I was surprised there is no thread on the new Stephen King novel: 11/22/63.
I was waiting for this to come out for a while, and was not disappointed by the work. Very ambitious… King stated that he conceptualized the book in the 70’s but needed to conduct research on the topic…
Specific observations:
Other than the “time travel” the “guys who hold the strings” and “the past not wanting to change” I found it to be an excellent novel, with little of “the dark side” that you often find in King novels
At the heart, it is a love story, which surprised me
The time period in which Jake is laid up in the hospital and recovering from his significant beating seemed to be the only “weak part” in the novel, at least the only part that seemed to drag on… I know there needed to be some “tension” before the “resolution” but this was the only part of the book that could have been shorter (for me).
Haven’t read it yet, but the NY Times put it in their top ten for 2011.
My daughter’s reading it now. She occasionally texts me asking what I remember about some of the pop culture references. Yesterday it was “What’s a WeeGee?” and “Who’s Diane Arbus?”
She also asked about “ginchy”. I was almost gonna start a thread about ginchy, as an example of a word or phrase introduced into popular culture but that never becomes popular, or is only popular for a very short time. We were impressionable teens and we thought Ed Byrnes was cute, but we knew that “ginchy” was stupid and we never used the word.
I quite enjoyed it, and was a little surprised because his recent novels haven’t worked for me (I actually stopped reading Under the Dome, which is unusual for me.) Got a little weaker at the end, but frankly if a Stephen King book’s ending doesn’t make you want to throw it across the room in disgust he’s doing well. Not good at endings, that guy.
I was originally quite skeptical. “its a book about time travel and the Kennedy assassination? Pfft. What a lame idea!” Husband countered with “old man sets up shop in a small town, sells stuff to people - that was a good idea?”
Point taken, my dear, point taken.
(I enjoyed Needful Things, and am enough of a King fan to enjoy nearly every book by him, so am looking forward to this being under the tree for me this year.)
Edit: I didn’t see enough spoilers in this thread so far to worry me.
I agree, I’m a fan of his early stuff but I haven’t been reading him on a regular basis in a long time. However, the idea of a 1000 page time travel novel was so totally delicious that I decided to read it over the long Thanksgiving weekend.
Like I had hoped, I couldn’t put it down. it did not disappoint.
Spoilers follow
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I did find one section a little draggy…about 2/3rds of the way in, after his first break-up with Sadie. This is the section where he is living near Lee and Marina to run survellience on them and I think George Amberson’s depression and restlessness sort of rubbed off on me…but the book picked back up when he patched things up with Sadie.
I also didn’t feel that he “Jimla” story line was filled out completely…with all the creepy woo surrounding the “Jimla”, I was rather expecting Jim LaDue - and Amberson’s intervention in LaDue’s timeline- to have played some sort of part in the history that created the dysfunctional 2011…(like LaDue being cast as the not-so-bright born again reformed alcoholic-president in the year 2000 or something). well, THAT might be a touch “on the nose”. But I do feel that he was hinting throughout the book that LaDue’s timeline and his interactions with Amberson had a special significance but there wasn’t any follow-through.
And THAT is the only criticism I have of a 1000 page novel, it was one of the best books I’ve read in a while. I’ll have to go back and check out some of the Stephen King novels that I’ve missed, some of them may be worth another look.
I expected the Jimla and Yellow Card stuff to veer off into some of the extreme weirdness that has ruined some of Steve’s other books, but it didn’t get too bizarre and was sufficiently explained.
Nice to see Richie and Bev again, also, without too much information added about them. I didn’t want to hear a whole new chapter of their story that would change my viewpoint of It. However, I did think Richie ought to have been actually funny.
OK, wrapped it up yesterday. I enjoyed it more than any SK novel since The Waste Lands, actually.
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I thought that George’s recovery from his beating dragged more than a bit, but that was my only real complaint. I really got into the details of small-town living in that era, since I was trundling around in short pants at that time.
I had expected the low men to make an appearance, and to hear some mention of instability in the Tower, but was quite happy to get a future history of the world where Kennedy lived, and I found the ending actually rather neat and complete.
I agree with Dung Beetle that the Yellow (orange, black) Card Men were not sufficiently explained. Were they guards of the rabbit holes? Were they trapped there in time AND tied to the physical location?
I sped through the last two chapters not only to see how George would stop Oswald, but to see how he was going to keep the girl. This book was really a sweet love story in it’s heart.
In the acknowledgements he gives his son Joe, also an author, credit for suggesting an ending which was better than what he had planned. That may well explain why the ending was better than some of his other work.
I really enjoyed it, thought the details of the time were well set out and it certainly had a well paced plot that made it hard to put down.
It was good. Much better than “Under the Dome” which took me an embarrassingly long time to get through. I was kind of lost on the whole ‘JimLa’ theme, but I could get past that. I liked it. It’s a long book - the one thing you can say about King - he gives you your money’s worth! He works hard for the money…