Go the edge of suspense with Iris Johansen and click here for your message from Iris. It sounds harsh, but King blew it, too. Hearts in Atlantis , out Tuesday, could have been his best book. It's his most ambitious. It's worth reading.
Parts are great, but too much is overwrought.
In five stories sharing some characters, King jumps from the lost innocence of the summer of 1960, to the angst of a college dorm in '66, to Vietnam atrocities and heroics, to the burial of a childhood friend who survives the war but not middle age. A grand jury decides Sept. 30 whether to charge the van's driver. We had an opportunity to change everything. We actually did. Instead, we settled for designer jeans, two tickets to Mariah Carey at Radio City Music Hall, frequent-flier miles, James Cameron's Titanic , and retirement portfolios.