Do you remember that old Twilight Zone episode with Dennis Weaver as the convict on death row? He tells his captors that if they kill him, they will all cease to exist because he is dreaming them and their entire world?

The Life of Chuck is basically that story with a more literary spin. Again, the undercurrent seems to be that King is trying to make sense of the fact that he will get old and die. I find it interesting that King does not seem to show a lot of range on the subject over the years.

I feel like I’ve seen this exchange in a King story numerous times now.

Why did so-and-so have to die?
It’s a mystery.
Screw the mystery!

It also seems like I see a lot of characters in new Stephen King stories trying to recapture their youth. The Life Of Chuck is one of those, as well. This is interesting because I feel King already recaptured youth in It. His ability to write about childhood in that book bordered on mystical.

THE GOOD
The Life Of Chuck is kind of told in reverse order that gives it a different vibe. I say “kind of” because it isn’t a traditional linear story anyway. Instead of a beginning, middle and end, it has a beginning, a middle and a different world that has an end.

THE BAD
I didn’t particularly like this story. Maybe it is because it seems like King is trying to make sense of something that doesn’t confuse me that much. As a result, I didn’t find anything in the story all that compelling because it is a say-something story rather than a plot story.

The concept of a world dying with a man, with reference to Walt Whitman’s I am large, I contain multitudes line is neat, but King doesn’t do much with it in regards to the world dying. He gives a brief overview of the dying world and then moves away from it to other things.

I’d bet King could give a interesting commentary on the story on how this means this and that means that. (Like is the drummer in there because of the phrase, marching to the beat of a different drum?) That would be fun. The story itself isn’t that fun, nor is it meant to be, I reckon. It is supposed to be meaningful. Is it meaningful?

I suppose Life Of Chuck could lead to meaningful discussions. There is value in that.

THE UGLY
Everything in this story felt disconnected. I get that it was all connected, but it didn’t come together for me when reading it.

King starts with some folks in the dying world. Then he jumps to a street drummer. Then he jumps to a girl who got dumped. Then he jumps to a guy who starts dancing to the drummer’s beat with the girl. Finally, the story ends with a peek into Chuck’s youth and a room where one can see a vision of people dying in the future.

It’s all over the place.

Maybe Life Of Chuck would have worked better if there were threads in names/actions to follow throughout the story (maybe there were, and I didn’t notice it). Like maybe drums and dancing or names of people could have appeared in the dying world that are tied to the middle part of the story and all the way through to the final part.

CONCLUSION
The Life Of Chuck is not the life of the party when it comes to the stories in If It Bleeds.

I read other reviews that said it was an amazing story, however. It goes to show a person how subjective art is in the eye of the beholder.