Cookie Jar (Imaginaire)

by Stephen King

Quand l’arrière-petit-fils de Rhett vient lui rendre visite dans sa maison de retraite de Bonne Vie, ce n’est pas par simple courtoisie. Il a un devoir à rendre :  «  Comment était la vie du plus vieux membre de votre famille quand il avait votre âge  ?  »
Rhett lui raconte donc l’histoire de sa mère  : son état mental instable, ses peurs, ses crises d’hystérie, son suicide et le pot à biscuits dont il a hérité.
«  – De quoi avait-elle peur ?
– Elle avait peur du pot à biscuits. »

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Supernatural

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 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

[Petra X · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't read much fiction. I prefer fast-moving non-fiction, something new in every paragraph,facts, episodes, real life cases, history, things that make me think and make me know the world and my place it it more clearly. Not my place exactly, our place how we got now, who we are and how other people see it, or did when they were alive. But sometimes I read a story or a novel.

So I read The Cookie Jar by Stephen King (the link is to the story). Short as it was I skimmed, there was too much extraneous detail that didn't relate to anything, too much use of steotypical characteristics and scenes used as shorthand to get us into the character and action. I was bored.

But because it's fiction, I want to see how it plays out. So I finished it. If it had been non-fiction there wasn't going to be any denoument so I wouldn't need to, I'd just dnf it and move on.

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read quite a few of Stephen King's novels when I was younger. I'm a little bit more of a scaredy pants now so it's been a long time since I picked one up. But when I saw this short story popping up here and there over the last few days, I thought I would give it a try. Plus it's FREE...and free is something I like a lot!

It said it would take me about 42 minutes to read. I thought I would time myself just to see how long it would take me. I'm a speed reader so it took me three hours. Ha! That's because the moment I started reading it my daughter came running in and said she forgot to get a present for her friends birthday. So shopping we went and when I came back the timer was still running. In reality I would say it probably took me about twenty to twenty-five minutes to read.

I was nervous and didn't really know what to expect. "Cookie Jar" sounds like a safe enough title. However, this is from the author who wrote "Christine" and "Carrie" both of which gave me nightmares.

Thirteen-year-old Dale has a school project to do. He is to speak with his oldest relative about what life was like for them when they were thirteen. Then they are to write a book report about how life has changed.

Dale is talking to his ninety year-old great-grandfather (who prefers to be called Rhett).

I won't get into the plot more than that. I was a bit on edge as I wasn't sure where the story would go. In the end, I thought it was a decent read. An interesting story that was part fantasy but included many real life issues including mental illness, war, aging and more.

You can read it HERE

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a Tuesday that is a continuation of the bad awful Monday. So I read Stephen King. You can too...right here

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.

i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.

and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar.

DECEMBER 9



Too many sweets weren’t good for you.

wow.

i'm sorry, but stephen king is a damn good writer. sure, he gets carried away sometimes and his books get all bloated and editors are wary of trimming his fat because he's stephen freaking king, but when he's on, it's such an enjoyable reading experience. i mean, come on - he made cookies ominous.



this is one of those stories that builds tension and the reader isn't sure if it's gonna go to IT-town and explode into terror, or if it's just going to be quietly unsettling, but the journey towards the answer to that question is absolutely delightful. great pacing, great imagination, just a really fun story that is totally free for your eyes!

read it for yourself here:

http://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2016...

DECEMBER 1: FABLE - CHARLES YU
DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 3: THE WAYS OF WALLS AND WORDS - SABRINA VOURVOULIAS
DECEMBER 4: GHOSTS AND EMPTIES - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER - JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP - PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU - PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES - ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 12: THE TOMATO THIEF - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP - JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 16: THE AMBUSH - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE - ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW - PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS - PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE - MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT - SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES - KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH - CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 28: FRIEDRICH THE SNOW MAN - LEWIS SHINER
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE - EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? - KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES - TINA CONNOLLY

come to my blog!

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear I could almost smell the cookies in the magic COOKIE JAR and visualize the early life of 90 year old Great Granpa Rhett as he recalls an amazing piece of family history to his 13 year old Great Grandson Dale.

Serious health issues of aging, suicide and atrocities of war trickle down through the family, but it's the power of your imagination and the nether-world that brings this tale to life and follow it to conclusion.

Enjoy the free cookies from Stephen King! "I'm sure they're still fresh. Only......be careful."

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cookie jars can get a little freaky...


Final review, first posted at Fantasy Literature:

Thirteen year old Dale goes to the retirement home to talk to his great-grandfather, ninety year old Rhett. Dale just wants a couple of stories about the old days for a school history report, but gets a lot more than he bargained for. Rhett begins reminiscing about radio shows (they were “really sponsored by cigarettes?” asks Dale), but soon Rhett tells Dale to turn off his iPhone recorder: Rhett’s going to tell him something really interesting.

Rhett’s tale is about his broken family and “peculiar” mother, who Rhett and his brother Jack would travel across town to visit. His mother told them stories about an alien world, called Lalanka, in another dimension right next to ours, where some terrible things were happening, including time freezing and a creeping white mist called forza that kills small animals and gives larger ones convulsions. And she would feed them all kinds of different cookies ― always fresh, always delicious ― from the blue ceramic cookie jar that she kept on a high shelf. After their mother commits suicide, the boys inherit the cookie jar and discover that it constantly and magically refills with cookies. The only question is: what’s at the bottom of the jar? Rhett eventually decides to find out.

Stephen King ties Rhett’s later horrific experiences in WWII to his mother’s tales of the other world, where creeping mist kills and time stops. The vanilla sweetness of the fresh cookies is a disturbing contrast to the sick, war-torn worlds ― both Lalanka and ours. However, if the cookie jar is cursed, or dangerous, Rhett’s final decision on what to do with it is inexplicable. In fact, I found that the fantastical part of the plot of “Cookie Jar” didn’t really make much logical sense upon closer scrutiny. Still, it was a well-told tale, with a couple of appealing characters in Rhett and Dale, and I really enjoyed it while I was reading it.

Free at VQR Online.

[Fabian {Councillor} · Rating 3 out of 5]

As were a lot of his more recent short stories, Stephen King's newest publication Cookie Jar - first released yesterday, on June 23, is a nostalgic look into the past of an aging protagonist who reminisces the ordeals of his past in a conversation with his thirteen-year-old great-grandson.

"There were seventy-seven years between them, and Dale Alderson probably considered that an ocean, but to Rhett it was only a lake. Maybe no more than a pond."

Aside from a small supernatural element as it is usual for King, this story included some interesting thoughts about a child having to bear his mother's suicide and the experiences of young adults in the Second World War. King always has a gift for creating believable elderly people as protagonists in his stories, and he succeeded in the attempt yet again right here. In the end, nothing really stood out of the plot or the writing, but it wasn't unworthy of spending half an hour with.

You can read this little story online for free here.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"In the end we all prefer the bitter to the sweet."

What can I say? It's short, it's free, it's King . . . .



Endless thanks for showing this Constant Reader every last crumb at the bottom of the cookie jar for all these years.

[Wayne Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen King does a great job combining the aged, nostalgic mind with that of the young, inexperienced, yet open mind of the young. A short fantasy story that blankets some sad but real issues such as war and suicide.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I had this story on my radar once and then forgot all about it - until tonight when one of my freinds baited me with something y'all could be baited with, I'm sure: cookies.

Too much sweet isn't good for you.

True, but when has that ever stopped anyone?!

The story centers around 13-year-old Dale who visits his great-grandafther for a school project. He gets more than he asked for when the old man starts telling him of an inherited cookie jar, his mother, his childhood and all those wars that aren't any different from the conflicts between Red Henry and Black John. Humanity at its finest.

I liked how this story contained a lot of foreboding and maybe even another puzzle piece of the map that connects all of SK's stories, apparently. And the humanity of what Rhett witnessed as a soldier when liberating Buchenwald and Dachau.

Sadly, the ending kinda peeters out (apparently another running gag when it comes to this author) but it was still a nice and slightly creepy story.

You can read it for free here: https://www.vqronline.org/fiction/201...

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young Dale sits with his great-grandfather, Rhett, in the nursing home, ”We’re supposed to talk to our oldest relative, and ask what life was like when he was my age.” 77 years separate the two, so as great-grandfathers do he begins to tell him about a radio show that existed before television came along. But then he tells the boy to stop recording and begins to tell him a story that cannot be handed in to the teacher. It’s a story from his childhood. One that he has never shared.

It’s a story about the mother who left her children to move just across town - ”I only moved out because it wouldn’t have been safe for you boys and your father if I stayed” - because of the things she saw in a world that existed just on the other side of their own. Things that wanted to break through.

”…the thing she was really afraid of was in the house with her all along.”
“What? What was she afraid of?”
“She was afraid of the cookie jar.”

I can tell you that Rhett and his brother end up with the cookie jar, and that it never empties. I don’t think I could eat what came out of that jar, no matter how good it tasted, but the reason they do can be seen as a sad one. I get that. Like in some of King’s other short stories, the paranormal is crosses with the thoughtful to display the ugliness of two worlds.

Loved the writing. No surprise there. But I almost gave it three stars due to the ending, until I thought a about it. Rhett does something here and I said, “Why?” Well, it just may have been out of his hands.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen King always, and I mean always, has a way of drawing this reader into his stories, be they 31-pages shorts like this one or 1500-page books like The Stand.

Part of that draw is the fact that he uses everyday objects, in this case, a cookie jar, as the means to tell a fantastic little tale. Another part of the draw is that he allows the readers' imaginations to carry them into what isn't said, what isn't described.

The Cookie Jar drives a ton of questions that make this a five-star read: was Rhett's mother crazy or was she "gifted" somehow? Was Lalanka and its "entities" real or a figment of her imagination, perhaps a picture of how she perceived the horrors of the real world?

Some have suggested that this should be developed into a longer book. I disagree. If King has to explain it to us, it will lose its magic entirely.

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this free short story yesterday and enjoyed it. It's hard to say much about a short story without spoiling things, but I can say this one left me slightly dissatisfied. Maybe because it's King and I wanted MORE.
You can read it for free too, just click here: http://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2016...

[Sara Dahaabović · Rating 4 out of 5]

You won’t, Rhett thought. You won’t be able to, any more than my mother was. Or I was. Any more than Jack would have been, if Jack had lived. In the end we all prefer the bitter to the sweet. It’s our curse. So you’ll turn the cookie jar upside down, and dump out all that’s inside, and peer into that other world. After that…

“Thanks, Rhett! Thanks!”

Rhett patted his great-grandson on the shoulder with one gnarled hand, and smiled, and thought: After that, you’re on your own.

I would like to think that the cookie jar is basically life, and the cookies are the sweet and good things in life, and everybody is different in the way they look and deal with life; Rhett's mom couldn't handle the hardness or the truth under all those cookies and she committed suicide, whereas Rhett handled it by "putting it on the attic", and Jack who died in the war didn't have the chance to think about the cookie jar.

amazing! Stephen King is really an awesome writer;
writing style *check*
suspense *check*
imagination *check*

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

BABT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07zylgx

Description: A new short story by Stephen King, adapted for radio in three parts. The first of a series of stories of the supernatural by Stephen King, Kate Mosse and John Connolly. Part 1 of 3.

'I had sort of a peculiar childhood, because my mother was peculiar. Not outright crazy, but very, very peculiar. Stories were her way of staying sane... A way to cover that hole in reality the way you might cover a well with boards so no one would fall in. But her stories stopped working for her. Because the thing she was afraid of was in the house with her all along.'




http://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2016...

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this story. Stephen King's talent is writing believable characters, that live and breathe for the reader. This is no exception. Some of his stories and novels are 100% on-point, some are meh and some are just "what the heck did I just read". This one was one of the 100% on-point ones. It's a freebie and a quick read. I highly recommend it. The only reason for 4 and not 5 stars is that he leaves the ending open to the reader. Kind of the lady or the tiger, but not quite so bad. There is a definite end, but also an open-endedness to it as well. I like all of my loose ends tied up, so would have preferred some explanation as to the why of things. Still, great short story.

Review for A Cookie Jar by Stephen King.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great-grandfather tells his great-grandson war-time-stories. Could have been boring, but is not, especially when Uncle Steve takes the helm.

At times horror emerges from the bottom of a cookie jar!

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cookie Jar is a free short story by popular American author, Stephen King. When his great-grandson, Dale comes to see Barrett (“call me Rhett”) Alderson at the Good Life Retirement Home, it is for a class project on how much things have changed. Dale uses his iPhone to record Rhett’s memories of radio shows. But then he tells Dale to switch off the recorder and embarks on a more personal memory. Master storyteller King gives the reader a tale that manages to include World War Two, maternal abandonment and mental illness, along with a bit of scary supernatural. A small dose of classic King.

[Kandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the narrative and it really reminded me of The Green Mile in that respect. The story itself reminded me of The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, but reminded is all it did. I finished feeling a bit dissatisfied and almost disappointed. There was no real ending and I wanted one.

[Ammar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story about aging . The interview between a great grandfather and his great grandchild. An ocean that's 77 years in between.

There is an element of the supernatural in it
Along with what happens to an eleven years old boy whose mother just committed suicide.

It's a free short story available at http://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2016...

[Alissa Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I really want cookies.

Read this for free:

http://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2016...

[Licha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't wowed out by this one. One of those stories where I'm kinda like why?

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether it's an extremely long novel, or just a short story like this one, Stephen King manages time & again to create characters you care about in just a few paragraphs. A joy.

[Hitesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad start.

[Miloš · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it...

[Nikki ~ The Nocturnal Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good story but I felt the very end was a little anticlimactic

[Isa (Pages Full of Stars) · Rating 4 out of 5]

★ December Short Story-A-Day ★
December 1st - Cookie Jar: A Short Story by Stephen King - 3.5 stars

Inspired by karen's project from two years ago, I decided to read a short story each day of December. I made a list of stories and will be picking them up randomly.

The pick for Dec 1st turned out to be Cookie Jar by Stephen King. Oddly, this is the very first piece of writing by Stephen King that I've ever read, because I'm not too keen on horror, but it definitely encouraged me to pick up one of his novels.

I really liked the whole idea and the fact that each reader could read this story very differently. An open ending worked very well here and I enjoyed all the symbolism referring to WWII and wars in general. Some parts felt sad and profound but were so very cleverly written, I enjoyed it a lot.

You can read the story here if you're interested.

~ * ~

★ December Short Story-A-Day ★ - check out my other story picks in my tag :)

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful writing and sheer delight in short story form.
A great-grandpa in a retirement home answers questions about life in another time...

This was such an enjoyable reading experience, a real treat! Despite being short, the story keeps on giving, very much like a cookie jar, I would say.

This is my first contact with Stephen King's writing and I must say it did live up to my expectations. Having seen the movie adaptations for some of his stories that didn't impress me, I just wasn't that interested in picking up one of his huge, overly descriptive, slow-paced books. Yes, yes I know what you are thinking: "movie adaptations are not a great way to judge books!" - and you are probably right.
In my defense, I think its for the best, since I don't think I could have gotten through a thousand-page book about a clown who is also an alien without throwing the book out the window or possibly committing a felony.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This remarkable little tale is pure Stephen King. It is engaging, entertaining, sweet and a just a tad bit disturbing and unsettling. Like vintage Twilight Zone. There are images through out the story that are very visual and freeze on the reader's mind like a photography. I could go into ore detail, but that might spoil some of the story. I was more than a little bit reminded of Jake's classic line from The Gunslinger that "there are other worlds than these."

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Stephen King's newest short story! If you're a fan of his stories take time to read it. You'll be finished in no time at all because it's King telling the story!

Here's the link to Cookie Jar:
http://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2016...