Stephen King “Premium Harmony”

　　Premium Harmony is a cigarette brand name. The protagonist, Ray, is fond of smoking, which his wife detests. She likes a dog named Jack Russell, but Ray are not so much interested in the dog. One day, Ray and his wife argue over Ray’s smoking while driving to a supermarket, the Quick-Pit with the dog. They arrive at the market and she goes out to buy a ball for her niece, leaving Ray and the dog in the car. After a while, a sales woman comes to Ray reporting that his wife has died of a heart attack. Ray rashes to the scene and finds his wife dead. After coming back to his car, free from self-consciousness of playing the role of a tragedy hero in the supermarket, he returns to his car only to find the dog dead. He drives to the hospital smoking. 　　Sephen King presented a sad story of the wife’s death in a twisted and humorous way. A quarrel over smoking, her sudden death followed by her pet dog’s death, and his joyous and contented way of smoking. King depicted irresistible attachment to one’s likings even at a time of tragedy. The reader understands his feelings when he begins smoking after he came to himself in his car, free from self-consciousness. On one hand he is sad, but on the other he is satisfied with the situation where no one protests his smoking. 　　The development of the story is good with a persuasive ending. His vivid description of each scene such as “There are little bits of coconut caught in his whiskers” reminds me of that of Charles Dickens. He also skillfully writes most of the story in the present tense, which is said to be difficult for ordinary writers. 　　In one of King’s book on writing, he said that he was using “The Bridges of Madison County,” a 1992 best-selling novel by Robert James Waller, as a bad writing example in his novel writing class. How confident he is!