My edition of "Blockade Billy" by Stephen King comes with an included short story called "Morality" and it's a good thing; the book is small enough to be issued to fifth graders to read over the weekend. Don't be fooled by the fact that "Blockade Billy" tunes in at 81 pages- each page consists of about three paragraphs of large print.
What I liked about "Blockade Billy" was that it was written under the guise that an old man in a retirement home was orally relating the story, even referring to the reader as "Mr. King" and the language was believable enough that I felt like I was being told a story by an old man with an above-average grasp of language and without a tendency to ramble. What didn't much like was that the story being told wasn't all that special. Sure, it was an old timey baseball story- about a uniquely talented and peculiar catcher William "Blockade" Blakely and the related story made me wistful and nostalgic for my own baseball playing days. I felt I could hear the crack of the bat, could feel the rosin bag in my hands and smell the polished leather of my worn baseman's mitt. But it was a story with a predictable ending and without much really going for it.
Essentially, I don't see myself reading it again, unless I want to tap into that old baseball feeling again. Although I am an adamant supporter of King's work- and I realize this was a special interest story from a true baseball fan- I wasn't emotionally moved by "Blockade Billy" and the only real justice was that it didn't take up more than an hour of my time. If I want to hear a story from the old sepia-toned days of sports, I'll go to a nursing home and start up a conversation with anyone who isn't busy with virtual bowling or checkers.
"Morality" was a 30-ish page short story about a married couple and their financial near-ruin. When the wife, a private nurse for a stroke victim priest- is offered $200,000 dollars for an immoral act, she is hesitant but eventually gives in to the need for security. The deed she must commit- so that the dying priest may experience sin by association- is to videotape herself punching a random four-year-old boy in the face hard enough to draw blood. The wife, who is originally remorseful, eventually becomes a violence-fiend who demands her husband brutalizes her during intercourse and even moves up to sleeping with random strangers and asking the same of them. In the end, the couple divorces. While I am into Stephen King's unique ideas of moral deviation, this story seemed slightly pointless, once the suspenseful question of what the immoral act would be was revealed. The woman, who was tempted into utter ruination of ethics, never met with consequences for her actions. In fact, she semi-retired in her dream home with no need to share her money with her ex-husband. "Morality" was mostly a waste of thirty minutes of my time; the only thing I can take from it is that, one day when King has finished publishing new works, I can still say I have read all of his work.
As much as I disbelieve it, I have to rate Stephen King's "Blockade Billy" and "Morality" at 3 out of 10 and 2 out of 10, respectively.
The P.S. Zone: Stephen King is my favorite writer, by far. His style and choice of words have always kept me amused and has kept me reading, even when I come across a phase where I'm not entirely into the written word. It pains me to say anything negative about his works, but I have to be honest. His last novel "Under the Dome" absolutely blew me away, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. But "Blockade Billy" and "Morality" are two of the few that I'm going to file in the Dead Zone of literary genius.
Stay Scared.
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