For the longest time, I hadn't read a book. There were several reasons why - my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be and my eyes grow tired more quickly; I've also not read books as much as I did before I first got a computer. I still read, but it's mostly news articles and forum posts and comments.
It's also been hard for me to find something to hold my interest. I've always enjoyed good fiction, but I haven't checked many books out of the library that engaged me. Most of the time I start them, then simply cannot finish. I then forget about them and have to pay a late fee because I forget to take them back. I never minded paying for an overdue book if I enjoyed it, but I hate to pay a fine for a book I didn't read, much less one I didn't even like.
I was at the library the other day to pick up some tax forms and decided to peruse the new releases. I saw the newest Stephen King novel 11/22/63 and reading the flyleaf, decided I wanted to give it a go. (WARNING: Spoilers at the Wiki link)
I can barely put it down, it's so good. The book is about an English teacher who is teaching a GED class and reads a horrifying essay by the school janitor, an account of his father murdering his entire family and nearly killing him as well back in 1958. The teacher is emotionally moved by the tale but then gets the largest shock of his life; a friend who owns a diner shows him a time portal in the diner's pantry that leads to 1958. The teacher is urged by the diner owner to go back in time and try to change history, namely to stop the assassination of JFK. He decides to take on the task, but also thinks that the portal goes back to '58 because he is supposed to stop the massacre of the janitor's family.
I'm at the point of the book where he's been back in time for a few weeks. The storyline is derivative of most time travel tales, namely the sci-fi question: If you go back in time, can the future be changed? That question seems to be cleverly answered so far, but I'm anxious to see what will happen. I expect there will be several twists and turns along the way.
So far, the novel seems to be one of King's better efforts, especially of the last 10-15 yrs. (I haven't liked much of anything he's done over that time, but that's just a personal opinion) He does a great job of bringing the characters to life and adds in some bits of humor. The account of a much simpler time in the late 50's is also appealing. If I have a gripe so far, it's that he interjects his own personal politics a bit too much, but it's not anything too annoying.
Think I'll get off of here, go kick back and read some more. I haven't been this enthused about a book in years.
It's also been hard for me to find something to hold my interest. I've always enjoyed good fiction, but I haven't checked many books out of the library that engaged me. Most of the time I start them, then simply cannot finish. I then forget about them and have to pay a late fee because I forget to take them back. I never minded paying for an overdue book if I enjoyed it, but I hate to pay a fine for a book I didn't read, much less one I didn't even like.
I was at the library the other day to pick up some tax forms and decided to peruse the new releases. I saw the newest Stephen King novel 11/22/63 and reading the flyleaf, decided I wanted to give it a go. (WARNING: Spoilers at the Wiki link)
I can barely put it down, it's so good. The book is about an English teacher who is teaching a GED class and reads a horrifying essay by the school janitor, an account of his father murdering his entire family and nearly killing him as well back in 1958. The teacher is emotionally moved by the tale but then gets the largest shock of his life; a friend who owns a diner shows him a time portal in the diner's pantry that leads to 1958. The teacher is urged by the diner owner to go back in time and try to change history, namely to stop the assassination of JFK. He decides to take on the task, but also thinks that the portal goes back to '58 because he is supposed to stop the massacre of the janitor's family.
I'm at the point of the book where he's been back in time for a few weeks. The storyline is derivative of most time travel tales, namely the sci-fi question: If you go back in time, can the future be changed? That question seems to be cleverly answered so far, but I'm anxious to see what will happen. I expect there will be several twists and turns along the way.
So far, the novel seems to be one of King's better efforts, especially of the last 10-15 yrs. (I haven't liked much of anything he's done over that time, but that's just a personal opinion) He does a great job of bringing the characters to life and adds in some bits of humor. The account of a much simpler time in the late 50's is also appealing. If I have a gripe so far, it's that he interjects his own personal politics a bit too much, but it's not anything too annoying.
Think I'll get off of here, go kick back and read some more. I haven't been this enthused about a book in years.
3 comments:
Loved that book. Make sure when you are done you read the author comments at the back, they are pretty interesting too. They mostly have to do with the research side of the book.
Glad you are back to page turning.
After I started the book, I read an article about his detailed research. I'm at the point in the book where he's in Dallas and I've been SMH because he's getting some stuff wrong.
At that time, there was no oil/gas production around Dallas. The character says he can smell it from the west, but the closest production would be several hundred miles away. He mentions the Permian Basin as the source of the smell, but that's in far west Texas in the Midland/Odessa area, over 300 miles away. If he can smell the oil from there, he's got one helluva nose.
King also is associating Dallas with Oswald, which isn't fair at all. Oswald wasn't a native Texan; he was born in New Orleans, spent most of his youth in NYC (I think) and spent only a year in Texas before joining the Marines. There's still a resentment against Dallas and Texas for what happened to JFK. Texas being Republican is really only a fairly recent thing.
There's some other inaccuracies, one being his statement that businessmen "wore guns on their belts where today they wear cell phones". What a crock.
I'm not nearly as enthused about the book as I was. I hope it picks up some, because it's starting to drag and for now, at least, it's not very interesting. I hope it's just a spot in the book.
I should add: there were oil strikes pre WWII, but they were in Kilgore which is about a hundred miles EAST of Dallas. Dallas became a financial center for oil companies from all over the state, but until the fairly recent Barnett Shale finds, there was very little production near there.
Post a Comment