The Bazaar of Bad Dreams is a very aptly named collection of short stories, because just like a literal bazaar it contains some items which are worth little, many which are just OK, and a few which are real finds. Since Stephen King is known primarily as a writer in the horror genre, one would expect the stories with supernatural happenings to be the jewels. Surprisingly, that is not the case.
The first story in the collection, "Mile 81," reads almost as a parody of a King story rather than the real thing. It features a killer car and a young boy who saves the day. Haven't I read something like that before? "The Dune," about a sand dune upon which mysteriously appears the name of a person about to die, has an ending which can be seen coming a mile away. Those two are the most obviously junque (a term used to make junk seem more attractive). Most of the stories are of the middling variety -- entertaining, but nothing to get excited about. Among the few jewels, my favorites were "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation," a story about a middle--aged man and his father who has Alzheimer's, and "Drunken Fireworks," which reminds me of what takes place here in Bastrop County every 4th of July. Neither one was in the least supernatural.
As I see it, Stephen King's primary talent is not his ability to create thrills and chills, but instead his ability to craft interesting and believable characters, and the short story format does not allow for that kind of development. Some of his past novellas have been very good, because in that bit of extra text he can exercise his talent, but I don't consider the short story to be his best format, by far.
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