SOURCE: A review of Night Shift, in The New York Times Book review, March 26, 1978, pp. 13, 23.

Mewshaw is an American novelist, short story writer, nonfiction writer, and critic. In the following review, he provides a negative assessment of Night Shift.

Still in his early 30's, Stephen King has already produced three novels—Carrie, Salem's lot and The Shining—which, by a process as eerie and unfathomable as their spooky plots, mutated into "packages." (A "package," for anyone not familiar with lit-biz argot, is a thin envelope of words, flexible enough to contain huge volumes of money and hot air. Once floated in book form, it is likely to become a best seller, then a "major motion picture" or a short television series.) Having signed a multibook contract for more than $1 million, Mr. King has now published a collection of his short stories, most of which first appeared in Cavalier...