Oliver Howard
Stephen King has the uncanny ability to make me feel like I am living through his main character. I think it may be the inclusion of redundant details in his writing that make his worlds and characters feel like real things, rather than mere set dressing. To me, 11.22.63 exemplifies this skill more than any other King book I've read. I felt Jake's struggles, and more poignantly his triumphs. This book has an A and a B plot, but by the end King has masterfully intertwined them, creating one beautiful story of love, sacrifice, and small-town charm. I went into this book for the time travel plot, but I left wanting more of Jodie and its inhabitants.
"For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don't we all secretly know this? It's a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark."
While I felt the beginning dragged a little bit, I was fully engaged throughout the rest of the book. This book is long, and it feels long, but the result is a more fulfilling story.
Stephen King has the uncanny ability to make me feel like I am living through his main character. I think it may be the inclusion of redundant details in his writing that make his worlds and characters feel like real things, rather than mere set dressing. To me, 11.22.63 exemplifies this skill more than any other King book I've read. I felt Jake's struggles, and more poignantly his triumphs. This book has an A and a B plot, but by the end King has masterfully intertwined them, creating one beautiful story of love, sacrifice, and small-town charm. I went into this book for the time travel plot, but I left wanting more of Jodie and its inhabitants.
"For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don't we all secretly know this? It's a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark."
While I felt the beginning dragged a little bit, I was fully engaged throughout the rest of the book. This book is long, and it feels long, but the result is a more fulfilling story.