Todd is at his most disturbing when his Dad is talking to him about him making it into the newspaper and he fantasizes the things he would like to do. The Nazi undertones were well written and realistic. If these tales turn out to have an interlacing of nightmarish elements after all, the reason is not the occult, but twentieth-century humanity's apparent determination to return to the Dark Ages, a time for which Stephen King is obviously the ideal bard. Apt pupil disturbed me more than any other King story. The Breathing Method-a tale told in a strange club about a woman determined to give birth no matter what. The Body-four rambunctious young boys venture into the Maine woods and in sunlight and thunder find life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption-the most satisfying tale of unjust imprisonment and offbeat escape since The Count of Monte Cristo.Īpt Pupil-a golden California schoolboy and an old man whose hideous past he uncovers enter into a fateful and chilling mutual parasitism. At the same time, nobody in search of the utterly distinctive King brand of driving narrative, graphically rendered scene and character, and stamp-on-the-clinging-fingers cliffhanger plot will go away unsatisfied. The story was adapted into the 1998 film. That he can transcend horror is proved triumphantly in these four works. ' Apt Pupil ' is a novella written by Stephen King and published in his 1982 collection Different Seasons.
#Apt pupil book movie
Although he is by now a world-class grand master of the horrific, he resists entombment in that genre. 1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s timeless coming-of-age novella, Apt Pupilpublished in his 1982 story collection Different Seasons and made into a 1998 Tristar movie starring Ian McKellan and Brad Renfronow available for the first time as a standalone publication. If you’re familiar with King’s work you can probably guess the answer, but that doesn’t make the conclusion any less disturbing."Is horror all you write?" is the second most frequent question Stephen King encounters,* he tells us in the Afterword to this superlative quartet of novels. However much the reader might have sympathized with Todd as a child with promise, King is determined to wear that down and expose the darkness within.Īs Todd goes further along this evil path the suspense becomes a matter of whether there is any way he can escape from under Dussander’s thumb and, if he even could, would it matter? Was it meeting Dussander that corrupted this All-American Boy, or was the evil present all along, looking for a conduit? He describes Todd’s dreams and his increasingly evil thoughts in vivid, uncomfortable detail, making it abundantly clear that something is wrong with Todd, deep down. King is unsparing in depicting Todd’s downward spiral. 1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen Kings timeless coming-of-age novella, Apt Pupil-published in his 1982 story collection Different Seasons and. As he spends more and more time with Dussander the old man manages to turn the situation to his advantage, catching Todd in a trap wherein they both must rely on the other to avoid the consequences of their actions.
In spite of his keen interest these sessions have a severe impact on Todd, resulting in nightmares and slipping grades. Under the guise of reading to a lonely old man losing his eyesight, Todd and the old man spend many afternoons together reliving life in the camps. He wants the old man to tell him all about the Holocaust: how it worked and how it made him feel.Īt first the old man is reluctant to dredge up the past but when he realizes that Todd has him over a barrel he capitulates. He just wants to hear what it was actually like. Todd isn’t interested in seeing justice served or in the accolades he could earn for his discovery. Rather than turning in the old man, he goes to confront him in person. Armed with as much proof as he can gather Todd makes a shocking and fateful decision. Author(s): King, Stephen, Binding: Paperback, Date of Publication:, Pagination: 256 pages, Series: Different Seasons, Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton. A local old-timer is actually a Nazi war-criminal named Dussander living in America under a false identity. After a magazine article piques his interest in the Holocaust, Todd makes a shocking discovery. Grant Martin, Psychologist, Edmonds, WA, 98020, (425) 336-3398, I have a specialty in the area of special needs of children and adolescents. He’s good at sports and does well in school (hence the “apt pupil” descriptor) and his successful, happy parents love him to pieces. Thirteen-year-old Todd Bowman seems like a perfectly healthy and happy boy. Stephen King strikes out on an unlikely course in this novella and follows it through all the way to a chilling conclusion.
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