Words Seem Out Of Place

It's been almost a year since I wrote about reading Stephen King's It , which had been one of the biggest omissions in my decades-long love affair with King's work.  It  always loomed large in the background of my life because, well, it's a  big  book. Last month, I finally saw the recent film version, directed by Andy Muschietti and released last fall. Thinking about the book and the film, I realized I still have more to say about It , so here we are, with a coda of sorts. Watching the film reinforced something I felt while reading the novel: had I read It (or paid closer attention to the 1990 television miniseries) as an adolescent, there's no doubt the Losers' Club would have strongly resonated with me. Even today, as a so-called adult (I have my doubts), it's still all too easy for me to identify with these kids. Although my parents were wonderful, as an only child I understood loneliness and isolation better than most. Now I can see I yearned for...

In which our narrator tries to read his way through the endless stacks of books that are slowly overtaking both his bookshelves and his life. If you think it's been a while since the last post in this series, you're correct. During that stretch, I finished Stephen King's  It . I'm a longtime King lover, so I'm an easy mark for this one, yet so far I'm not ranking it in my top five King books. I'm fine with the excessive length (1,100 pages) if it's warranted, but at times it felt like needless meandering. Still, a terrific book, at times also terrifying and at others heartbreaking. And, um, that ending? I finished the book several weeks ago and I'm still not sure how to discuss it. You can read about the scene I'm referring to here . To say it yanked me right out of the book is an understatement. I'm no prude, but even I was disturbed by it. It's not only distasteful but also feels like a narrative leap that comes out of nowhere. ...

It's been awhile since I've checked in here about  It , but I've made my way to page 870 (less than 300 more to go!). I'd always heard that after a fast start things drag a bit in the second half; so far, that's been partly true. As a King fan, I'm more than happy to read his dialogue or narration and just get lost in his writing, which is always so immediate and forthright, but also at times reveals great depth. Even if things have gotten a bit bogged down in recent chapters—did we really need that many pages to reveal that Eddie's asthma is all in his head?—King is always able to right the ship, usually with an assist by another appearance from the ancient evil, Pennywise, which reminds us exactly how much danger lurks around every corner for these kids. But it's the emotional beats in the relationships between the kids that's really drawn me in and made me care about them. Taking so many pages to tell their storie allows King to paint ex...

Reading It  after dark, while the kids are sleeping soundly, has certainly enhanced the horror inherent in King's story of children either being abducted or living in fear of being abducted. Actually, it's the parents' fear that is most palpable throughout, even though they receive comparatively little "screen" time so far (three-hundred pages into the book). The kids understand on some level that they should be scared of the bogeyman terrorizing Derry, but as kids are wont to do they're also attracted to this horror , feeling a need to investigate it/It, to see it/It for themselves. Following Bill, Ben, Eddie, etc., as they play outside, building dams and avoiding bullies, I can't help but think back to my own childhood. While these tales of childhood take place in the late '50s in the book, and I grew up in the '80s, there seems to be more in common with a child's existence in those decades than there is between the '80s the now. He...

It's finally happening. I'm going to read it. See what I did there? After decades of dancing around this book while being a Stephen King fan and reading a lot of his other books, it's time to finally read It . With the movie hitting theaters this fall, it seems like the perfect time. I only saw parts of the old miniseries and I barely remember it all, beyond Tim Curry's scary clown. So far, I'm only 55 pages in—only 1,100 more pages to go! As I continue, I hope to occasionally share some random observations along the way. Not reviews, just quick hits. This might take a while, I might not get to write about it often, and I'm not even sure it'll last—although I will finish the book! I think it goes without saying, these posts will be lousy with SPOILERS . Just a quick introduction to my relationship with the King of Horror. Like many young kids, I was infatuated with King's books and their movie adaptations. I remember devouring Night Shift an...