'11/22/63' by Stephen King......

[FAST FRED]

.......was pretty good for me as a read.

That fateful assassination day came during my junior year at Aggieland and I had grown up, through HS, living in Dallas.

I'd seen, visited and/or driven past all the sites in that city, which subsequently became infamous, hundreds of times:

Dallas and Oak Cliff, The Texas School Book Depository, Dealey Plaza, the grassy knoll, the Triple Underpass, Parkland Hospital, the corner of Tenth Street and Patton, the Texas Theater, Jack Ruby's Carousel Club, the basement parking garage under the Dallas City Hall.....

So I had some extra built-in interest and my own memories and feelings about that time and those places to compare to the author's words.

IMHO, Stephen King did OK.

And I would have enjoyed "11/22/63" just as much or even more, as an audiobook.

Listening to it on a trip would have been very enjoyable.

It reminded me of books written by Charles Dickens or Mark Twain, such as "Nickolas Nickelby" or "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," except "11/22/63" was more modern and more lurid than the older, more dated works from those authors.

It was even exciting.

I guess that's a compliment from me to Stephen King.

I thought his prose was as vivid and descriptive as what I appreciatively read in "Killing Lincoln" or "Lonesome Dove."

Your thoughts?

 

[Texanne]

I quit Stephen King after I read The Tommyknockers. He lost me with that one, and it's doubtful I'll ever return.

 

[FAST FRED]

Thanks for your reply, Texanne.

This is the only book of his I've ever read.

I've seen movie adaptations of his stuff, of course: some pretty good, some pretty bad.

I was pleasantly surprised while reading "11/22/93."

Although I think his writing style in this book was at times clumsy and even slow or ponderous, it kept my interest.

 

[bevo barry]

With me, King bats about .250...I like maybe one out of four of his books. This one was a definite "thumbs up". Highly recommended.

 

[SunBurntOrange]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[bevo barry]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[Third Coast]

I have read some King, but never was a big fan. I spent a lot of my young adult life reading Dean Koontz and found his books more to my liking. Which is probably why I'm so screwed up now.

 

[Burnt Orangeman]

I truly believe LBJ was behind the assassination. He was the only one to benefit and the only one who could orchestrate the coverup. He was an old man with a bad ticker with a lifelong blind ambition to be president. It was the only way he was going to get it.

Read Plausible Denial by Mark Lane. Read Robert Caro's LBJ biography.

 

[Perham1]

Haven't read 11/22/63, but have heard some very good things about it. Thanks for the post. I'll have to put this on my 1/2 price books to-buy list.

 

[PropositionJoe]

good book. almost reads like 3 books in one.

 

[South Austin]

I'm a bit biased as a Stephen King fan, although he's written a few books over time that I didn't care for.

11/22/63 is a great read, mostly for the nostalgia of an earlier time, set in Texas no less (both a fictional small town and the DFW area), and the historical significance of the Kennedy assassination.

It also offers great theoretical questions about the desirability and consequences of changing events in the past, both on a global and personal scale.

It's not a scare-the-****-out-of-you novel of the kind that developed King's reputation and fame. It's more of the great suspenseful storytelling with a supernatural element along the lines of The Dead Zone or The Green Mile.

 

[Namewithheld]

11/22/63 would make a great 30 hour series since his books must go north of 600 pages. But it was a good read---some parts I was almost tearing the pages turning them so fast---other times it was a little show. I do like how it ended, it was the right ending to a book like this. BTW I am NOT the Green Card Man!


The Stand is King's best book he has ever written.

True Story: In 1979 when I read The Stand (spoiler coming up) and the main character died I was really pissed off and I actually wrote him via his Publisher. Lo and Behold 2 months later I received a post card (I kid you not) that he typed out his answer to my question on--the plot called for that death---he even had some typos where he typed XXXs over the words. He did thank me for reading his books (I mentioned Salem's Lot in my letter). That was cool, and if I can find that postcard I will scan and upload it to see if I can post it here.