Do the parts make a whole? I’m not entirely certain. However, does it truly matter when the overall combination amounts to something that held me completely captivated from beginning to end?

The parts consist of two novella-length tales, two short stories, and an epilogue that attempts to tie up loose ends. The unifying theme here, I assume, is the Vietnam War, although perhaps it's more about growing up, discovery, friendship, and pain. I suppose it's up to the reader to decide.

The stories progress chronologically, and the first is set in 1960. We follow the predicament of eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield, who lives with his protective mother in Connecticut. King描绘了一幅那个时代充满怀旧气息的画面，在很大程度上，它感觉像是一个标准的成长故事。但是鲍比与房客泰德成为了朋友，我们逐渐开始明白他有点奇怪。泰德向鲍比介绍了《蝇王》和其他书籍；他让鲍比看到了一个他从未见过的世界，一种英雄崇拜开始笼罩着他。但是随着鲍比的母亲出发去进行一次不幸的商务旅行，事件发生了更黑暗的转变。那么泰德呢，他现在对鲍比提出的奇怪要求该如何理解呢？

跳到第二个故事是突然且令人不安的。我们被猛地推入了1966年大学生的世界。皮特·莱利是一名新生，他需要保持平均成绩以防止自己不及格，并有可能通过征兵被送往越南。但是他陷入了学院部分地区盛行的对纸牌游戏“红心大战”的狂热之中。他开始熬夜玩游戏，逃避上课和学习。不久他就陷入了困境：他的成绩在下降，提前退学似乎开始成为一种必然。这是一个非常不同的故事，但通过一个名叫卡罗尔·格伯的女孩的出现提供了一些连续性，她在第一个故事中作为鲍比的初恋女友短暂出现过。

在接下来的两个短篇故事中，我们遇到了两名越战退伍军人。一个人花时间假扮成盲人退伍军人，在城市街道上乞讨，另一个是一名被一名越南妇女暴力死亡所困扰的推销员。这里的统一元素是，两者都延续了战争主题，并且前几个故事中的角色逐渐融入了第二个故事的叙述中。在最后一部分，鲍比回到了他年轻时的小镇，一个他40年来从未访问过的小镇，参加一个童年朋友的追悼会。这实际上是书中第一个故事的延续或结束。

我听了一个由演员威廉·赫特和作者共同朗读的音频版本。赫特做得非常出色，我不禁觉得这个版本如果让他朗读所有的故事可能会更有益。但是我很乐意再听十几个，当我读完这本书时我感到很伤心。我不会太纠结于这里每个特定元素的价值，或者尾声是否是一个有用的补充，我只是很高兴能花时间阅读这位杰出作家的故事。我已经在急切地寻找我的下一个斯蒂芬·金的作品了！

HEARTS IN ATLANTIS is one of Stephen King’s more critically acclaimed novels.

Perhaps critics initially overlooked the genre references in the opening story. However, they are spot-on in heralding it. I was deeply moved by the story and its characters.

As I mentioned earlier, I can't abide listening to hippies wax nostalgic about the 60s. I've read and studied extensively about that decade without any romantic attachments. I'm much happier to have grown up in the 1980s and Reagan's America.

Nevertheless, King doesn't romanticize the era. Each of his characters emerges from the decade somehow broken. King might be a bit too harsh on his generation when, as the novel concludes, he criticizes them for trading peace and love for junk bonds and cocaine. While I used to enjoy baiting my late mother into an argument about how her generation was the most spoiled in history, the Baby Boomers do deserve credit for bringing about positive cultural, political, and social change.

King is right not to spare his generation's most radical members in his story. The Weathermen Underground is one of the most despicable groups ever to form in the United States – and it's clear that King has them in mind when he recounts Carol's life journey. Maybe there was a touch of the Symbionese Liberation Army in there too. But as much as the 60s were about peace and love on the home front, there was also a great deal of disorder and harm created by the movement.

Certainly, we can interpret the demise of John Sullivan as the death of the Age of Aquarius as he is bombarded with household furnishings and other possessions that the Baby Boomers sought to acquire as they grew up and abandoned their ideals.

Just as Ray Bradbury chronicled pre-depression America with his tales of Greentown, IL, Stephen King is a chronicler of his generation with books like this and It, which masks a tale of growing up American in the 1950s with a horror story. Bradbury broke the barrier that held back three generations of genre fiction writers from being recognized as "serious" writers with something important to contribute to literature. Perhaps King will one day receive the recognition he deserves. With HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, he has surely earned it.

I've had this on my book shelf since March.

It was one of the Stephen King books I was less bothered about reading due to a rather stupid reason: the Anthony Hopkins film.

Strangely, I've never even seen the film, but there was just something about that ridiculous movie poster with a wizened Hopkins holding his palm out that simply put me off.

How shallow of me.

As it turns out, the book is one of the best Stephen Kings I've ever read.

The first story is the longest and has a connection to the dark tower.

When I read the phrases 'all things serve the beam' and 'other worlds than these', I felt a nerdy shiver of joy envelop my spine.

The story is about a beam breaker who has escaped from Algul Siento and is now being hunted by the low men (or Can-Toi to the initiated).

He moves into the apartment above Bobby Garfield and befriends him.

The second story is a weird combination of the card game Hearts and the Vietnam war.

I guess it's a coming of age story with a couple of links to story one.

The other stories are a lot shorter but are more heavily linked to story one.

'Blind Willie' and 'Why we're in Vietnam' tackle PTSD and the last story is a superb finale.

I've read a couple of reviews that comment on the loose links between each story, but I would have to disagree.

The book is one complete story split into five sections over a forty year period.

A great book and I didn't even hesitate in giving it five stars.

Who cares if it isn't a horror story? Stephen King is just a great story teller.

The best.