Review
Author: Stephen King
Reviewed by: Alan Croll
Issue: March 2024
A few years ago, this reviewer had the wonderful opportunity to visit with Lee Child--just the two of us, for about 15/20 minutes. We had established enough of a rapport so that as I was leaving, I felt sufficiently comfortable to say, "I have a question for you, but I don't think you're smart enough to get it right (he chuckled; thank goodness he had a sense of humor); I asked him who are the two best pure storytellers in the English language; perhaps I should have said three, and included Dickens, but I did not; and I gave him Shakespeare as one of the two; and then he got it right: He said, "Stephen King!" Fairy Tale is not even close to my favorite Stephen King novel, but the first 100 or so pages alone are like a charming, compelling novella; and worth the entire book. Then, the author leads us into an elaborate fantasy world. He creates situations, invents characters who are fascinatingly original and vividly imagined, and then somehow combines them into narratives that seem almost believable; and then weaves anecdote and events into captivating, compelling yarns. Even though his other-worldly adventures are not my favorite type of Stephen King story, he makes his make-believe world almost real--and always includes interesting social commentary as to the effect and impact the sheer existence of such a place would likely have on our world. These insights are invariably penetrating and wise. The author's unerring sense of dialogue tends to bring in and captivate even the most skeptical of readers. Ultimately, the novel is a flight of fantasy, interspersed with glimmering insightful wise musings and conclusions about our world; and all the more impactful because they are contrasted with another wholly imaginary world; and rather surprisingly, it is also an old-fashioned story of a boy and his dog. Buckle up and enjoy the journey.