Secret Window, Secret Garden: 03/13/07

Four Past Midnight contains four novellas by Stephen King. For the purpose of my book count, I'm counting each novella as a separate "book" and I'll be posting a separate review for each one.

"Secret Window, Secret Garden" is the second novella and probably the story I was most looking forward to reading (followed closely by "The Library Policeman"). I came to this story having seen the Johnny Depp film Secret Window (2004).

The story was as fun to read as the film was to watch. King leaves the plot more opened ended than the film does, allowing for imagined fears to become real (a popular theme for King).

Mort's fear stems from a deep seeded sense of guilt. Does he deserve the success he's had as a writer or has he just been plagiarizing but covering his tracks well enough to get away with it? John Shooter says he's a thief and gives him three days to prove otherwise.

The film (as I recall) opts for the reality is what you make of it theme (a popular one in horror films). Although the film did cast two different people for Mort and Shooter so I guess they were hedging their bets in that sense. (Of course Depp could have pulled off playing two characters and I have to admit to picturing Depp in both "roles" while reading the book).

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