Short story collections are always hard to review. They’re not one concrete entity by nature, but simply going through and reviewing each story feels tedious. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams presents a further complication, in that King’s conceit is that these particular stories are quite different from each other. Likening them to offerings for sale at a kooky marketplace, King dedicates each story in the collection to a different writer, suggesting that they served as an inspiration for the piece, though in most cases it seems like King was only lightly inspired. All of the stories definitely feel like King.
There are 20 pieces collected here, including two “narrative poems” about which, the less said the better. A couple of the other pieces are described as novellas but that feels inflated. None of the pieces feels long enough to justify the usage of novella.
There are some exemplary stories. My favorite was “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation,” in which a man and his senile father get involved in a road rage incident. It’s a tad unusual for King, since it has no real horror element nor any touch of the supernatural. But it’s got clockwork precision and excellent foreshadowing. It’s a jewel.
Another highlight is “A Death,” dedicated to Elmore Leonard. It has some definite Leonard sensibilities. A sheriff in a western territory finds himself increasingly convinced of the innocence of a man he’s locked away for a terrible crime on scant evidence. This one has a really satisfying twist ending.
The longer works are a bit hit-and-mess. “Ur” began life as one of the first Kindle Singles, and actually uses the Kindle itself as a crucial element of the story. Thankfully, King can’t resist the temptation of making the Kindle a source of horror as opposed to pride. Blockade Billy is a baseball story which mainly exists to give King a chance to write in old-timey baseball dialect and reference some Red Sox players from his youth. The best of the longer works might be Morality, in which a former pastor near death makes an unusual offer to his caretaker.
Aside from the terrible poems, the stories have a baseline of quality that confirms that readers have not been unreasonable in putting their trust in King whenever they need a comfort read, or just something from the airport bookstore. Still, some are a bit underwhelming. “Obits” feels more like someone trying to write like King than the genuine article. “Herman Wouk is Still Alive” (great title) has some meaningful parts, but is marred by King’s unfortunate, snide attitude toward the unintelligent and overweight. King’s disdain for fat people especially is evident in small ways in a lot of the stories.
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams may not be King at the peak of his powers, but there are enough flashes of his brilliance to make the whole work worthy of consideration.