This is not quite a novel, but not quite a short story collection either. It consists of five stories taking place in different times, but bound together by recurring characters.
The first (and longest) part "Low Men in Yellow Coats" takes place in 1960. Bobby Garfield has just turned eleven, but his mother can't afford to buy him the bike he wants. She keeps repeating that they are low on money since his father died.
As usual when King writes about children it is very well done. There is a sense of being in the middle of Bobby's last summer as a child and the first as almost grownup. Bobby decides to try to earn the money for the bike himself. As the same time he realized that his friend Carol Gerber isn't just a friend, but that he's in fact in love.
To get more money, Bobby's mother rents out a free room in their house to Ted Brautigan. It is obvious that she doesn't like Ted, but Bobby does. Ted spends a lot of time discussing books with Bobby (who has just gotten an adult library card for his birthday) and gives him [Lord of the Flies]? that makes a huge impression on him.
Ted proves to be a bit weird. He claims to be hunted by low men in yellow coats. He doesn't want to say too much about them, but he asks Bobby to keep an eye out for them and let him know when they are near. Bobby gets paid for it, but doesn't take it seriously and fails his job. These mystical men are really the only supernatural element in the book, the later parts are entirely realistical.
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)