they have food and water to last for weeks, the be-
sieged group is thrown into a crisis when the power
goes off, limiting how long the former will last and
preventing them from pumping the latter. Then a
bulldozer shows up and threatens to knock down
the building unless the people come out and fuel
the trucks, the various vehicles communicating
their desires improbably by honking their horns in
Morse code.
There were two film versions. The first and
better of the two was Maximum Overdrive(1986),
which was fairly loyal to the original story, al-
though the characters come across as more ad-
mirable, making an attempt to rescue the injured
man, an action they choose not to take in the orig-
inal. The remake, Trucks(1997), is considerably
less interesting. “Trucks” is a Frankenstein story,
with humanity threatened by its own creations. It
also seems likely that the story is at least in part in-
tended to be a satire of the Living Dead zombie
movies by George Romero and others, which have
an equally inexplicable basis for the collapse of the
world and also follow the adventures of a small
group held under siege by numerous deadly ene-
mies. Despite a rather superficial plot, the story
leaves the reader with distinct and lasting images.
Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt(1975)
Natalie Babbitt, a poet and author, is one of the
small group of children’s novelists whose work has
found a sizeable audience among adult readers as
well, possibly because of her ability to evoke a fairy
tale quality that is absent from the work of most of
her contemporaries. She has written several fan-
tasies, including two linked collections of stories,
The Devil’s Storybook(1974) and The Devil’s Other
Storybook(1986); presented a gentle, heart-warm-
ing ghost story in The Eye of the Amaryllis(1977);
and created a magical kingdom in The Search for
Delicious(1969). Her most important work, how-
ever, is Tuck Everlasting,produced as a motion pic-
ture in 2002 and 1981.
The story is set in early 19th-century America
in the mythical town of Treegap. The Foster family
owns a stretch of woods that no one ever enters be-
cause it has a vaguely disreputable reputation, but
10-year-old Winnie Foster is eventually trapped by
circumstances and discovers that there is a family,
the Tucks, living concealed within that forest. The
Tucks have another secret. Hidden nearby is a
spring, essentially the fountain of youth, from
which they all drank at one time in the past. Win-
nie initially believes that their immortality is a great
blessing, but it has frozen them in time at the age
they were when they drank the water, preventing
them from living a normal life.
The Tucks eventually convince her that im-
mortality is a curse rather than a blessing. If the
fountain’s existence were known to outsiders, it
would cause a disastrous upheaval. The Tucks
themselves will never be able to mingle with nor-
mal people because their differences would eventu-
ally become obvious, so they have hidden
themselves away and live a narrowly circumscribed
life. Unfortunately, no situation is perpetually sta-
ble. A mysterious man who has heard about the
fountain and wants to market its water is trying to
confirm the rumors, and that leads to death and
near discovery.
In addition to being a very fine story in itself,
Tuck Everlastingprovides an excellent case for the
cycle of life in nature. Death is presented as a nat-
ural and necessary process required to make room
for new life.The Turn of the ScrewHenry James(1898)
This short novel by Henry James is a strong con-
tender for the best ghost story of all time. A gov-
erness takes a job at a large estate where she is put
in charge of two children, Flora and Miles, but is
forbidden to speak to their presumed father. Al-
though she is initially happy with her position de-
spite the unusual circumstances, she begins to
have reservations after seeing a mysterious figure
on the property who she eventually decides is the
ghost of a former valet employed at the estate.
A second apparition appears, a woman, who
the governess instinctively knows is evil and even-
tually identifies as the ghost of the previous gov-
erness, who left her position under a cloud,
apparently because of an affair between herself and
the valet. The two ghosts are apparently seeking to
gain influence over the children and have been at
least partially successful, because they both beginThe Turn of the Screw 355