Stephen King

    I'll preface this post with the following disclaimer: in no way is this supposed to be a criticism of the author. I wish I had even a sliver of his talent. If anything, take this as an expression of respect for his flexibility and skill as a writer, one whose name and reputation were known to me long before I first went for one of his works.

    Around the middle of my high school years, I was browsing the school library when I saw  11/22/63. Intrigued by the title, I pulled it off the shelf and read the first couple pages to decide whether or not I was interested. After those came a few more pages. And a few more. Then the lunch period ended, the obnoxious chime bringing me out of my reverie, so to the check out desk I went, book in hand. I hadn't even bothered to check who the author had been at the time. 

    Honestly, this was probably for the best. Had I noticed "Stephen King" written on the book before I tried reading it, I probably wouldn't have read it. His most prolific works tend to be horror, and that doesn't usually interest me. But, having missed this, I fell head first into, what I just learned while writing this, was the Goodreads winner for best fiction in 2011. A fascinating tale of time travel, learning from one's mistakes, and trying to prevent the JFK assassination. Of course, I did quickly learn that Mr. King was responsible for consuming my attention, but by then it didn't matter- only the next page, the next plot development, did. 

    It's an amazing book, but not the point of my ramblings today. What is the point is the man behind it. And also behind IT. You see, recently I'd recommended 11/22/63 to someone, and that got me thinking about it again. And then, while browsing Libby, I saw IT. Recalling how much I'd liked the previous work, I decided to give this one a shot as well, even though I understood that this one is not only in the horror genre, but also considered to be one of the leading masterpieces in that field. And one thing is for sure - it is written very well.

    Character development is incredible in this. I felt truly visceral anger at some, true sadness for others... And I love works driven by character development.  Also, the writing style feels totally distinct from 11/22/63. And I came to realize the technical side of King's work - he truly is a storyteller. The skill in his writing is so great, that I actually had to stop reading IT. Not because I was scared, no. But rather I just kept getting pulled out from the story. I was catching myself considering the technique of the writing, rather than the tale itself.  Which is a shame, since I truly was loving the set up. I'm definitely going to come back to this work some day. I know I will. I want to finish this, I want to see how the characters turn out. Just not right now. Right now I might just have to look for a work that's not as well written, where I can focus on the book, rather than the author.