Normally I make a point not to write about books I am reading until I have read the entire thing cover to cover. But in this instance I just could not wait until the last page (because there are 849 of them and I am just barely on page 200) to share my utter enthusiasm for this book.
Obviously I'm a biased reviewer when it comes to Stephen King. I love, love, love everything he writes (except for Christine.....still not a fan of that book) and his latest release, "11/22/63: A Novel" is no exception. I knew a little bit of what to expect coming into the book, a guy time travels back to 1963 to prevent John Kennedy from being assassinated. But what I didn't expect was for King to give me the surprise of a lifetime by revisiting one of my most favorite books of all time.
It.
For those of you who haven't read it you have probably seen the movie (which isn't nearly as good) or heard of the basic premise of the story, which is about a clown who kills children in the small, fictional town of Derry, Maine. But the book is so much more than that, and there are layers upon layers of story that would take me ages to dissect and discuss in as much detail as they deserve. Suffice to say, killer clown will do for our purposes.
Okay, so back to 11/22/63. Before our protagonist, Jake Epping, heads to Texas to interfere with Oswald's plan to kill the president, he first decides to fix the future for a janitor at the high school where he teaches. I won't divulge too much detail about this, but it just so happens that said janitor lives in the town of Derry and the year that Jake travels back to just happens to be the fall of 1958. This also just happens to be the same year that a group of extremely brave children in Derry faced off against Pennywise the Clown.....do you see where I'm going with this? King put his main character smack dab in the outer ring of a previous story! I know you probably cannot be excited about this unless you have read "It," but trust me, it's way cool.
As I was reading along and the connection clicked home for me, I was ecstatic. It felt kind of like reading through a de-ja-vu or something. The town of Derry, the street names, Jake Epping even happens to meet two of the kids who fought against the clown, and you can tell that they all recognize an instant connection to each other, but are uncertain about what it is. I just love that King is cross-referencing this town again, and the story of It. He even writes about how Jake can tell that something isn't right about Derry or the people, how even though the murders have stopped he doesn't think the town is back to normal.....all sorts of ominous references like that and you, as the reader, know exactly what he is talking about!! Because you (well, I) have read the previous book and know exactly what happened and know exactly why Jake is having all these spooky premonitions.
Obviously this little side interlude in Derry is only a warm-up until we get to the real meat of the story, which is where the book is now heading. Jake has just left Derry for good and is on his way to find Oswald and figure out how he is going to stop the assassination. There's a lot more story left and I am sure that the connections to previous King books is over with, but I just had to exclaim my utter excitement about this and how enjoyable it has made the book thus far. I know, I'm a huge dork. When I was trying to explain this to my husband last night I could tell he was less than enthralled with the whole thing. Oh well.
This is yet another reason why I find King's books so entertaining. He finds a way to connect his characters, his stories, to each other in ways you don't even see coming. I for one find it exciting to come across references to previous books, to find out how two characters from two completely different stories have some kind of bond with each other. King has not just written books, he has written an entire universe, and I for one hope it continues to grow for many, many more years.
I'll be sure to post a review once I finally do finish the book. I'm hoping the ending will be as strong as the first 200 pages.
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