Herman Wouk Is Still Alive

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"Herman Wouk Is Still Alive"
Atlantic Media Company
Media typePrint
Publication date2011
Chronology
 
A Good Marriage
 
Under the Weather

"Herman Wouk Is Still Alive" is a short story by American author Stephen King. It was originally published in the May 2011 issue of The Atlantic magazine.[1]

Synopsis

Old friends Brenda and Jasmine, along with their seven children between them, set off on a road trip in a rented

Chevy Express after Brenda wins $2,700 (equivalent to $4,000 in 2022) on the Pick-3 lottery. They reflect back on their harsh childhoods and disappointing lives. Meanwhile, Phil and Pauline, two aging poets and former lovers, are on their way to a poetry festival at the University of Maine
. They stop at a rest area to have lunch together. Soon, Brenda decides that their lives are no longer worth living and that the children are doomed to a pitiful future. Deliberately and with the consent and encouragement of Jasmine, she crashes the van into a tree near Phil and Pauline at high speed. Phil and Pauline hurry to the wreckage, but Brenda, Jasmine, and all their children are dead. When a passer-by asks Pauline what happened, she finally loses her well-cultured disposition and asks him "What the fuck does it look like?"

Publication

"Herman Wouk Is Still Alive" came about as part of a bet between King and his son Owen during the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in which the loser would have to write a story based on a title supplied by the winner. Owen King came up with the title after reading in an article that Herman Wouk was still alive and writing despite being in his mid-nineties.[2] King conceived of the story after reading about the 2009 Taconic State Parkway crash.[3]

"Herman Wouk Is Still Alive" was first published in The Atlantic in May 2011.[2][4] It was collected as part of the 2015 work The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.[3]

Reception

Rocky Wood described "Herman Wouk Is Still Alive" as "King showing once again what a clear eye he has for observing society" and "another mainstream story that illustrates the horror that lurks in real life".[2] Tim Lepczyk described it as "an enjoyable and saddening story".[5] Herman Wouk himself was asked about the short story in a questions and answers session published as part of his 2012 novel The Lawgiver; Wouk stated "I read Mr. King's short story and enjoyed it."[6] The story won the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction.[4]

See also

References

  1. Atlantic Media Company
    . Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  2. ^ .
  3. ^ .
  4. ^ .
  5. ^ Lepczyk, Tim (May 11, 2011). "Herman Wouk Is Still Alive – Stephen King". Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  6. .

External links