had to read it. I mean, right?

The book is as much about King's experiences on campus as it is a reflection of the counter-culture and activism he participated in at the time. I doubt King's many fans think of him that way, but as someone who idiotically "followed in his footsteps," it's something I knew about. Hearts in Suspension helps flesh the scene out, not only with words from King himself but from people who knew him and were also involved, in various ways and capacities, folks who knew him as a columnist (in high school I also remember being informed, and shown, this neglected aspect of his academic legacy), reader, writer, and activist.

Through all of it it's very easy to get a sense of who King is and how he developed, both before and during his college years. Even though the book was put out by UMaine and thus proved a little tricky to find, it's very easy to recommend to fans wanting to know more about him, one of his rare nonfiction works, and yeah, insight into his generation. I could offer thoughts in that regard, but for the purposes of a review they're neither here nor there.

Suffice to say, it was all worth reading. If anything, the essays at the back of the book help make sense, give a context, to King's contributions, including the novella reprint from Hearts in Atlantis, which is a kind of predecessor to "The Body" (Stand by Me), even though it was written later (if that makes sense to you, congratulations) and isn't as good.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I had read “Hearts in Atlantis” quite some time ago. I remember it at the time as being a good, solid story but, in truth, I might not have been old enough, retrospective enough, to appreciate it as much as I did in this second reading.

In the runup to the 50th anniversary of Stephen King’s entering the University of Maine ( known as UMO, the O for Orono the small town the school is located in) in the fall of 1966 he was approached by the University’s Press about a commemorative piece of writing.

It was decided that King would write a non fiction piece about his time on campus as well as contribute a reprint of the “Hearts in Atlantis “ piece. To round out the collection essays would be contributed by many of his contemporaries from the school at that time.

The essays were all very interesting giving a strong sense of the time and place of King’s and those in college in the late sixties.

I made quite a few notes.

King writes an essay about his experiences at Orono from 1966 to 1970. He writes in this nonfiction piece about how that time feels like Atlantis. A period of time that was and then wasn’t, disappeared in a mist, leaving one wondering if it really happened.

I think one could make the argument that, for many of us, our college experience is indeed like Atlantis, indeed perhaps our whole youth is.

King talks about when he got to college in 1966 he considered himself a loyal Republican. Maine was Republican. He was pro Vietnam. He even wrote an early letter to the campus newspaper excoriating protesters of the war. He acknowledges voting for Nixon in 68 believing Nixon’s claim of a secret plan to end the war. When it became apparent Nixon’s plan was to increase the bombing King’s viewpoint changed and he became a regular protester on campus and in his writings on the campus paper.

One could argue that as King’s deferment’s expiration at graduation approached his realization of his potential draft status changing his opinion. Except he failed his physical. No his change was organic, in a sense why young people should go to college, to broaden their exposures. Of course this is the nightmare for those rock ribbed Republicans, that exposure to liberal college ideas and mores will change their already groomed Conservatives

He talks about his first year roommate from the small town of Whiting, Maine. Who surprised him when King was still pro Vietnam and a believer in the domino theory being heavily propagated as reason for US involvement in Southeast Asia. His roommate Harold Crosby pointed out the difference between what was going on in Eastern Europe and a civil war to end the effect of colonialism in Vietnam.

He writes about being on a freeway on-ramp preparing to hitchhike across America in the summer of 1968. He was Listening to “Angel of the Morning” on a little transistor radio, when the news came on after the song he learned what had befallen Bobby Kennedy the night before at The Ambassador Hotel.

I can so relate to that. So many of my memories are deeply wound in and around music. To the point that the song will trigger the memory, not the opposite. A brain scientist could explain why.

He talks about attending a large rally on the Orono campus after Kent State and feeling, even in the midst of the energetic rally, a sense of disillusionment and loss, like the end was written. The sell out was coming, for him and most of his cohorts.

He ends the essay by talking of an afternoon of sunshine and beer in the weeks before graduation when he and his friend Flip were mockingly speaking about their homogenized future that lay ahead. Golf pants, ranch houses in the suburbs, 2.5 children and Saturday afternoon barbecues A young woman, Flip’s girlfriend at the time, rebuked them saying “ we had barbeques on Saturday afternoon. The whole neighbourhood jam. My dad would cook hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill, and all the kids will play in the backyard pool. We had fun. I don’t hate my parents were having no Saturday afternoon barbecues. I love them for it.”

He admits that he and his friend felt shamed. It is a good reminder that whatever your mocking might have real meaning to someone else. He writes that he “doesn’t want to make too much of this, it wasn’t a dramatic moment, but I remember it with great clarity, possibly because it was where the end of something started to happen. If so, it was a gentle enough ending. May be a reminder that, even when Atlantis sinks, it’s possible to swim away.

In this same essay he talks about the dislocation of seeing someone twenty, thirty years later after there time on the “Island of Atlantis.” It so made me think of how I felt seeing a college friend of mine at a sporting event last spring. Good, great in fact, but unsettled for days after. The passing of time is never illuminated as much by your own mirror as it is by seeing a person, once closer to you than a brother, that you have not seen for a couple decades.

To quote King “at the party, much to my surprise, appeared a former department colleague from the Atlantis years, a buddy of mine at the time, very much in sync with the vibration of those years. As we shook hands, I felt the contrails of our old affection, but also a distinct awkwardness on his part, as if he were encountering an apparition from another life, which,in a way he was. “I’d have to be drunk to talk to you now he said.” Far from being insulted, I completely got it. The old lingua franca was lost. Back there, somewhere,blowing in the wind.”

I relate so well to this feeling, at the time wishing to be transported to a shitty apartment with a keg in the corner to put us both at ease.

In the fiction piece “Hearts in Atlantis” King offers a fictionalized version of his years at the University of Maine. Peter Riley is a kid from a small town in Western Maine who, like King has come to school with the opinions of his small town. He describes the fall of that year as a fever dream as the boys on his floor become captured by the game of Hearts. A simple card game that goes amok and endangers the whole groups pursuit of their studies.

At the same time rumblings of what is to come start to appear on campus. A protest when a defense department contractor recruits on campus, a protest at the local recruiting station. At this he is surprised to see that his staid, quiet roommate as well as a girl he has started seeing, has attended.

In reading this book and King’s memories of Atlantis I am struck with the similarities of his experience and my own. Even though I’m about half a generation younger than he, we grew up in the same area, and truthfully, despite the “sixties,” not much changed in small town Maine in those years, nor at the state universities we both attended.

My own experience was an interchangeable group who met most weeknights at ten o’clock to play poker. We never were as hooked or controlled by the game as the characters in Kings book. The sense of camaraderie between the players, the booze, cigarettes, vulgar jokes, it was all there. When he describes the cafeteria, the hallways, the central lounges. I mean, I know, it’s not as if millions of college kids did not have the same experience but it feels aimed at me.

Add to that the fact that the story is set in a campus I know well, a town I’ve experienced, Mill street, the Steam Plant and it might be Kings best aim at my biography. (much less his.)

In a phrase I use probably too much, a story like this just drips with the nostalgia of my own experience.

Of course as opposed to those of us who flunked out in the late seventies, those in King’s generation had a much larger threat than a bad grade or their parents disappointment should that befall them. As Peter King’s girlfriend or his Mother made sure he understood, failure in college might well mean a change in location to a whole world away in a short time.

I have always maintained in my safe, suburban adulthood that a draft with no exceptions ( for the wealthy or connected or national guard ) would greatly forestall America’s military adventurism. That said the pressure of knowing what was behind door number two must have been a heavy burden.

This is a great story.

In the essay by David Bright he uses a phrase I like “If you grow up with a piano in your house you think everyone has a piano in their house.” That is a pretty relatable statement in both the positive and negative, especially when a young person leaves home to live in a communal environment with people raised in many different circumstances

[wally · Rating 2 out of 5]

wouldn't waste your time with king unless you get off on trashing others while simultaneously proclaiming all should be acceptable and honky dory.

and hey, recall the foreword to one of king's works where he assumes the role of a sleazy hispanic looking to make a deal? meester? you do? or you don't? either way, look for one review where someone calls HIM on his racism...and you won't find it because that's the way it goes.

so, knock yourself out if you're of that mindset. me, i will not.

[Caitlin Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost gave up hope that this book would get here in time. Being overseas it’s not uncommon for things to take months to get to us. But yesterday I went to the post office to get the packages. The man scanned my ID and told me we had three before running off to get them. I waited in the pick up line and when he returned with two packages part of me still hoped the one addressed to my husband was the book. Only it wasn’t. I recounted the two packages wondering where the third was before pointing out to him that he’d said there were three. Rescanning a package he apologized before hurrying to get the last one. Inside was this book. With two days to spare before New Years. When we got home my husband jokingly declared, “We’ve lost your mother.” While I fretted over whether it was wrong to break the plastic seal. Of course I had to or I couldn’t read it. While reading I also took notes.

At one point Stephen King expresses a dislike for Tommyknockers and Maximum Overdrive. Though as a child Maximum Overdrive was one of my favorite movies, and as an adult I found the short story to be even better. It was interesting because it was a fun idea, no matter how ridiculous it was.

I read the book until around two a.m. At which point I decided to get some sleep and woke up with a reading hangover. For those of you who get reading hangovers it’s usually to do with knots that occur where the neck meets the shoulders. Yoga, hydration, heat, and massages can help. Usually I’d rest until my head ache dissipated, but I had a stubborn goal, and this was really my last book for the year. Despite my earlier statements that it was beyond my control because it was lost in the mail, I still felt as if I were cheating without it.

Fate must have come into play at some point because I can’t imagine a better book to save for last. I was reading them in chronological order by release date, but it felt right learning more about the actual author and his friends, and what life was like back then.

Despite the fact I’ve already read Hearts in Atlantis, I didn’t skip it. That would also be cheating. I read the whole book. The parts about the campus protests really got to me. To hear people threw eggs and rocks. I’m a pacifist, and the idea of trying to squelch someone’s freedom of speech through violence is beyond violating. That is one of the most essential freedoms. People died so that we could say we don’t like our president, or we disagree with sending people to war. That is vital to a society that prides itself on freedom. As a child I worried that I might never get to exercise this right, and that because of that those soldiers deaths would be in vein. So I went out of my way to do so, in a weird way of honoring them. I would refuse to say the Pledge of allegiance to show my allegiance and appreciation of them. I had a lot of nonsensical thoughts that only made sense to me as a child. But I never did anything as crazy and fun as bringing Chickens to school. I felt bad knowing someone ate them, but at least their life held purpose and meaning.

There were a lot of insightful thoughts in this book, and it was written by more than Stephen King, I learned more about the War from this book than I learned in all my history classes combined. Mostly they told us vague things and it was only glossed over. This book gave it depth and meaning. It should be required reading not just in English class, but in American History as well.

I apologize for not editing this reflection before posting. My book hangover is preventing me from having any cohesive lines of thoughts. Hopefully I'll remember to come back and do so once it passes.

Thank you for the stories, it’s been a hell of a year.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen King's novel Hearts In Atlantis explored the college experience in the 1960s. What I didn't fully realize is how much that tale was based on his own college experience at University of Maine Orono.

The novella "Hearts In Atlantis" is included in this volume published by U of Maine Press and was later expanded into the novel. What is most compelling here is that King and several of his contemporaries from that time have included essays about college in the '60s and I'm not sure I've ever read anything that evoked that turbulent time so perfectly.

I was about 15 years behind this particular story and my college experience was vastly different. But something in this spoke to me on a deep level. I used to wish that I came of age during that time; I've come to realize that it wasn't idyllic and was often horrible. It was deadly for many of those sent to the jungle and it was even deadly for a few here back home.

Many of the contributors seemed to struggle with their remembrances of that time. They still cherish the idealism and their efforts to make a difference. Some of them continued their activism long past their college days. But I also sensed a deep pain for what was lost. Innocence? Idealism? Hope? None of it entirely gone but altered in a fundamental way. A fleeting moment in time that is impossible to recapture. This, from contributor Keith Carreiro:

"The strength of our passion did make a difference. Yet, why the hell do I still feel like I failed? Some of us palpably felt something in our national fiber had given way, seemed to be unraveling before our eyes. Something sacred was being shitcanned, crapped on by the furies of hell being unleashed on the land that Woody Guthrie so cherished."

It made my heart hurt for a time that I was too young to experience. I must have a little of that spark in me, though, for this book to strike such a chord in me. I wonder if we all might have a bit of that spark in us and I wonder if it is being fanned into flames right at this very moment. Maybe someone will write about this moment in time fifty years from now and wonder if this was the moment that people made a difference. I hope so.

To cut away from too much introspection, I'll include a few quotes from King that I really enjoyed.

"God bless Harold C. of Whiting, Maine, who began the job of opening my mind. That opening is, of course, what college is really meant to do."

"I was a reader, you see, and books are an acid that eats away comfortable preconceptions."

"Fiction has the power to change lives."

"Then I turned on the radio and the music made things a little better. The music always does. I'm past fifty now, and the music still makes things better; it's the fabled automatic."

I'm right there with you, Mr. King.

[Kevin Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you discover there’s a Stephen King book you’ve never heard of, let alone read, well, it’s enough to give any Constant Reader serious pangs of self-doubt. You might feel bad enough to slap on some clown makeup and climb down into the nearest sewer as a kind of self-imposed Constant Reader Jail. Maybe a little kid will come along and you can cheer yourself up by yanking his arm off.

Honestly, my Constant Reader status is shakier these days. I have not read a few of King’s most recent books, stories that seem to be more police procedurals than his terror-fests of the 80s, when he first snagged me. But I’ve read most of his work, and because of this man’s impact on my imagination—on my life, really—I am always sure to at least keep him in the corner of my eye. I want to know what he’s up to.

Hearts In Suspension is a unique and wonderful collection that focuses on King’s time at the University of Maine at the height of the Vietnam War. It includes the previously published novella Hearts In Atlantis, the story of a young man at UMaine in the late 60’s, Peter Riley, struggling to keep his grades up—to stay in school and out of the draft—while he and his friends waste their time playing cards in the student lounge.

If you’re going to read Hearts In Suspension, it helps if you have not read Hearts in Atlantis, as that story takes up a significant portion of this book. While a bit long, I enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis. It is classic King: a protagonist with a tattered but good soul, looking for love and stability while a supernatural terror waits just at the edge of his vision. Except here the terror is adulthood, or worse, the Vietnam jungle that could potentially end his life before he even gets to grapple with adulthood.

Hearts in Atlantis also has King’s usual cast of good friends, broken weirdos, annoying assholes, and dead-eyed authority figures pinwheeling around Peter. You have to admire King’s ability to write pricks. They’re in all of his stories, just like they’re all around us in real life. And they are fascinating, if you’re lucky enough to be able to observe from a distance.

Earlier in the book, King’s essay, “Five to One, One in Five” is a shoot-from-the-hip, “Here’s what I remember, I ain’t doing any research” take on his real life time at UMaine, which shows how good he is just spinning yarns from memory. Another reviewer said this essay could easily be another chapter in King’s autobiographical book On Writing, and I agree. I would’ve preferred it to come after Hearts in Atlantis in the running order—I’d rather read the fictional account first—but that’s just a nitpick.

King’s Garbage Truck is the column he wrote for the UMaine student newspaper, the Maine Campus. In his columns on the Vietnam War, you can see the beginning of King’s evolution from a Goldwater Republican to a Democrat, spurred on by what every serious historian now understands, and what the Pentagon knew at the time, was a tragic and unnecessary war. There’s also a funny piece he wrote about the imminent moon landing. It made me smile but also reminded me how fucking old everything is, present company included.

The personal essays from King’s friends and fellow students at UMaine were an unexpected treat in this book. In the best of these tales, King is a mostly polite but unkempt Sasquatch (King is tall, apparently, with long hair), lumbering around campus, always with a book in his pocket, banging out his next column for the school paper on a typewriter in the newspaper office, then shambling away without saying much.

Seen through his classmates’ eyes, King finally gets to play the monster of the story, not just by his random appearances in their essays, but more so by what glimpses of the younger King convey to the rest of us; we get to see the man before all of the demons he unleashed on our popular culture and in our personal nightmares. In a strange way, I found myself drawing parallels to the stories we hear about criminals and assassins in their formative years before they rose to infamy.

In King’s case, however, it was good infamy. In King we got someone who figured out the right way to bring horror into the world, through stories that are open to all, places where we can collectively hope for the best but prepare for the worst. And when the worst happens, because of course it will, we go on a hell of a ride. But we do it safely, and then we go home again.

[Juliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What follows concerns an island continent that rose from the water, existed for a brief time, then sank beneath the waves. Most of the stories that follow are mostly true.” Hearts in Suspension is both an ode to the late ‘60s at the University of Maine and an archive, or a written portrait, of Stephen King as a student, his writing career burgeoning and his success all but inevitable. This portrait appears partly through King’s semi-autobiographical novella ‘Hearts in Atlantis’, reprinted here with a new introduction, as well as through King’s essay ‘Five to One, One in Five: UMO in the ‘60s’, a personal history written solely for this volume. I enjoyed his reflectiveness, the light nostalgic wave always balanced with a sense of regret for his generation and the shape of what was yet to follow: “I thought there would be more than this; I really did.” There were also a series of reproductions from ‘King’s Garbage Truck’, a student column providing an insight into his early craft, and humour; there’s a great one on the moon landing that just smacks of King. In the book’s second half, King’s classmates and friends reminiscence, often blending personal reflection with socio-political historicising. The warm and funny essay by David Bright was a personal favourite, as well as Jim H. Smith’s, which perfectly observes that King’s “essential story” as “what happens to ordinary, decent people when their back is against the wall and they are stricken with paralyzing fear.”

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is of special interest to those of us who were fortunate enough to attend the University of Maine, Orono in the late 60s and early 70s and participate in the political, cultural, and artistic dialogue taking place in our college years. I was two years behind the Class of 1970 but the names and faces in Steven King's group are still familiar, nearly 50 years after I arrived in Orono. If you were there, you will want to read this book - and re-read King's "Hearts in Atlantis" which is included here. The visiting poets, the coffee house, the response to Kent State, the early protests which drew such an angry, threatened response from conservatives (today we might call them the Alt-Right) are described here in personal essays - each writer allowing memories to flow and at times flood. The challenge at our age might be for each of us to engage those memories on our own, sit down to record them in some fashion, both for posterity and for our families. Every generation has challenges, every generation has its own crucible - ours was overwhelmingly defined by Viet Nam, civil rights, and the women's movement. Bracketed by high school, for most of us, and perhaps closing with Nixon's resignation after Watergate. So long ago, but still so relevant to 2017. "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem." Cheers to my alma mater.

[Susan Emmet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn the rating system and full ahead 5!
I just simply loved this auto/bio/historical collection of previously printed SK work plus new stuff by him and 12 other compadres from 50 years ago. Jim Bishop, one of their teachers, came up with the idea for the book.
I know my reactions are rooted in the fact that I was in school down the road in Lewiston between 1967 and 1971 and so many of the fragments/memories/recollections/suppositions rang clear for me. The struggles of freshman year, the endless card games, the dropping out, the hazing, the cancellation of classes, the burgeoning awareness of so much about war, race, women, men, parietal hours, beanies, being campused for infractions, nighttime musings and arguments - and growth into what you could or might become.
All just sent me traveling back in time, gladly and sadly. I wish the 60s language so often referred to was still spoken. I wish for a return to the deeper searching. Or maybe I'm just a sentimental old fart. Ah well!

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

To begin, I love Stephen King! And I think only a Stephen King fan, an University of Maine student or alumni, or someone extremely interested in this time period (late 60's-1970) will enjoy this. The essay by King is good, and it is cool to see the four pieces of his old newspaper column, "King's Garbage Truck". The pieces by friends of his are just okay, with lots of repetition of events and remembrances. And the inclusion of King's novella "Hearts in Atlantis" just feels like a way to make this longer and justify the $30 price tag. (the novella comprises almost 40% of the book, so if you've read it before, as I had, you're already close to half way done with this collection!) Still, for me, it was cool to learn about King's college days and read those columns, and I would love to have his "Study, Dammit!!" poster hanging on my wall!

[Ann McLellan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was at UMO from 1966 -1970 so it was interesting to know that Stephen King worked at West Commons when I did and to hear from another Zoology major that I never met. It was a large school and my experiences have little to do with those of young men at the time. Steve's recollections did not jive with those of the other contributors. No one else spoke of a major Hearts obsession, so I am not sure what to believe from him. College was never the real world as this book makes obvious. Those of us who are lucky enough to go know that our experiences there helped us become who we became - we learned a lot from books and friends - but it is also 4 painful growing years. Lucky me to be a woman - not having Vietnam over my head. My brother-in-law was in a boys' dorm in the West Commons complex. I wonder how the experiences penned here resonate with him. They seem rather childish to me.

[Jack Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book that chronicles SK's "formative" years attending the University of Maine. Besides an essay by King talking about how these years changed him, there are many essays from fellow students and professors, giving even more insight into the times and to SK. Additionally there are a few examples of a column he wrote for the school paper, and a reprint of his novella "Hearts in Atlantis". I found the novella to read even better than I remembered it, knowing more of the environment that spawned it.

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, I already knew that I loved how King writes about the past, about the times that he grew up in and matured in, but I didn't know just how much I would love reading these other essays, and man, of course there were some of them that I liked more than others, there were some writing styles that I dug more than others, but man I loved it. I also really liked re-reading Hearts in Atlantis, which is honestly just kind of a masterpiece, and King's essay--like, wow. I love it. I love everything about this.

[Aaron White · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stars for King's essay on his time in college, and 5 stars for one of my fav King stories, Hearts in Atlantis (although, it really needs to be nestled in with the other works in the actual collections of that name). Some of the pictures were fun, and I enjoyed reading his early Garbage Truck articles. 1 or 2 stars for the essays by many of the other contributors. I would have preferred more Garbage Truck articles to be reproduced. I did not find most to be that well-written, and most were not that interesting.

[Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read with the novella as the stand out. The essays from the people in and around King's life were interesting for a little context about King's life in college as was his essay before the novella, but overall, it was only moderately so and often overlapped.

A decently entertaining read, but I imagine that with its lack of focus this sort of thing only gets published because of it being mostly about King.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting focused look at Stephen King during his campus years, using the novella HEARTS IN ATLANTIS as the focal point and reminisces from King and other friends/classmates at the time, including photos and some samples of his column in the local student newspaper. A must for King fanatics; casual fans will find it a good read.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounding up.

I see it as an expansion pack to King's memoir portion of On Writing. An insightful expansion on his time in college and how the people & the culture at the time shaped him. Interesting both because he is Stephen King and as a college student during a turbulent time in 1966 - 1970.

[Bill Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into King's college years and those times (mid-late '60s). Thoroughly enjoyed my reread of "Hearts In Atlantis", enhanced by King's essay. SK lovers owe it to themselves to give this a look.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this would be one I’d be dragging through (for the sake of saying I’ve read ALL King), but it was a pleasant surprise. I found every essay to be interesting. Getting different point of views from one of the country’s most turbulent times had me hooked.

[Khepre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book at first glanced seems like a King Novella with some Kingadotes from his former classmates. However, this book was a piece of Maine perspective history of the citizens of the United States during the Vietnam War. Excellent and reviling for what it is.

[Dana Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an unusual, powerful work of biography/autobiography/history. http://www.centralmaine.com/2016/11/1...

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much. Great perspectives of college life during Vietnam.

[Dan Cavallari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy nostalgia.

[Tanen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very very enjoyable.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

brought back memories of being at U Maine, Orono, in the early 70's

[Loralie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. You get a much better feel for Stephen king, the man. And how driven he is.