This is hard to admit, but I have read very little Stephen King over the years, just a few short stories.
But armed with my Kindle, I downloaded and read 11/22/63, which is a neat and effective time travel paradox novel where the hero tries to prevent Kennedy's assassination. We won't reveal more than that, but the read is brisk, his Oswald research quite detailed, and the ending is effective and quite satisfying. I liked it a lot, far more than most newer fiction which usually leaves me amazed at how breakneck and empty most novels are these days.
What most impressed me about King -- and I'm sure this is something everybody already knows -- is how free and easy his writing is. You can tell the words just flow out of him, simple even mundane moments of life that flow effortlessly when suddenly a gunshot or ghost comes through the open window he mentioned idly just 30 pages before. It is writing without pretense, but it is writing that works. Quite masterful.
King obviously cared about this project; he almost wrote it in 1972, he says, but it was too soon.
Highly recommended, and would love to hear what true King fans think of it, especially compared to his major works.
david
'The Yellow Card Man.'
But armed with my Kindle, I downloaded and read 11/22/63, which is a neat and effective time travel paradox novel where the hero tries to prevent Kennedy's assassination. We won't reveal more than that, but the read is brisk, his Oswald research quite detailed, and the ending is effective and quite satisfying. I liked it a lot, far more than most newer fiction which usually leaves me amazed at how breakneck and empty most novels are these days.
What most impressed me about King -- and I'm sure this is something everybody already knows -- is how free and easy his writing is. You can tell the words just flow out of him, simple even mundane moments of life that flow effortlessly when suddenly a gunshot or ghost comes through the open window he mentioned idly just 30 pages before. It is writing without pretense, but it is writing that works. Quite masterful.
King obviously cared about this project; he almost wrote it in 1972, he says, but it was too soon.
Highly recommended, and would love to hear what true King fans think of it, especially compared to his major works.
david
'The Yellow Card Man.'
