King, Owen 1977(?)–

PERSONAL: Born c. 1977, in Bangor, ME; son of Stephen (a writer) and Tabitha (a writer) King. Education: Vassar College, received degree; Columbia University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Bloomsbury Publishing, 175 5th Ave., Ste. 300, New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: John Gardner Award for Short Fiction.

WRITINGS:

We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Book and Bellingham Review.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A screenplay, under option by Working Title Films.

SIDELIGHTS: Short-story writer Owen King is the son of famed authors Stephen and Tabitha King, but he makes a dedicated effort to ensure his own authorial identity is separate from that of his parents. "I didn't want to write a book as Stephen King's son, because all I did was get born, and that's not much of an accomplishment," King remarked to Gilbert Cruz in an Entertainment Weekly profile. "I understand people's curiosity and yet, I've made a really decided effort to write in a way that's individual to me, and do as much as I can possibly do on my own without being insane about it," he commented in a Time interview with Andrea Sachs.

We're All in This Together, King's debut collection of short stories, contains a lengthy novella that anchors the collection. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the title novella a "powerful exploration of the flimsiness of political moral certainty compared to the strength of the unpredictable emotions that end up motivating individuals' actions." Set in the aftermath of the controversial 2000 U.S. presidential election, the story follows fifteen-year-old George Claiborne as he struggles to accept his single-mother Emma's upcoming marriage to oafish and embarrassing Dr. Vic. To help him cope, George spends much of his time with his grandfather, Henry, a union organizer and stalwart Democrat who seethes at what he perceives to be the stolen presidential election. As George seeks ways to sabotage his mother's relationship with Dr. Vic, he and his grandfather devise traps to ambush the vandal who has defaced Henry's front-yard tributes to Al Gore. Ultimately, the family's political obsessions threaten not only Emma's relationship, but the whole family's unity as well.

Some of King's stories display a touch of the same macabre for which his father is known. "Frozen Animals," for one, involves messy and primitive dental work performed in exchange for sex by a traveling dentist in the northern wilderness. A two-headed circus freak performs an abortion on a baseball player's girlfriend in "Wonders." Other tales, such as "My Second Wife," address the strong emotional issues of coping with breakup and loneliness. New York Times reviewer Jon Zobenica found that the tales in the book were too politically inspired and served more to put forward King's opinions than to tell stories. The title novella "is parable as polemic," Zobenica remarked. Still, the book's "remaining stories reveal enough descriptive and imaginative flair to suggest that with time and discipline King may leave behind the op-ed pieces that masquerade as summer fiction," Zobenica commented.

Other critics were more favorably inclined toward the collection as a whole. "Funny and poignant, these stories are textured gems," commented Jonathan Durbin in People, while a Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book a "compelling, imaginative debut collection," concluding, "This original collection heralds the arrival of the next generation."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Entertainment Weekly, June 24, 2005, Gilbert Cruz, "Something in the Heir."

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2005, review of We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories, p. 560.

New York Times, July 24, 2005, Jon Zobenica, "We're All in This Together: At the End of Wretch Lane."

People, July 25, 2005, Jonathan Durbin, review of We're All in This Together, p. 51.

Publishers Weekly, May 9, 2005, review of We're All in This Together, p. 40.

Time, July 7, 2005, Andrea Sachs, "Galley Girl: The Son Also Rises," interview with King.

ONLINE

BookPage, http://www.bookpage.com/ (August 18, 2005), Owen King, "Behind the Book."