Lisey sees things in slow motion when a crazy man tries to kill her husband at a groundbreaking ceremony.

(from McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Secrets)

So this is what Stephen King is like? I always assumed he was big on ideas, but short on finesse. Like Michael Crichton. (Does he write short stories?] But no, this is an expertly, dashingly told story. Everything moves slow and contemplatively, hiding clues and sneaky details in an excruciating description. Funny too.

So funny and engrossing, in fact that you hardly mind the length (at 30 pages, it’s one of the longer pieces I’ve come across for The Project) and you’re not really sure you’re reading a horror story. I’m still not sure. It might be a horror story the way John Darnielle likes to preface a song by saying it’s a horror story and it’s really a song about two people in temporary love, and the only horror is the mostly unspoken disaster the song never gets around to detailing.

So, Stephen King. Wow. Who knew? A lot of people, probably.