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More Night Shift by Stephen King - "The Ledge"

By now, I've read a pretty large chunk into Night Shift and my thoughts about it have gotten better since last time, though I don't think a can really call it a horror novel anymore. It might be personal preference but the stories have lost that "spine-tingling" feeling as promised by the back cover. Many of the stories, like I said last time, are very bizarre and sometimes even hard to take seriously. In spite of all this I still enjoy some of the stories, and some of them don't make me laugh but rather enrapture me. This leads me to this particular story, "The Ledge".

"The Ledge" is about a tennis coach who is in quite the conflict with a man named Cressner. Norris, the tennis coach, is having an affair with Cressner's wife, and Cressner is alright with that. In fact, he offers Norris his wife along with $20,000. But there's a catch. Cressner's and Norris's wager takes place on Cressner's apartment building which is 47 stories up. Outside the apartment there is a small balcony, and beside that there is stone ledge the circumnavigates the building. As long as Norris can follow that ledge all the way around the building, he can keep the money and the wife.

I really liked this story because the plot seemed interesting. Not only that, but the writing was so descriptive. While Norris teetered on that ledge around the building it felt like I was too, my heart was racing as fast as Norris's. This story is one of my favorites so far in Night Shift along with of course "Battleground".

This story was acted out in Stephen Kings's film "Cat's Eye". The trailer is below if you want to see it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBdshG0lWac
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBdshG0lWa

Comments

  1. You did a very good job summarizing the story without giving too much of it away. This book sounds very interesting. If I was getting $20,000 and a husband I love I would probably try go around the ledge. Thanks for Sharing!

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