The ability to fully enjoy a camping trip is highly contingent upon the quality of one's survival skills and the adequacy of their equipment. Some items like baseballs and demons are rather optional.

Much fun can be derived from just one character. The more minimalistic the setting, the more ingenious a writer has to be to create suspense. King accomplishes this by描绘 a scared, small girl in the wilderness, fighting for survival with cleverness and perseverance. The marvelous description of the relentless yet wonderful nature, which makes the reader feel as if they are inside while reading, alternates with the girl's thoughts and how she motivates herself to stay optimistic and keep moving. This is exciting at every moment.

Finding hope in the small things is another aspect. I am a European who knows absolutely nothing about baseball or sports in general, yet even those passages are interesting. They are directly linked to the girl's emotions and symbolize the importance of optimism and that hope can be awakened by the seemingly most trivial and mundane things that one no longer finds worthy of notice until an extremely exceptional situation occurs. Near-death experiences, surviving a potential terminal illness, overcoming a trauma… all these open the consciousness to the value of the moment and mindfulness. So, the girl is rather like Buddha too.

This work is not a conventional one and thereby not for everybody. Readers who are not so interested in literary experiments and single-character-based narratives might not find pleasure in this. However, everyone who is open to a new, rather short read should give it a try.

I must admit that I may not be objective. I have to say, I am biased as praising King is one of my favorite hobbies. People tend to run fast and as far as possible as soon as I mention his name, but I am quite fit, so the poor fellows have no chance. Although it's difficult to talk too much and quickly during exhausting pursuits, and sometimes they intentionally run into obstacles or buildings, which is great because it's much easier to blabber while sitting in an ambulance, despite the annoying sirens. But I still haven't found anyone who comes close to his uniqueness, and one of the largest fan bases in the history of literature may agree with me. Praise him, hail him, worship the King!

The most amazing fact is that King is not a plotter but lets the characters take control and gets lost in the creative flow while listening to music. One day in his shoes, man, how must it feel to be in such a creative process…

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

I really like the view of the world through the eyes of an almost ten-year-old girl who is left to herself. It is beautifully written (as always), fluid and real.

It is also a bit frustrating (although I understand why it has to be this way), and if baseball means nothing to you, it definitely won't help.

The story seems to capture the essence of a young girl's experiences and thoughts in a very vivid way. You can almost feel her confusion, her excitement, and her sense of independence.

Even though there are parts that might be a bit hard to understand if you're not familiar with baseball, the overall narrative is engaging enough to keep you hooked.

It makes you think about what it's like to be a child growing up in a particular environment, with its own set of rules and challenges.

Overall, it's a great read that offers a unique perspective on life through the eyes of a young protagonist.

Stephen King is widely renowned for his ability to transform straightforward plots, such as a possessed car, a rabid St. Bernard, a haunted hotel, a telekinetic prom queen, a world-wide killer flu epidemic, or a child-killing demonic clown, into magnificent horror epics.

Occasionally, it's refreshing to read one of his non-epic scares, and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" provides just that. The plot of this story is relatively simple: a little girl gets lost in the woods.

However, since it's Stephen King, there's nothing truly "simple" about what befalls her. Naturally, there's a creepy monster lurking in the woods, as there often is in a King novel.

As always, King's protagonist is endearing, feisty, and strong, and readers will be rooting for her throughout.

Unlike most of King's novels, this one is a quick read, clocking in at less than 200 pages. It offers a different kind of horror experience, one that is perhaps more accessible and less overwhelming than some of his longer epics.

It's a great choice for those who want to dip their toes into the world of Stephen King without committing to a lengthy and complex story.

I initially failed to appreciate the magnificence of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon when I first read the book. However, since I could hardly recall the details, I made the decision to give it another chance. And that turned out to be a very wise move indeed. As I delved into the book once more, I accompanied Trisha every step of the way as she endeavored to find her way back to civilization. I walked beside her, I slept by her side, and I endured the hardships along with her. I could feel her pain when she fell sick and got hurt, and I was there with her during the moments when she listened to the radio, which was her only source of joy. She is just a nine-year-old girl (tall for her age) who has become lost in the woods, but she is such a tough little cookie.

I absolutely adored this book! I was truly amazed by how King has the ability to craft a story so compelling that the reader is completely drawn into it. His writing is so vivid and engaging that it makes you feel as if you are right there with the characters, experiencing everything they do. It's a remarkable feat of storytelling, and I'm so glad I decided to give this book a second read.

**"Cacare in mezzo alle felci" - A Disappointing Piece of Work**

Cacare in mezzo alle felci presents a rather cold and dull stylistic exercise. It seems that the King who wrote this must have done so with his family held hostage and an indigestible pepperoni pizza for support. The beginning of the story is shockingly inexplicable. How is it possible to lose one's orientation in the blink of an eye, lose sight of two people, and find oneself completely at the mercy of the forest?

Amidst clumsy attempts to give depth to the girl's background - a drunken father blowing in her face, a turbo-trash scene in pure King style - and improbable narrative sleights of hand to heighten the tension (read: multiple defecations and constant references to Tom Gordon), the entire story drags wearily through every banality of the case. Finally, it concludes with one of the worst endings in literary memory. In some cases, this book is clear evidence that King seems truly like the roadside diner hack who writes whatever comes to his mind.

This small gem is truly my favorite among all Stephen King books.

The premise is delightfully simple. There's a nine-year-old girl named Trisha, a feisty tomboy who idolizes Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon. One day, during a hike, she gets separated from her family and finds herself lost in the woods.

She has to battle not only hunger, thirst, and exhaustion but also the terrifying realization that Something is stalking her through the trees. Trisha has always adored Tom Gordon for his remarkable coolness under pressure. As the terror in the woods intensifies, she has to reach deep within herself to find that same icy resolve.

The plotting is so unbearably tense that it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Stephen King is not one to shy away from harsh realities; he is more than capable of killing a child in his books, so you can't simply rely on the typical formula of the child in danger always emerging unscathed.

Trisha's final confrontation with the thing in the woods, her snarling, ice-cold defiance in the face of death, elevates her to the level of any heroic figure on any battlefield throughout history. This is a book that demands to be read in one sitting; you'll find yourself flipping the last page, covered in sweat, completely enthralled by the story.

I vividly remember delving into a couple of chapters of this book when I was extremely young. I'm fairly certain my sister was the one reading it at that time. As a result, this book has been lingering on my to-read list for what seems like an eternity. And let me tell you, I wasn't in the least bit disappointed. The only minor drawback for me was that if it hadn't been explicitly stated that she was nine, I would have firmly believed the character was at least 13 or 14. When I was nine, I didn't know half of the things she knew, and it struck me as a bit hard to believe that she was so young. Nevertheless, this was an incredibly gripping read, and I'm determined to tick off the rest of King's classics this year. I can't wait to explore more of his masterpieces and be enthralled by his storytelling once again.

Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland is experiencing the pain and turmoil that comes with having two parents going through a divorce.

Her social life is in shambles, her mental and emotional state is in tatters, and stress and frustration are overwhelming her.

She hopes that a summer hiking trip to the Appalachian Trail will somehow help bring her family back together, even if just a little.

However, things don't go as planned. Feeling ignored and unwanted, and tired of listening to her family's constant arguments, Trisha decides to take a few minutes of peace by wandering off on the trail alone.

But one wrong turn after another leads to her getting horribly lost, with only a portable radio and the unforgiving wilderness for company.

This story by King is perhaps the most straightforward I've ever read. There are no major twists, no complex characters, villains, or elaborate plot points.

It's simply about a girl getting lost in the woods and having her survival skills put to the test.

It wasn't a bad read, but it just wasn't for me. I've never been a sports fan, so the constant baseball lingo, metaphors, and references went over my head.

The plot was too simplistic and would have been better suited as a short story.

Reading about someone walking around in the woods with no significant events happening, constantly rambling about baseball and having repetitive descriptions of hunger for 224 pages straight just didn't make for an engaging or memorable experience.

There were a few nice moments, and I liked Trisha as a character, and I enjoyed the ending. But overall, I was honestly bored out of my mind for 90% of the book.

When it comes to plots about being stranded, helpless, and going mad, I think Gerald's Game and Misery were much better.

I’ll admit, I’m not into baseball. However, this was a truly good book. It was about a girl and her imagined baseball player, Tom Gordon. The story was engaging and well-written. It was a short but impactful piece by the incredible author Stephen King.

King has a way of creating characters and worlds that draw the reader in. In this case, the fictionalized version of Tom Gordon added an interesting layer to the story.

Even though I’m not a baseball fan, I was able to appreciate the themes and emotions explored in the book. It was a testament to King’s talent as a writer.

Edit: I later realized that Tom Gordon is a real baseball player. King explains in his author note how he fictionalized this version of him for the story. This added an extra level of intrigue for me.

One of the biggest snoozes in King's catalogue.

It may be one of his shorter books, but it didn't feel like it at all.

The story lacked the usual elements that make King's works so thrilling and engaging.

Not scary at all, it failed to send shivers down the reader's spine.

Moreover, almost none of Trisha's thoughts felt like the thoughts of a nine-year-old.

They seemed rather mature and out of place for a child of that age.

The characters and their actions didn't seem believable, and the plot dragged on without much excitement.

Overall, this book was a disappointment and not up to the standards that King's fans have come to expect.

It's a shame that such a talented author could produce a work that falls so short.

Perhaps he was having an off day or was experimenting with a new style that didn't quite work.

Whatever the reason, this book is one that I would not recommend to others.

Stephen King is one of the few writers I have been religiously reading since my teenage years. I would either buy or borrow a library copy of every new release almost as soon as they were published. Hence, like millions of others, I feel a sense of possessiveness about the phrase ‘Constant Reader’. That's me, damn it! I am your biggest fan! (Every reader has a bit of Annie Wilkes in them …)

For some reason, I skipped The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon from 1999. Maybe I just ignored it because I neither like nor understand baseball. Which is surely what most Americans think about our rugby. Somehow, though, I don't think The Girl Who Loved Chester Williams would have been as well-received.

Tom Gordon is an interesting book, published in the same year as Hearts in Atlantis. It follows the blockbusters Desperation (1996) and Bag of Bones (1998), and was followed, in turn, by On Writing (2000) and Dreamcatcher (2001). Of course, 19 June 1999 was when King suffered that terrible accident which was almost fatal.

What makes Tom Gordon such a prescient book in the King oeuvre is that he confronts religion – or rather, the existence of God – head-on. Trisha recalls asking her dad what he believes in. “I'll tell you what I believe in. I believe in the subaudible.” Here her dad is referring to the quiet background thrumming of any house. God, presumably, is humming along in the background as well, part of the warp-and-weft of the very universe.

And then there are those powerful lines: “I come from the God of the Lost. It has been watching you. It has been waiting for you. It is your miracle, and you are its.” And “I come from the God of Tom Gordon,” he said. “The one he points up to when he gets the save.” This is because, as Tom had told her, “It's God's nature to come on in the bottom of the ninth.”

Interestingly, King would return to psychological intimacy, on a smaller scale, and the ambiguous horror represented by Tom Gordon in Gerald's Game in 2017. I think part of the reason is that King really excels at these kinds of ‘high-concept’ books: a rabid killer dog (Cujo), a haunted car (Christine). Of course, one cannot simply classify It as just a book about a killer clown.

Tom Gordon strips King's writing and ideas down to a mere couple of hundred pages (which for King is like a narrative precis). The writing is as taut as a bow, and the narrative is relentless. Here King's mastery at characterisation – his uncanny ability to get inside a fictional person's skin until you seem to hear their thoughts and feel their breath – is on magnificent display.

A big criticism I have of King is also addressed in Tom Gordon. A native of Maine, he rarely seems to write about his native state's natural heritage, except for the brief mention of the backwoods in Pet Sematary. It would take a non-native Irish writer, John Connolly, to mine the richness available here.

Well, King doesn't go all Hemingway on us with Tom Gordon (thank God). Suffice it to say that the nature writing here is superlative. The long descriptive passages, riffing on light and texture, are incredibly immersive and detailed, and some of the most beautiful writing that King has ever produced.

And then there is the (inevitable) monster. I think that King, of all people, truly understands that evil is banal. The brilliance of It is that the book transforms a wholesome American symbol like the clown into the living face of that banality. Always up to a challenge, in Tom Gordon the monster is truly faceless (apart from the wasps, which is a classic King trope of evil). How King weaves this sense of a faceless presence into Tom Gordon, and how the story darkens and approaches a showdown that seems straight from the Dark Tower, is a writing masterclass in sheer technical perfection.

And when the inevitable showdown does transpire, it is because we know it will, and because King understands so well that some dark, unacknowledged part of us actually wants shit to go down. What made me marvel at the ending of Tom Gordon (not the coda; no halfway decent King book only has a single ending) is that the appearance of the boogeyman in no way diminishes the evil, as it often does in Hollywood CGI-stuffed horror movies. Here King understands so well what terrifies us the most: that beyond the clown, or the car, or the dog, is simply nothing. We are nothing. And that is the greatest horror of all.

This story stands out from other King's works I've read. It is more realistic.

It revolves around a 9-year-old girl, Trisha McFarland, who becomes lost in the woods. Told from a first-person POV, we accompany the girl as she endeavors to return to civilization and her family.

She has to tell herself what to do and attempt to maintain courage. Her decisions aren't always perfect, but she is just a little girl.

To forget her situation, she thinks of her favorite baseball player, Tom Gordon. I can relate to how one feels when lost as a child and how fears can intensify if not controlled.

I adore it when Stephen King pens more realistic stories. He knows precisely how to temper his effects while keeping us on the edge of our seats.

I had loved "Stand by Me" for the same reason.

As always, King's writing is highly effective. Therefore, I award 5 stars to this story.