Discussion of 11.22.63

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How do you rate 11.22.63 by Stephen King?

1 star - poor, recommend against read it
0
No votes
2 stars - fair, okay
3
14%
3 stars - good, recommend it
7
33%
4 stars - excellent, amazing
11
52%
 
Total votes: 21

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Schmunzelmonster
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Re: Discussion of 11.22.63

Post by Schmunzelmonster »

It took me awhile to digest this book. I started reading Kings books when I was 10 years old, which is way to young. Although I stopped reading King/Bachmann books a long time ago, they still creep me out. His writing is close to genius, but for me it's just to close to home. When I think about mankind and what we are able to do to ourselves, his books - at least to me - are always at the verge of possibility. Thats why I have been staying clear of his work. When this book was voted book of the month I was pretty sure, I'd just skip it. But then I knew it was on the Times list for best books of 2011 and I thought that - know that I am all grown up - I could handle him.

Well...I did enjoy his writing style immensely and the storyline intrigued me. But when I finished it, the whole thing seemed so pointless to me. The references to his former works were a nice touch, as I stopped reading his books 15 years ago, I don't know if I got all of them. I just got enough to have my Derry nightmares return :-(

So all in all this book reminded me of Kings craftsmenship and his insight into mankinds psychologie, but as long as he doesn't write childrensbooks, I will not read one more of his books. I am just not cut out for it :-)
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Momlovesbooks
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Post by Momlovesbooks »

I usually don't read Stephen King books because I'm not a big fan of creepy, spooky things. I still have flashbacks to watching the movie Pet Cemetery when I was in high school. Still gives me the willies! However, my husband listened to this as an audible book and said I would really like it. I read it and became hooked! I enjoyed the historical aspect, yet he seemed to be focusing on more of the relationship between the characters, as a love story. The time travel aspect fit into the story without having to go into a lot of details explaining it. I ended up just accepting the fact that there was a rift in time, and enjoying the whole plot. I would recommend this book even if you're not a time travel fan!
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David Bowman
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Post by David Bowman »

(I apologize for this post being very late since this is the April 2012 book of the month and the reply years later!)

For the beginning parts of 11/22/63, I enjoyed the opening and the thought of a diner holding this secret time travel portal to go back to the year 1958. Alternate histories and storylines are always interesting in my view, so I was on hold for most of the time. The scene at Halloween brought in some nostalgia (especially it taking place in the '50s!).

However, I did not like the politics and multiple subplots during the middle of the book. One of the major problems had to deal with King's view of politics. From the way it was portrayed (rather directly, in my opinion), all I felt was not an author's insight into a subject but rather the author butting into the story to give his opinion on the subject matter. This happens multiple times and really irked me. Aside from that, one issue is the pacing of the story during the middle of the book. It slows down painfully and does not, in my opinion, help with the story. This doesn't mean that the details concerning Oswald's motives and information weren't important, but that there was too much of it for me to attain the same attention as was before.

I liked the ending (very bittersweet) and didn't think the book was that bad (there are worse King books out there). I rated it a 2.5.
lolis wrote:He mentions that his son came up with the ending, I'm still wondering about the first ending!
I had read the original ending to 11/22/63 somewhere online (can't remember where it was at the moment) and didn't like it. King's original version took the miserable ending of the alternate history that occurred when Jake went from 1958 and back into 2012. Even though his son came up with the ending and not him, the original author, I appreciated the second, newer one better.
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mauriziopietrantuono
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Post by mauriziopietrantuono »

Extremely well done, recommended.
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blue_75801
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Post by blue_75801 »

My husband and I are both Stephen King fans we have almost all of his books in both hard and paperback. Although I have not read this one just yet but will give it a try and let you know how it goes.
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Damis Seres Rodriguez
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Post by Damis Seres Rodriguez »

I don't really think this book was intended to be scary on itself. That might be patronizing the author, which for someone like Stephen King might be unfair. In any case I absolutely loved this book. It was delightful to read Jake's mental process and how he pretty much acted like a judge and punisher of his own actions, without being able to tell anyone about it (for the most part of the book at least).
To begin with, the fact that he was so...shamelessly manipulated into going to the past, should have been enough for him to realize that things were likely to go downhill, and that he was far from being the owner of his own destiny, let alone being able to change history all together (I mean, someone that didn't have the will power to say no to a man that could very well be considered mad, on average, is not likely to change the future with a nice outcome, right?). But putting that aside, the way his mind had to adapt, in order to wrap around the idea of not only ending a life, but doing so more than once (quite cold blooded the second time) and wait for years while he planned to kill someone else; and the way he convinced himself that the greater good somehow made him guilt free, was very meaningful to me. It was a great example of how people is not only capable, but willing to find justifications for their actions even when they know them to be morally questionable.
On a side note, his love story was so sweet that it made me swoon a few times. The "cake for dinner" inside joke was super cute and the way he tried to protect Sadie even when he knew it was likely to cost him the only thing that gave a meaning to his existence in the past was just too precious.
I am not a great fan of Stephen King in general, but this book became hands down one of my favorites of all time.
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Abdulwahab Maryam
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Post by Abdulwahab Maryam »

I saw this forum and found it interesting. I like to read and this seems to be ultimate place to know more about reading.
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