Waiting for my next plane at Changi last month, in accordance with SOP, I had a look around the airside WH Smith. Whilst it is tempting to divert here to comment on what a waste-of-space, sell-out, enterprise they are having destroyed their High Street stores and retreated to train stations and airports to sell the captured customer overpriced drinks, snacks, and blow-up neck pillows, now is not the time (although I seem to have started already).
Anyway, avoiding the general rubbish around me, I was pleased to pick up a first edition of 'The Life of Chuck'. This had appeared briefly in UK bookstores but seemed to have disappeared fairly quickly. Not sure if that was an indication of the film not doing so well, or maybe the tie-in book was too close to 'If It Bleeds', in which the story also appears, having only been published in paperback four years before and which, happily, also included a Holly story.
As the picture shows, there might be some debate as to whether I needed a copy of the book but, of course, need is a stupid word when it comes to these matters, as the fact that I already had 'If It Bleeds' in both hardback and paperback demonstrates. Plus, of course, it gave me an excuse to read the story again, having seen the film not so long ago, probably on one of those flights to or from Singapore, and I got the extra benefit of a few pages at the beginning from Mr King, describing some of his inspiration.
And, of course, it's great. It's sad and it's sweet and it makes you think, all in a few short pages.
I contain multitudes.
