Discussion of 11.22.63
- Schmunzelmonster
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Re: Discussion of 11.22.63
Well...I did enjoy his writing style immensely and the storyline intrigued me. But when I finished it, the whole thing seemed so pointless to me. The references to his former works were a nice touch, as I stopped reading his books 15 years ago, I don't know if I got all of them. I just got enough to have my Derry nightmares return
So all in all this book reminded me of Kings craftsmenship and his insight into mankinds psychologie, but as long as he doesn't write childrensbooks, I will not read one more of his books. I am just not cut out for it
- Momlovesbooks
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- David Bowman
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For the beginning parts of 11/22/63, I enjoyed the opening and the thought of a diner holding this secret time travel portal to go back to the year 1958. Alternate histories and storylines are always interesting in my view, so I was on hold for most of the time. The scene at Halloween brought in some nostalgia (especially it taking place in the '50s!).
However, I did not like the politics and multiple subplots during the middle of the book. One of the major problems had to deal with King's view of politics. From the way it was portrayed (rather directly, in my opinion), all I felt was not an author's insight into a subject but rather the author butting into the story to give his opinion on the subject matter. This happens multiple times and really irked me. Aside from that, one issue is the pacing of the story during the middle of the book. It slows down painfully and does not, in my opinion, help with the story. This doesn't mean that the details concerning Oswald's motives and information weren't important, but that there was too much of it for me to attain the same attention as was before.
I liked the ending (very bittersweet) and didn't think the book was that bad (there are worse King books out there). I rated it a 2.5.
I had read the original ending to 11/22/63 somewhere online (can't remember where it was at the moment) and didn't like it. King's original version took the miserable ending of the alternate history that occurred when Jake went from 1958 and back into 2012. Even though his son came up with the ending and not him, the original author, I appreciated the second, newer one better.lolis wrote:He mentions that his son came up with the ending, I'm still wondering about the first ending!
- mauriziopietrantuono
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- blue_75801
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- Damis Seres Rodriguez
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To begin with, the fact that he was so...shamelessly manipulated into going to the past, should have been enough for him to realize that things were likely to go downhill, and that he was far from being the owner of his own destiny, let alone being able to change history all together (I mean, someone that didn't have the will power to say no to a man that could very well be considered mad, on average, is not likely to change the future with a nice outcome, right?). But putting that aside, the way his mind had to adapt, in order to wrap around the idea of not only ending a life, but doing so more than once (quite cold blooded the second time) and wait for years while he planned to kill someone else; and the way he convinced himself that the greater good somehow made him guilt free, was very meaningful to me. It was a great example of how people is not only capable, but willing to find justifications for their actions even when they know them to be morally questionable.
On a side note, his love story was so sweet that it made me swoon a few times. The "cake for dinner" inside joke was super cute and the way he tried to protect Sadie even when he knew it was likely to cost him the only thing that gave a meaning to his existence in the past was just too precious.
I am not a great fan of Stephen King in general, but this book became hands down one of my favorites of all time.
- Abdulwahab Maryam
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