11/22/63

As I sat here drinking my tasty cinnamon eggnog in my pajamas on this fine Thursday morning, I was torn as to which Stephen King book I wanted to cover next on this blog. I know, I know. I only started this thing yesterday. How could I already NOT know which of his stories I wanted to ramble write about? Well, you see, I am pretty rusty when it comes to writing stuff in the form of a blog. It's been quite a few months since I've written in a blog of any sort and I don't want to look like a fool by writing about a book that I couldn't put my whole heart into. But as one of my favorite King book characters, Harold Lauder, once said: "Writing is a labor of love." I'm not really laboring (how can you labor when you're kicked back in pajamas and drinking eggnog??) but I tend to put so much stress on myself when I write these kinds of things that the final product always seems silly to me. I'm a perfectionist and I over-evaluate everything. What can ya do?

I finally decided to discuss King's newest novel, 11/22/63, which is the best book of his I've read that was written in the past fifteen years or so. Yeah, it's that good. Unlike what most King novels are well-known for, there are no demons at play here. Haunted cars aren't chasing people down in order to brutally kill them and there are no vampires....or pet cemeteries, for that matter. However, a couple of common threads that run through the majority of King novels is prevalent here, too: supernatural elements, and well...there is a love story. Both of these elements are handled skillfully and perhaps better than SK ever has handled them.

We all know the significance of JFK's assassination on that fateful day. Also, I'm sure a few of us would love the chance to go back in time and prevent it from happening....and maybe change some other stuff, too. Perhaps you knew someone who's home-life back in this time period was not what it could have been -- for instance, maybe their mother or father was abusive. Wouldn't you want to try and change it, if you could? Or would you run away from the challenge? Time-travel has always fascinated me (I guess it's the inner Back to the Future geek in me) as have the presidents -- their personal and public lives, their failures and victories. So I have to admit that while reading this book, I was a bit jealous of Jake Epping, high school teacher from Maine, who gets to go on this little journey thanks to a time-machine in his buddy Al's diner that always transports to the same time and same day in 1958. Sure, living in the past (especially the 50's and 60's) may be difficult at first, but once you get past the culture shock and lack of such advanced technology that we have today....it could be quite the trip. In my opinion, the 1950's is one of the most interesting time periods in the United States history and being able to see it all first-hand...wow.

However, there are down-sides to time-travel, at least in this story. If you go back to the current year (in this book, it's 2011), and then go back to 1958, history erases all the changes you made to it, and you have to live through it all again to get to the point in time when whatever happens that you want to change happens. It could be grueling on most people I'm sure, but Jake handles it with ease and grace, and I have to admit, it's a bit amusing seeing him trying to pick up on the slang and clothing styles of the time, while trying to hide his own weird (at least to the folks from 1958-1963) tendencies in dress and attitude. Also, to throw a bit of a monkey in the wrench, Jake falls in love with Sadie, the new, young librarian in town. Sadie and Jake's romance is among Stephen King's best and their love and commitment to one another practically radiates from the pages.

In my opinion, nothing beats a good time-travel story and 11/22/63 is the best. Many elements come together to make this King's best in years: the meeting face-to-face of cultures from the middle of the 20th century and 2011, the appearance of two of my favorite characters from IT, the trying to beat the clock to get to Dallas, Texas on that fateful November morning...  As you're reading this, just imagine if YOU were in Jake's place. What if YOU had the chance to embark on a mission that would indubitably change the face and state of the United States, for better or worse? Would you do it? I think I would do it, if only to see what it's like.

I'd just have to watch out for that darn Butterfly Effect.

Happy reading,
Cody

Rage

For my first "real" blog post, I am actually not starting out with a Stephen King book, but a Richard Bachman book (which is Stephen King's pseudonym, for the three of you out there that don't know that), Rage.

This book was among Stephen King's first-written novels. He started writing it in 1966, when he was only eighteen and still in high school. It was not published until 1977 and later ordered to be put out of print by Mr. King himself, due to speculation that it persuaded young people to be violent because of its story of a young man (Charlie Decker) gunning down two teachers and holding his classmates hostage in the classroom.

Despite this novel (if it can even be called that -- its length is at just over 130 pages, which is severely short by Stephen King standards) being written in 1966, its points still ring true today. What with increasing violence in kids these days (I'm assuming that violence in high school wasn't as much of a problem in 1966 as it is now), King is perhaps a bit prophetic with this story. However, "violence in kids" is not just them bringing a gun to school and locking their fellow classmates in a classroom with him (or her). It can also be name calling or slander -- these actions can kill another human being on the inside.

Rage is not just about "violence", or a kid who's mind is so twisted that he would cause such terror. In fact, Decker's bringing a gun to school is perhaps nothing more than a catalyst to what I feel is the real point of the story -- NO ONE is perfect. It does not matter how much money you have, what kind of clothes you wear, how many friends you have, or what your sex-life is like. The point still rings true: no one is perfect, and you can't just make your problems disappear. My favorite part of the entire novel was the kids' sharing of their pasts as well as confessing to each other how they felt about one another -- the good and the bad. I think it's good to put your entire self - the good and the bad - out on the table. Sometimes, talking really does help.

This novel is not for the faint of heart by any means. It is a rather dark story, but its ending does have a little bit, if not a whole lot, of hope to give. More than any of his later novels, King (or Bachman, if you prefer), really tore open the deep wound of what makes kids tick and what happens in their minds that might cause such a scenario as gunning down two teachers and holding a class hostage. This isn't King's best work by far, but it shows a raw side of kids' lives that sometimes adults overlook - purposefully or mistakenly - and what steps can be taken to prevent such an awful thing from happening in your own life.

Happy reading,
Cody

I'm getting re-married.

Ah, hello there, kind reader. I'm sure by now you know that this blog is dedicated to Stephen King's works and not much else.

I am very excited to have started this blog. In the past, I have had numerous (too many to count, really) blogs. I've made a Tumblr account, I've had several blogspot accounts, as well as trying my hand at Xanga a few times. For many reasons, none of those have worked out. Perhaps the biggest problem has been my darn procrastination -- I come up with very, very strong ideas for blog posts but never get around to posting them. "I'm too busy." Also, the fact that my blog accounts have never focused on just one thing has  been a major cause of my starting a blog (or novel, in some cases) with a fire in my eyes and then eventually throwing it in the trash (physically and/or metaphorically), never to be heard from again. I rarely have ideas that I consider to be good enough to write down, let alone have someone else read. My good ideas are sporadic at best.

So, that's where this new blog comes into play. I've decided to create a blog that focuses on only one thing -- Stephen King's novels. In a sense, when I make a new blog account, it's like meeting someone new, falling in love, and getting re-married. At the start, I try to get past the awkward hello's and how-do-you-do's as smoothly as possible so I can get into the nit and grit of things - but that hardly ever happens, because we tend to get divorced long before then. Maybe it's my unwillingness to put much hard work into the whole thing after a short period of time, or maybe it's her blank white "New post" pages that stare at me through the computer screen, intimidating me, daring me to write down something new and genius.

I cannot promise that I will stick with this blog. I will try my best because quite frankly, King's works have breathed life anew into my energy tanks, inspiring me to write like I used to. You may think that is silly, and if the roles were reverse I might just think the same. Ah, well. We can't all look through the same pair of eyes, can we? Regardless, I hope that I reach someone with this blog -- perhaps I can open someone's eyes to the works of Stephen King that has never read anything by him before. And if not, then I am, in all honesty, doing this only for myself, because writing - as I have said numerous times before to numerous friends  - releases me.

Happy reading,
Cody


P.S. Before I go, I must give credit to the person who planted the idea for this blog into my head. She (I'm assuming the person is female, anyway) started a blog on this very website -- "A Year With Stephen King." In a year's time, she planned to read Stephen King's entire collection of books and short stories, and discuss them, offering her opinions on what she had read. I cannot even remember her username, unfortunately, and I cannot seem to find her original post on the Stephen King message boards where she originally told us about it. However, here is a link to her blog page, which I suggest you check out. It's great. http://ayearwithstephenking.blogspot.com/