Welcome to the third and final post in the Demon's Pain Makes Him Bleed series of book recommendations. Capping off this series is Stephen King's If It Bleeds: a collection of three short stories: Mr. Harrigan's Phone, The Life of Chuck, Rat, and the titular novella If It Bleeds.
Why You Should Read If It Bleeds
Holly has been a movie buff all her life and has found things to enjoy even in films the critics have roasted (she believes, for example, that Stallone’s Cobra is woefully underestimated), but It's a Wonderful Life has always made her uneasy. (Page 292)
Characters suffer from addiction in the thralls of the Opioid Epidemic. A journalist investigates the family responsible for, and profiting from, that same epidemic. The link between Part 1 - Demon Copperhead and Part 2 - Empire of Pain is more apparent than the connection with King's If It Bleeds. Although abstract the connecting threads are several, and will help me highlight why If It Bleeds is a book that you should read.
The short story Mr. Harrigan's Phone is the compilation's leadoff hitter, and my favorite entry in this collection. Mr. Harrigan, a retired and fabulously wealthy businessman, hires his teenage neighbor Craig to read books to him and take care of his exotic plants. Craig serves as narrator, and his love of books is one of the reason he gets hired by Mr. Harrigan. This story is so Stephen King, that the young, precocious Craig is an aspiring writer.
Here's the first connecting thread: despite being extraordinarily affluent - like Empire of Pain's Sackler family - Mr. Harrigan has a contradictory and refreshing opinion on naming:
Mr. Harrigan said that allowing people to name things after you was not only absurd but undignified and ephemeral. In fifty years, he said, or even twenty, you were just a name on a plaque that everyone ignored. (Page 38)
But remember, the Sacklers did not name their businesses after themselves, because they wanted all of the credit for funding museum exhibits, and none of the blame for selling highly addictive opioids. Anyway, as Craig's formative years pass, his relationship with Mr. Harrigan grows, and as a gesture of gratitude the intrepid Craig gives Mr. Harrigan an iPhone. Like most people, Mr. Harrigan develops some habits with his phone use. Addiction and substance abuse is present in much of King's work, and this is another connecting thread to Demon and Empire:
Mr. Harrigan used that phone plenty. He was like the old maiden aunt who takes an experimental mouthful of brandy after sixty years of abstinence and becomes a genteel alcoholic almost overnight. Before long, the iPhone was always on the table beside his favorite chair when I came up in the afternoon.
I am stretching here, and obviously phone addiction is magnitudes away from opioid addiction, but what a simile! If you are familiar with Stephen King you will not be surprised to hear that this same iPhone is not only addicting for the elderly Harrigan, but haunted too. It sounds corny, and it is, but it's also spooky, fun, and sentimental.
The titular novella If It Bleeds keeps the scares and fun rolling as we follow King's recurring protagonist Holly Gibney, an endearing private investigator, movie buff, and recovering nicotine addict - more substance abuse. Holly prays a lot (if memory serves she picked this up in AA), and often asks for help with her cigarette addiction:
“God, this is Holly. I need to call my mother now. Help me to remember I can stand up for myself without being all nasty and poopy and getting into an argument. Help me to finish another day without smoking, I still miss cigarettes, especially at times like this." (Page 246)
It makes sense that Stephen King writes about addiction a lot: he writes great scary stories, and addiction is horrifying. Although dark, King's writing is also fun, and that's the final reason I programmed If It Bleeds with Demon Copperhead and Empire of Pain. Like doughnuts on a Saturday morning after a hard week, if you read Demon, Empire, or both you deserve a fun treat. And sometimes you just want doughnuts without a precondition, and you deserve those too. The premises of these King stories pull you in fast, and it's a hoot spending time with the characters.
I ran out of time to write about the other entries in this collection, The Life of Chuck and Rat, but they're great as well. Even though I disagree with Holly's take on Cobra (stinker) and It's a Wonderful Life (awesome), I recommend you read If It Bleeds if you want something dark and fun.
Closing
And that's a wrap on Hot Write Now's first multi-book recommendation series: Demon's Pain Makes Him Bleed. Thanks for following along, and happy reading. Get in touch and recommend your favorite books!
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