"Hearts in Atlantis"
by Stephen King

A review by Mary Reedy

"Hearts in Atlantis," Stephen King's latest bestseller, is set in the turbulent Vietnam War era when the Baby Boomer generation grew up, and each of the book's five stories sheds some light on that time by following several different characters from 1960 to the present.
The first story, "Low Men in Yellow Coats", takes place in 1960 when eleven-year-old Bobby meets Ted, an older man who reads minds. Ted pays Bobby $1 a week to watch for things only children see, like kite tails on telephone wires or celestial shapes painted on hopscotch boxes, and that summer Bobby learns that evil can be found with many faces, even within those we love.
The title story is set in the late Sixties. Peter, a freshman at the University of Maine at Orono, is obsessed with the card game of Hearts, until he abruptly realizes that flunking out will cost him his draft deferment and land him in the jungles of Vietnam.
Peter falls in love for the first time while he is questioning the validity of the Vietnam War, which reflects much of King's own college experience during the Vietnam era.
The title character of "Blind Willie" is a vet who's lost in post-Vietnam America. A decorated war hero, "Blind Willie" spends his days begging on the streets, and then at 5:00 he changes out of his army fatigues and commutes home to his suburban life. Begging isn't just his occupation: It's penance for his mistakes.
The spectre of an elderly Vietnamese woman haunts 'Nam vet John Sullivan in "Why We're in Vietnam." Success can't erase the horror that John witnessed on the day he was wounded, and an encounter with another vet forces him relive those memories thirty years later only to learn that he cannot escape the jungle.
Young Bobby reappears as a grown up in "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling." Set in 1999 his life comes full-circle with a surprise gift from an old friend that brings some healing and understanding to Bobby.
King's characters speak for an entire generation, who spent their coming of age, their time of Atlantis, in the shadow of Vietnam. "Hearts in Atlantis" is a haunting tale of those who fought, those who protested, and those who wondered what was going on.
Stephen King is as compelling as ever, and you'll never forget the people and times of "Hearts in Atlantis."

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"Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King

"Hearts in Atlantis"
by Stephen King