Finally finished the Stephen King doorstop!

Well it took me a couple of weeks, but I finally finished 11.22.63. Not bad, although I felt that the later part could've done with a bit of editing. All that stuff before the asssasination about Jake's personal life, when you just want him to get to the assasination. When he does eventually get there, it's over pretty quickly and I think I may have missed some stuff in my haste to move on to the end. The first part of the book seemed to move much more quickly in comparison. 

My library book had the other cover, but I like this one better (Image Link)

SPOILER!!! I must admit I found the ending quite haunting. It reminded me a little of Greek tradegy in the way that Jake hubristically tried to change history but ultimately found himself having spent the last five years doing a meaningless task. All he was left with was the memory of this woman whom he would be unable to form a relationship with. All the friends he made would never even know him, and he couldn't even go back to live in the 50s, a time which he and King were obviously pretty keen on!


I thought the setting in the future was good, and would've liked more of that but on the condition that the build-up was cut down. There is no reason to make the book even longer! I also wouldn't have minded more of the card men, but understood why they and more details about the future weren't included. Although it wasn't supposed to be a horror book, I think there were elements of what I would call the uncanny (or Das Unheimliche if I was to go all 'literary theory'. Nice to know I am remembering some of this stuff). You are going along all nicely with the lovely portrayal of the 50s utopia, then something creepy or unsettling happens.  


Anyway, I think I would probably give it a 4 out of 5 or so, it's not getting 5 out of 5 because of the frustrating build-up to the assasination. On the plus side, I learnt something about the Cuban Missile Crisis and more about the Kennedy Assasination. 


As for Ulysses, I am steadily working my way through Scylla and Charybdis. Not an easy chapter to follow, but I will be writing an update as soon as I finish it.