I was filling in a gap from my childhood reading. I remember some friends read this in middle school and for some reason I did not. Probably because II was filling in a gap from my childhood reading. I remember some friends read this in middle school and for some reason I did not. Probably because I was attempting (and failing) to read Moby Dick in the 5th grade. I definitely see why it's so beloved and it's right up my alley for humor - a lot of wordplay and ironic character traits. It likely would have been a favorite book had I read it as a kid.
I couldn't help notice similarities between Jules' adventures in the Phantom Tollbooth and those Stephen King wrote about in the Dark Tower. I would not be surprised to find out Juster inspired King in some way. Then again, adventure stories often follow the same pattern and as a friend of mine likes to say, "everything is a remix."
Rainn Wilson narrates the audiobook and he does a better than serviceable job. Although, it's difficult to stop wishing Dwight was reading it....more
O'Connor is one of those authors of a certain time. She uses the "N" word often and frequently decides characters don't deserve actual names. With theO'Connor is one of those authors of a certain time. She uses the "N" word often and frequently decides characters don't deserve actual names. With the exception of a couple of her short stories in the "A Good Man is Hard to Find" section, I did not care for this book very much. Not the worst I've read, but honestly I don't understand O'Connor's appeal....more
Nine Perfect Strangers should be retitled to 'When Will Something Happen.'Nine Perfect Strangers should be retitled to 'When Will Something Happen.'...more
Off the bat 'It' is getting four stars from me, but Steven Weber (narrator) gets a billion stars out of 5. Even if you've actually read the book with Off the bat 'It' is getting four stars from me, but Steven Weber (narrator) gets a billion stars out of 5. Even if you've actually read the book with your eyes before Weber's narration is worth having him read it to you as well. That's all I will say about Weber (for now), but his effort is seriously worth checking out the audio book, besides it's only 45 hours long.
King is a master at storytelling and a hefty part of that is his ability to describe everything, which includes the breasts of just about every female character and the dongs of pretty much every male character. It's gross and 99% of the time completely unnecessary, but it is what it is. When he isn't describing sex organs, King spends his time building a staggering world that you might want to live in, you know, if it weren't for the killer clown running amok thing.
I'm not sure if Pennywise the Dancing Clown is THE clown that started people down the 'fear of clowns' path, but he certainly did not help in lessening those fears. A sort of ouroboros of phobias, Pennywise figuratively feeds off the fears that the residents of Derry, Maine hold in their minds, then he literally feeds off their bodies - chomping off limbs, chunks of torsos, and popping off a head or two, which from a human-eating perspective has to be the worst part of the body to bite into. Think of the cracked molars biting into the skull. Maybe he treats heads like walnuts and has a skullcracker device sitting on his coffee table? This is one thing King did not describe, so let's move on.
Pennywise kicks things off by taking a big ol' bite out of little Georgie Denbrough, Big Bill Denbrough's younger brother. It's been about two weeks since this part was read to me, but I seem to recall that despite a neighbor returning George's bloody corpse to the Denbroughs, people 'round town didn't seem to suspect any sort of nefarious play and certainly didn't suspect a sewer dwelling clown. There might be a decent reason for this, but I don't recall if it was mentioned.
George's death will prove to be one clown-shoe sized misstep on Pennywise's part, because it sets Bill down an investigative road into the literal seedy underbelly of Derry.
Along his way he makes some new friends, which creates a burgeoning "Losers Club" consisting of a fat kid, a Jew, a black kid, a stutterer (Bill), a victim of Munchausen by proxy, a "funny" kid who mostly does racist impressions, and, of course, a girl. A girl who is beautiful, but poor so no one else likes her.
This losery band of losers is preyed upon by not only the town paranormal clown, but also the school bully and his depraved lackeys. When the losers are not being chased by assholes they find the time to build a dam, a fort, and a friendship that is confined to Derry in a completely lackluster way no matter how hard King tries to have it make sense. It just doesn't. At least not to me.
King tells the story of 'It' in a side-by-side manner. He'll write about the Losers Club as children and their journey to defeating Pennywise, then a similar journey when they are adults, because of course kids wouldn't be able to kill a spooky clown in the first go. Besides, that's two journeys for the price of one, so don't complain.
In between the ghost hunting, King lays down some fat beats in the form of town history, and a possible cameo by Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury, aka, the star of Christine.
'It' is 390,485 words long, so obviously King makes some mistakes. Some mistakes that can only be attributed to better judgment being negated by the effects of cocaine. King's mistakes range from 'yeah, you probably didn't need to include that' to 'holy shit, why, what the hell is wrong with you? Where was your editor? Oh, dear god, that made me dry heave.'
Despite its flaws 'It' is a masterpiece and is a must read if you have the time and a bigly must listen, because Steven "I was great in Wings" Weber narrates the absolute crap out of this book....more
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