Article: Books: Get rid of the ghouls Charles Shaar Murray opts for reality over fantasy

ACCORDING TO his publishers, Stephen King is the world's best- selling author as well as one of the most prolific. He's written over 30 novels since Carrie, and Hearts In Atlantis is his second this year.

Weighing in at a mere 213 pages, its immediate predecessor, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, was positively miniaturist. Its scenario - young girl lost in woods with only a radio for company - could be scribbled on a matchbook. Hearts In Atlantis, by contrast, is the traditional King doorstop, with a big subject to match: the Vietnam war as the nexus of the lives of assorted characters during the last four decades of the century.

For a man who made his name and his millions as a ...

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