The former SS man and butcher of 800,000 now lives as a "kindly old man", hiding his identity from the world and charming the pants off of his "pupil's" naive parents. The "pupil", Todd Bowden (or the "boy", as Kurt never refers to him by name), is a bright and seemingly normal young teenager. Kurt brings out a dormant evil in Todd that he feeds with his nightmare stories of the concentration camps.

Kurt and Todd share a common bond and even though they have nothing outwardly in common. These commonalities are more telling than the exteriors they represent. They are both masters of deception and lies. They share a sick need to torture and hurt people and animals. Most of all, they lack a conscience and have no love or empathy for their fellow human being. Todd thinks of killing his loving parents and torturing young girls. He gets his kicks on murdering homeless drunks, as does the old man he emmulates. He hates this old man because he sees too much of himself in that rotting diseased old package, but he has a need, an addiction almost, to visit him and experience the tales of the massive slaughter. Separated by 65 years and countries halfway across the globe, the similarities between these two individuals exist nonetheless. The old man recognizes it and enjoys the company of one so much like himself.

King points out that in the deep dark places of the mind, there is sometimes an inward need to experience the macabre and horrific. Edgar Allen Poe couldn't have done a better job at translating this need! King is brilliant! It is interesting to note that Todd's character has a striking resemblence to that of Cathy in John Steinbeck's masterpiece, "East of Eden". Both were handsome young people who's looks and art of deception both disguise a genetic flaw; an utter lack of conscience. They both charm and delight those naive around them, while thinking up how to destroy those that love them or get in their way. If you enjoyed "Apt Pupil", I highly recommend "East of Eden".

Once learning the mans identity, the boy shows up on his doorstep and winds up sitting with the old man in his living room or back porch day after day hearing old war stories, as it were, after the boy blackmailed him into so doing under threat of identity exposure.

It seems, however, that the stories of Nazi death camp life begin to work not only on the mind of the boy, but simultaneously begin to re-work in the mind of the former SS Major. A parasitical symbiosis develops between them and they begin to slowly descend into a pit of madness, with the elder playing the boys "grandfather" to a school guidance counselor who gets involved due to the boys slipping grades...

Meanwhile, winos begin to show up dead down by the railroad tracks, and the wily old Nazi suspects the boy, and, no wonder, since he himself is familar with killing--not only because he murdered hundreds of thousands during the war, but he has been busy dispatching winos off the "missing persons" list and burying them in his cellar.

A thoroughly brilliant, bone chilling and, in the end, a rather wry piece of work.

Stephen King at his very best.