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Just After Sunset

By Mark Graham, Special to the Rocky

Published November 6, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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Stephen King addresses dead-end jobs, loss of purpose, midlife crises, high blood pressure and enlarged prostates in his latest story collection.

Photo by Amy Guip

Stephen King addresses dead-end jobs, loss of purpose, midlife crises, high blood pressure and enlarged prostates in his latest story collection.

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Just After Sunset

* Fiction. By Stephen King. Scribner, $28. Grade: A-

Plot in a nutshell: All but one of the 13 stories in this collection were written after King famously retired from writing in 2002. In addition, since he started taking it easy, the prolific AARP poster boy, now 61, has produced seven novels, another story collection, a nonfiction baseball book (with Stewart O'Nan) and numerous articles and essays while still finding time to edit Best American Short Stories 2007, ride his motorcycle and play in a rock band.

OK, so maybe Steve fudged on the retirement thing, but several of the tales in Just After Sunset reflect his age, dwelling on a different kind of horror, perhaps more appropriate for a retiree than those in most of his other collections. There are no vampires or graveyard rats in this one. Although supernatural things happen, the emphasis is on the more real terrors his more mature readers know too well.

Protagonists face dead-end jobs, loss of purpose and midlife crises. They find themselves with high blood pressure and cholesterol, enlarged prostates, obsessive-compulsive disorder and the onset of Alzheimer's. And if that isn't bad enough, King has some other surprises for them.

Of course, you can count on some more traditional works here, too. Graduation Afternoon, which gives a plug to Colorado's most popular band, The Fray, asks whether there's much for present graduates to celebrate in the nuclear age. And N. is a Lovecraftian pastiche that pays homage to the classic Arthur Machen novella The Great God Pan.

Sample of prose: From The Cat From Hell: " 'Who do you want hit?'

"Drogan pressed a button on the console built into the arm of his wheelchair and it buzzed forward. Close-up Halston could smell yellow odors of fear, age and urine all mixed. They disgusted him, but he made no sign. His face was still and smooth.

" 'Your victim is right behind you,' Drogan said softly.

"Halston moved quickly. His reflexes were his life and they were always set on a filed pin. He was off the couch, falling to one knee, turning, hand inside his specially tailored sport coat, gripping the handle of the short-barreled .45 that hung below his armpit in a spring-loaded holster that laid it in his palm at a touch. A moment it was out and pointed at . . . a cat."

Pros: As always, King is a master storyteller. No reader can help but identify with some of these characters.

Cons: Like many of the author's later novels, a couple of the stories may be longer than necessary.

Final word: Retirement has definitely not slowed this sexagenarian down. King hasn't lost his touch in his "dotage."