| "The Fifth Step" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Stephen King | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Horror short story | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Harper's Magazine | ||
| Publisher | Doubleday | ||
| Media type | Print, digital | ||
| Publication date | 2020 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"The Fifth Step" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the March 2020 issue of Harper's Magazine . It was collected in King's 2024 collection You Like It Darker .
Harold Jamieson is a 68-year old widower and retiree living in New York City. While reading the New York Times on a bench in Central Park one morning, he is approached by "Jack", an alcoholic salesman who is attempting to complete Alcoholics Anonymous' twelve-step program. Jack has reached step five - "admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs" - and at the behest of his sponsor has approached Jamieson, a stranger, to ask him to listen to his admissions.
After Jamieson agrees to listen, Jack lists his various wrongdoings, which include fighting with another student in fourth grade for no reason, stealing alcohol from his mother, buying alcohol for a homeless man, cheating at Brown University, smuggling cocaine over the Canadian border, lying to his employer, and lying to his wife. Jamieson becomes uneasy after Jack describes having wanted to beat his wife after she argues with him about his drinking.
As Jack prepares to leave, he confesses to Jamieson that he murdered his wife, then stabs Jamieson between the ribs with an ice pick. As Jack leaves Jamieson–seemingly dying–on the bench, he admits that he enjoys killing people, describing it as "the chief of my wrongs". [1]
"The Fifth Step" was originally published in the March 2020 issue of Harper's Magazine . [1] [2]
The website EverythingStephenKing.com described "The Fifth Step" as "a nice story, well told" - noting "King's ability to create believable characters and situations has not diminished over the years" - but also as "forgettable" with a predictable ending. [3]
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global peer-led mutual aid fellowship begun in the United States dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's twelve traditions, besides stressing anonymity, establish it as non-professional, unaffiliated, non-denominational and apolitical with a public relations policy of attraction rather than promotion. In 2020 AA estimated a worldwide membership of over two million, with 75% of those in the US and Canada.
Stephen Edwin King is an American author. Called the "King of Horror", he has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy and mystery. He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections. His debut, Carrie (1974), established him in horror. Different Seasons (1982), a collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the genre. Among the films adapted from King's fiction are Carrie, Christine, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Stand by Me, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and It. He has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and has co-written works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King. He has also written nonfiction, notably On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.
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Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. Harper's Magazine has won 22 National Magazine Awards.
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"The Ledge" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the July 1976 issue of Penthouse, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.
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Confusions is a play by Alan Ayckbourn consisting of a series of five interconnected one-act plays. It was first staged in 1974 and played by just five actors. The scenes are all loosely linked by characters or locations, but more subtly through the common underlying themes of obsession, isolation and human desire for companionship.
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"Here There Be Tygers" is a short horror story by Stephen King. It was originally published in the Spring 1968 issue of Ubris magazine, and collected in King's Skeleton Crew in 1985.
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Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global fellowship founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Robert Smith, and has since grown to be worldwide
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