My blogger friend Thingy mentioned reading and enjoying Stephen King’s novel 11/22/63 awhile back. I’d never read any books by him, so I decided to give it a try. I’ll try not to spoil it here, but it’s about time-travel and the unintended side-effects thereof.
It’s quite good, all in all. You can tell he made an effort to research the styles and vernacular of the 1960s, and he also does a pretty good job of presenting both the good and the bad aspects of that era. There was also a lot of the hint-don’t-tell kind of cosmic horror in certain parts that I really liked.
The ending was a bit weaker though still good. Again, without giving away too much, there was a part of it that reminded of the book A Clockwork Orange, and that felt kind of cliched. The ending was… I guess, “bittersweet” is probably the best word for it.
I might analyze it more in-depth later, but for now, I just want to recommend reading it.
Finally! All his endings are weak. Maybe he gets tired, I’m not sure, but I think he did a decent job, all in all. Hmm…Clockwork Orange cliche??
Maybe that’s the wrong word… or the wrong book. I guess what I meant to say was that it seems to me like there are a lot of dystopian stories about “young hooligans running amok and destroying society” and King seemed to be using that idea a bit towards the end, when the main character sees what he’s done.
Still, with as big a story as he had, it would be hard to pull off a totally satisfactory ending. I think he did a pretty good job.
Stephen King writes surprisingly good fiction. I was surprised, anyways, the first couple times I read him. But he presents his material intelligently, with clear evidence of research, and with a lot of personality.
Two of his books I particularly enjoyed: Christine and The Stand.
I think I’m going to try “Insomnia” next, and then “The Stand”. I was quite impressed by how good he was at not explaining every last detail; and leaving some stuff to the reader.
Agreed.
Oh, now I recall. Yeah, I didn’t like that part, either.