![]() ![]() It gave me hope, made me feel more optimistic about life. ![]() This novel gave me more than just pleasure. It will thrill and delight and horrify and frighten you all over again. If you have read it, by all means read it again. It was an added layer of nostalgia woven over the rest of the tapestry.If you haven’t read this book, read it now. Even in the fact that both eras are now, as of 2016, dated (the earlier phase was in the 50’s, and the later phase was in the 80’s…eerily we would be neck deep in the middle of the next cycle were it coming) was delightful. And it’s that esoteric dread that King wields masterfully. And in getting that right, King manages to make the impossible elements like the supernatural nature of IT and the relationship IT has with the town of Derry and the inhabitants there…normal. King doesn’t use mere words to tell stories, he uses meanings themselves, woven seemingly seamlessly into shades of context and pigments of innuendo and occasionally bright, obvious splashes of unobfuscated emotion that jar you because…hey…in real life that’s how it works. I realized that IT was in fact two predators…both the eponymous monster who will kill and devour you, and the predator that robs us of our memories and the clarity we remember having as a kid.The prose is wonderful. I reveled in how little we remember accurately about the past and how mutable it can be. I appreciated how well King encapsulated the distance between childhood and adulthood and all the roads we travel in between. I longed for the good times and friends of my youth. Now I was (at times painfully) aware of it. Whereas as a kid I identified with those elements as mapping directly onto my friends and setting, I did it unconsciously. I wondered how I’d do this time.It was SO MUCH better than I ever thought it would be!I felt ACHINGLY nostalgic in the sections with the characters as kids. I remember it being a mountain for an adolescent. In the interim I’d devoured his books and probably thousands of other books by many dozens of different writers of differing skill levels, and when I thought “I should re-read some Stephen King” I thought about it, and it came down to either reading “IT” or “The Stand” and to be honest I felt “IT” was the better book. Almost, and entirely unintentionally, like the characters in the book…Twenty five years later, I was on a kick of re-reading books I’d read as a kid, and then I approached Stephen King again. In the end it took three weeks, but I completed the book, considered myself proud for conquering the nearly 1200 page tome, put it on the shelf, and…proceeded to put it out of my mind for nearly twenty five years. I appreciated the story and the implications of both eras, but entirely missed out on how well crafted the story was. I easily identified with the younger versions of the characters, but had trouble with identifying with their adult incarnations. I was wrong.Reading the book was like a marathon, and I was prepared for a sprint. I felt warmed up and ready for the brick-like tome I’d acquired. ![]() I recognized just how much I figured it had to have been toned down, but it was a decent primer (or so I thought). I found a copy of the 1990 TV movie adaptation and watched it. In the intervening time, I’d devoured Salem’s Lot, Carrie, Firestarter, and Misery, and The Shining. He had a collection of Stephen King novels and I’d started reading them with Pet Sematary, which had been adapted to the big screen two years before. The trip was frankly a waste, but the book was sublime.I’d gotten into reading Stephen King two years before by way of a trip over the previous summer to my uncle’s house. The trip was going to be two days in Virginia, and was an example of staying overnight on a school trip. ⭐When I was on a school field trip in the seventh grade, I took Stephen King’s “IT” with me to read. Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website: of Bridgeport Lib., Ct.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. Nevertheless, King is a born storyteller, and It will undoubtedly be in high demand among his fans. But there is enough material in this epic for several novels and stories, and the excessive length and numerous interrelated flashbacks eventually become wearying and annoying. As usual, the requisite thrills are in abundance, and King’s depiction of youngsters is extraordinarily accurate and sympathetic. Having conquered the evil force once, they are summoned together 27 years later when the cycle begins again. Moving back and forth between 19, the story tells of seven children in a small Maine town who discover the source of a series of horrifying murders. Editorial Reviews: From Library Journal The amazingly prolific King returns to pure horror, pitting good against evil as in The Stand and The Shining.
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