Thursday, December 1, 2011

Stephen King's 11/22/63

I know how I felt on That Date because I'm a "Boomer". I might be a little younger than SK; I was born in 1952. He remembers how he felt on that date also. He's lived a life of pain like me, like many of us. Money does not dissolve pain. We've all had pain, we're born to suffer.
Anyway, I heard him do an interview about his new book on NPR and I thought: "That sounds like a departure. I'm interested." 'Cause historical fiction is Boyle, right? Historical fiction is not King. My wife the SK nut says not.
Stephen King, to me, has become kind of like the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan. Who cares about them? They are old like me and have lost the voice. SK might be a has-been to me I guess but like the Stones and Zimmerman he is (was?) master of what he does (did?). He's better at consistency than, let's say, T. Coraghessan (who has the best name ever) for instance. That guy is garbage or brilliance.
I haven't even read King's last three or four books. I haven't even bought any Stones or Dylan for a very very long time. I've read lots of Stephen King but not like my wife. She reads it all. If she says "it's pretty good" I don't read SK now.
Well I'm reading 11/22/63 before she does because I heard the NPR interview.
I think that Stephen cares (forgetting about the $) about 11/22/63 more than anything that he's ever done. My thinking is usually wrong though. He's been studying since 1972 for this book. Yeah, it's not the first time that he's put a book on the back burner for decades. They'll finds hundreds of "valuable" manuscripts when he kicks. But again, a style departure interested me.

I have to say that I have become sick of King's 800 page novels with 400 pages of character development. So I said "OH NO" when I bought 11/22/63. It's not so initially plodding along for me as most of his stuff. Not everyone agrees with the "plodding" SK scenario, I know. This book surprised me. I plodded along with the "oh no's" for only about 20 pages. The next 50 have just zipped by and I can't believe that. I'm not working very hard after three chapters.
1) Read the Afterword first. It helps. 2) If you don't remember the Kennedy assassination this is just a book. It won't be very emotionally alluring.
The quote in the beginning by Mailer and the back book jacket are cool.
(12/01/11, so far 4 1/2 stars out of 5.)

Ok, now I am through part two and 200 plus pages. The references to the book "It" were at first a little aggravating to me. This backlash is a common occurence in King's books. It turns out that I had a hard time recalling the billion pages of one of his best books. My prob.
So our main character has to do a practice run before saving JFK and is somewhat successful. Too much of the developmental style for me as usual. I thought about decreasing my rating but am still hanging with 4 1/2 as things went well enough. I haven't struggled too much and am already 1/4 done. If things go status quo with this author, just as I go out of my mind with the lenghth of the thing, I won't be able to put it down. Picked up a good tip on a movie about a Hitler assassination attempt and would like to also check out a book by Paul Bowles. Thanks for having those idiosynchrasies Stephen.
A louse turns good at the last second and helps our hero save all but one.
(12/04/11)

Afterever our hero finishes up in "It" Town and gets out by about page 270. So, I have to wonder if 11/22/63 is about to start-and with plenty of time to spare, almost 600 pages left. I'm thinking I'll need to be convinced now.
A minor miracle performed on the way out of Derry.
ADDENDUM: No such luck, page 400+ and we are just meeting the Oswald's. Someone has bugged Lee's pad. I can't give 4 stars at this point. Pick it up SK. You are slowin' me down.
(12/13/11)

Pg. 640, 200 left. Our Hero has decided finally to undo the dastardly deed which the title references. He has also decided to take his maimed girlfriend to the future for her care? We'll see. The story is dragging at 4 stars.
(12/19/11)

Fini, the last 200 went fast as usual with King. As the story starts I read him fast.
Let's see: Love affair collides with history, love affair loses. 800+ words is too many for this concept. I'm buying the rest but not the human-caused earthquakes. Maybe I should be buying.
Anyway, 3 1/2 stars. The writing hurried along when it got good and languished when it wasn't.
12/20/11.

I had been hoping to add 11/22/63 to my top 10 King books which are: #1) The Stand (which was very long but didn't seem so). Then The Shining, It (reprise The Stand), The Green Mile (in installments as it came out), Hearts in Atlantis, Thinner, Desperation/The Regulators as a set, Insomnia, Needful Things, & Misery. The newest book couldn't infiltrate, disappointing.

My wife declined to do a review, but she did not pan it like me. Of course she read it in a week, me a month. Appears I wouldn't know. She's the SK expert. The lady liked it and it cracked her top 10: #1 like me) The Stand, The Shining, It, The Green Mile, Black House/The Talisman as a set, Hearts in Atlantis, Firestarter (I don't remember this one), the new one at #8, Desperation/The Regs., & Salem's Lot. So we agree on a lot. As one can see, most of King's best is the oldest. Kinda like the Stones & Dylan Bobby.
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1 comment:

  1. I am a constant reader of his. The way this book is written, i never once stopped because it was not believable. Stephen King has a way of making characters and their thoughts and dialog seem like it might be you or your neighbor. The narrative flows along, and you really feel what they are going through. I will not go over plot points n stuff, but i will say this. I felt gobsmacked, confused, horrified, fell in love, felt for them, and when i read the word shivers, i was already there, friends.

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