Customer Reviews

Transgressions, Vol. 2: The Things They Left Behind / The Ransome Women

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TRANSGRESSIONS is a series of short stories from popular authors edited by Ed McBain. This volume in the series contains two stories: one from Stephen King and one from John Farris.

King's story, "The Things They Left Behind" is the shorter of the stories. Scott Staley called in sick to his job as a claims adjuster in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. It was a decision he questioned almost everyday after. Almost a year later, in August 2002, a box containing personal items of people he worked with in the tower shows up in his apartment. He doesn't know what to do with the items. Then one night the voices start. It's enough to drive a sane person crazy. Scott tries to give the items away, but he always ends up back with them. Somehow he has to figure out what to do with the items, stop the voices, and ease his guilty conscience.

The second story, "The Ransome Women" is by John Farris. This story is basically a psychological suspense story. Echo Halloran is a young and beautiful starving artist/art critic, trying to forge her way in New York. Echo's favorite artist is the reclusive John Ransome, a portrait painter who only paints pictures about twice a decade. Echo catches the eye of Ransome and he wishes to hire her for a year as his next model. Becoming a Ransome woman could be the break of a lifetime. However, Ransome is a shady figure with a mysterious past and the fate that meets each of the former Ransome women is one that Echo tries desperately to avoid.

Of the two stories, I found "The Ransome Women" to be the more exciting. Not that I didn't like "The Things They Left Behind," because I did. In style that story resembles some of King's best works, such as DIFFERENT SEASONS, THE GREEN MILE, THE COLORADO KID, and THE LONG WALK. I enjoyed reading it. However, I liked reading "The Ransome Women" more even though it is four times longer than "The Things They Left Behind." The story begins rather slow, but quickly picks up pace. As a whole, it reminded me of the 1944 movie starring John Carradine and Jean Parker, BLUEBEARD. True to the title of the series, both stories are welcome transgressions.

I have not yet read either story - but very much look forward to it. I do have a complaint, however. I ordered the hardcover version of "Transgressions" and before receiving it also ordered "Transgressions Vol 2."

Well, the two stories in "Transgressions Vol 2" are contained in the hardcover "Transgressions," which also includes many other short stories.

So don't make the same mistake I made!

"The Things They Left Behind" is very simple and very moving. It is perhaps the best King I have read in 10 years. His talents were put to good use in this one. It took me back to 2001-2002 when we were pulling together and before we went back to business as usual, shooting our own wounded.

I enjoyed both stories, although John Farris wrote the more riveting and complex story. What confused me was Ed McBain's intro. In his intro, he wrote that he used to get $500 checks for 10,000 word novelettes, at the going rate of half a cent per word. That's fifty dollars, isn't it? I noticed that because five hundred dollars still isn't bad pay for 10,000 words.

I have to admit that I got this book pretty much only because it has a Stephen King story in it. The other story sounded interesting, but as a devout King fan, I couldn't resist the idea of King writing something about 9/11. Imagine my surprise, then, when the King story turned out to be something of a disappointment (not bad, but not as good as it could have been), while the John Farris story is what made the book worth the purchase!

The Stephen King entry in this paperback volume comes first. "The Things They Left Behind," at just over 50 pages, could either be classified as a somewhat long short story, or a very short short novel. It is the tale of a man who is dealing with the guilt of surviving the tragedy of 9/11 because he wasn't at work in downtown Manhattan, in the World Trade Center, where most of his colleagues and friends died that day. Now, several years later, he finds certain mementos of theirs in his apartment. They call to him, and he has to try to figure out what to do with them. This was a story with a lot of potential, but unfortunately it's rather too short to meet that potential. There's not much room here for character development or even a strong plotline, and the result is that the story left me somewhat flat when I finished it. I had higher hopes for it, but it seemed to me that just as it was picking up some steam...it ended. It's a good idea and I would have liked to see it explored with a little more depth. Sadly, all that the reader is given is the tease of an interesting idea, without much of a denouement.

John Farris' story however (truly a short novel, in every sense) makes up for what King's lacks in substance. "The Ransome Women" begins with an intriguing concept and keeps going until it reaches a satisfying conclusion. In the story, John Ransome is an eccentric and reclusive artist who paints only infrequently, but beautiful portraits of exotic women. When he asks the fiancee of a police detective to be his next model, entailing her going away to be secluded with the artist for a year, the detective looks into the mysterious history of the other women who have posed for Ransome, and he doesn't like what he finds. "The Ransome Women" is a gorgeously-written suspense tale about the process of art and the personalities that create it, and the price that is sometimes paid for beauty. I loved it from beginning to end.

Both stories are certainly worth reading. While King has definitely written better than "The Things They Left Behind," at the very least there is a good idea there...it's just not explored as fully as it could have been. "The Ransome Women" is simply a masterpiece of short fiction -- suspenseful and well-written. It makes me want to read more of Farris' work.

Overall, this one's definitely worth a look.

When I saw the title of the novella written by Stephen King (The Things they Left Behind) I knew I had to buy this book, because I already had a book with a similar title, that one written by the brilliant Tim O'Brien (The Things they Carried), and I hoped King had come up with the title as a nod to O'Brien's book but didn't have time to check that out before buying the book (I was in the process of making some last minute purchases for a birthday party - at breakneck speed).

When I finally got time to sit down and read this book, I found King's story to be absolutely haunting and I DO think it is meant to connect to O'Brien's book (there are certainly similar themes, although a different situation, both in time and place, etc).

I only wish I could provide a lot of details about the plot but I'm afraid that would destroy the surprise for you. I will go so far as to say it has to do with memory and loss, with unexpected grief and trauma but I feel I owe it to the reader to experience the exact situation, the evocative atmosphere without any spoilers.

I don't generally feel that way but this novella covers such a major experience that I don't want to give too much away. It is among the best of such works that have come out in recent years, many on the same subject, and I find the title to be a perfect parallel to O'Brien's work about how major trauma affects people (and I urge you to hunt down O'Brien's book, one of the best I've ever read).

I know I've gone on and on about one novella and not said much about the other. It, too, is a worthy read but I would not have bought the book for it alone, although it explores the price of beauty in a particular situation very solidly. It held my interest. Perhaps some of you will even prefer it to the King story.

I DO want to note that I have bought every book in the Transgressions series and not a single volume has disappointed me. Ed McBain noted that he put together these compilations as a way to showcase pieces that allows authors to veer off in new directions and each writer seems to have kept to high standards. This isn't a hastily thrown together series but an excellent, high quality one.

Noted crime writer EdMcBain has edited a collection of novellas from some of our best modern writers. This two story collection features the legendary Stephen King and veteran horror/thriller writer John Farris.

King's entry is THE THINGS THEY LEFT BEHIND, a rather poignant but ultimately empty tale of the aftermath of 9/11. A young man called in sick that day and is now being haunted with keepsakes of some of the people who died in the Twin Towers. While King's prose is top notch as always, the story's purpose and impact are dimmed by such an underplaying of guilt and redemption.

Farris' THE RANSOME WOMEN is very good until its closing sequences. A beautiful wannabe artist agrees to pose for noted artist John Ransome. It seems, however, that the seven women who previously posed for Ransome are now horribly mutilated or dead. Her cop fiancee investigates and by the time the resolution occurs, Farris has cheated us out of closure or coherence. Both writers have certainly done better work.

Mr. King's work here is, I feel, right up there with his best. One of the other reviewers found it poignant, which it is, and unimpressive, with which I disagree. His protagonist escaped the World Trade Center disaster quite by luck, and rather abruptly finds himself the custodian of objects belong to people he knew who lost their lives that day. Throwing them out does not work, and he comes to understand that the objects need him to return them to the survivors. Mr. King gets inside the guys head, and lets us follow his somewhat tortured path to the right idea. This is the kind of thing that SK excels at, and here he is at top form.

The John Farris item I found overlong, somewhat adolescent in tone here and there, soap-opera-ish, and no particular mystery at all. I don't know Mr. Farris, and this effort is not going to push me into reading anything else of his.

Get this one for the Stephen King story.

Never judge a book by its cover! I saw Stephen Kings name on the cover and threw it into my Target shopping basket only to find out later that Stephen King's novellette was only 50 pages long! The other novellette was just a tad better than grabbing the dated USA Today paper on United 890. While the story was mildly interesting, phrases like 'Stop! I am the police' somehow did not feel 100% natural. Unless your the unfortunate person who found the copy of this book that I left in seat 25B, don't bother.