The Book Club discussion

After our February 16 meeting, add comments here, either on our book or other club concerns.

Actually I get to comment before the meeting, since NJ Book club South has already read this one.

Polly gave me this tome for Xmas two years ago in paper so I faced it's size before tackling it. In other words it took me four months to start it, and then like Cheryl I zipped through it. It is written to keep constant questions in your mind of what happens next (in the love relationship, in the change the world aspect, in the missions he is trying to accomplishment(and their resets), and just in the price of hamburger). Stephen King is at his best as a page turner. And the bonus is he gives us very digestible history with a minimum price of suspending our beliefs on time travel. And he even creates a new reset model to make that more interesting. But I didn't like that ageing bit.

Thanks for letting me join again. I have missed you guys since I moved to Florida. I hope this experiment works. I'll try to get the rest of "NJ South" to join. SED

Welcome! And thanks for posting, Opera!

Despite my concerns about the reading load, 11/22/63 is turning out to be wonderful to pair with Dante's Commedia. The reading time ratio is about one Canto per 150 pages of King. (We just started Paradiso this week, we have been reading at the pace of 1 or 2 cantos per day.) No need to use the dictionary function on my ebook or Internet searches to make the King story intelligible, even if I don't know all the many, many pop culture references (nor even all the fellow authors named). King is a wonderful storyteller -- he absolutely knows how to set up the anticipation that draws one into keeping on reading.

Opera, do you remember when we read Jack Finney's Time and Again ? I believe you are the one who introduced us to that book. This read has been renewing my interest in going back and revisiting it, which occurs to me from time to time. Somehow, that is one of those books that I suspect I would appreciate more today than at the time I read it -- in part because I know NYC better. Every time I walk near Gramercy Park or even travel Central Park West near the Dakota, I recall that book.

Lily wrote: "when we read Jack Finney's Time and Again?..."

At the end of 11/22/63, we discovered King pays tribute to the work of Jack Finney.

Considerable enjoyment of 11/22/63 was expressed at today's meeting. Comments included (following contains SPOILERS, so read or not accordingly):

1. King is a good storyteller.

2. What he writes shows an understanding of the relationships between teachers and students; the teachers in the group especially noted this.

3. Several wished that the section at the end on the future had been longer and more fully developed.

4. Liked the idea that Jake went back and met his teacher friend Sadie in her old age.

5. A bit of discussion that perhaps preferred time travel into the past rather than into the future.

6. Quick comments on the difficulty of keeping all the odds and ends sorted when writing something like this.

7. In general, it was a quick read.

8. Since most of us lived through that time period, we tended to find it a fun reminder of many things, from music to cigarette smoking to less rigid EPA pollution control.

9. Recognized King did use some repetitive phrases and words, such as "obdurate," especially, but not solely, "the obdurate past."

10. Had a sidebar discussion on whether, in real life, the past acts "obdurate" in our lives, making it more difficult for us to change our futures.

11. Mentioned the young football player who had particular talents as a thespian.

12. Asked about judgement on whether Oswald acted alone. It was pointed out that certain papers associated with the Warren Commission are still sealed, not a topic brought out in King's writing or afterward.

13. Brief comments on changes in technology, from bugging devices to cell phones to GPS. Sidebar conversation on whether change is still accelerating or is it tapering. Also, on the presumptions of today's youth as to where and how information is obtained, but also that there are youth that choose not to be savvy about many aspects of communications that are available.

14. Brief mention of the difficult situation in which Oswald's wife found herself.

15. Touched on King's association with horror writing, his brush with death in an automobile accident, and his home in Maine.

16. Asked about relationship of time-travel to belief systems. At least two had read The Time Traveler's Wife . The cosmologists' beliefs in the possibility of multiple universes was mentioned.

17. There was at least a passing comment about Jake's knowledge of sporting event results which allowed him to gamble on them. Also, that he had to be careful not to drag knowledge and songs and rock groups from the future into the life in the past he was living.

18. Jake's difficulties with establishing an identity and being accepted as qualified, despite his obvious teaching skills was noted.

19. Mention of Al's illness, his aging, his buying meat, the statements about prices, ....

A lot of stuff flying around that table. What else?

I think part of my enjoyment of the book is reliving the 50's TV shows, etc. It brought back many memories of my childhood that were happy and I found myself smiling.

Janet