I have listened to the audio version of 11.22.63 three times back to back and every time found even more to like. Each time I have found something new and thought I'd share some of my favourite parts here. I will try to do this without spoilers if I can.
The scene where we meet characters from IT is beautifully written. It's is subtly done and on my first listen it was a nice Easter Egg but seemed incongruous. Now I find it a wonderful look at to what will come and adds a perspective that Jake/George will himself discover when he gets to Jodie.
In another scene he is discussing why a student must continue to act. It is so full of emotion. I myself was a school teacher and have had similar experiences where a pupil simply does not want to do something through personal doubt or fearing failure and perhaps ridicule from friends, but it was my place as a teacher and a human being to make a difference and find a way to help them work things out. I can see several of my pupils in this scene and it brings a tear to my eye wondering what they are doing now. I will never know if I did indeed make a long term impact on their lives.
Dancing, great descriptions here in several scenes. I'm not a dancer, I did take lessons a few years back with my wife, but i t never felt natural to me. I really enjoyed myself, we both did, but we were never very good. Oh how I wish we'd kept going and learned to Lindy!
Descriptions of the past. I live in the UK so some references are somewhat meaningless to me: root beer, what on earth is that? Oh yes I've heard of it but haven't a clue what it's like! But the general feeling of nostalgia is wonderful. I was born in '63, just before the Kennedy assassination so much of this is history even to me, but I love the music, big bands, rock'n'roll, and the sixties stuff. I do find myself yearning for a slower pace of life with no mobile phones, fewer poor TV channels, no internet. I've just come back from a business trip with no internet access outside of work hours, I read and watched the sea outside. Slow down, it's bliss.
Of course the sad, bittersweet scenes with breakups and yearning. We've all been there, the thoughts afterwards, the missing you feelings, the wondering what the other is doing now, the caring still, the I love you but you are not here, the My Sadie but not my Sadie feeling. Beautifully expressed.
The community. Today it's gone, at least everywhere I have lived. Life has become insular and I wish it wasn't. I go to work, I come home, I sleep I wake and the cycle begins. I want time to slow down, say hello to others, be with friends and enjoy life. The best times in the book are those community times, those times with friends, the plays, the feeling of being there for each other. The times following the plot of watching LHO are like modern life, cut of and lonely hard work.
The ending. How often have we thought about someone we once knew? A friend we have lost contact with? A past love? How often have we wondered what they are doing now, are they happy, even are they still alive? I know I have. A few years back I went to a reunion with a couple of old school friends, it was great. It was as if the years between had gone and we were once again friends, we haven't seen each other since, pressures of work but I know they are OK and that makes a huge difference. There are still some I wonder about, perhaps one day.
Sorry this is long but I simply had to share.
The scene where we meet characters from IT is beautifully written. It's is subtly done and on my first listen it was a nice Easter Egg but seemed incongruous. Now I find it a wonderful look at to what will come and adds a perspective that Jake/George will himself discover when he gets to Jodie.
In another scene he is discussing why a student must continue to act. It is so full of emotion. I myself was a school teacher and have had similar experiences where a pupil simply does not want to do something through personal doubt or fearing failure and perhaps ridicule from friends, but it was my place as a teacher and a human being to make a difference and find a way to help them work things out. I can see several of my pupils in this scene and it brings a tear to my eye wondering what they are doing now. I will never know if I did indeed make a long term impact on their lives.
Dancing, great descriptions here in several scenes. I'm not a dancer, I did take lessons a few years back with my wife, but i t never felt natural to me. I really enjoyed myself, we both did, but we were never very good. Oh how I wish we'd kept going and learned to Lindy!
Descriptions of the past. I live in the UK so some references are somewhat meaningless to me: root beer, what on earth is that? Oh yes I've heard of it but haven't a clue what it's like! But the general feeling of nostalgia is wonderful. I was born in '63, just before the Kennedy assassination so much of this is history even to me, but I love the music, big bands, rock'n'roll, and the sixties stuff. I do find myself yearning for a slower pace of life with no mobile phones, fewer poor TV channels, no internet. I've just come back from a business trip with no internet access outside of work hours, I read and watched the sea outside. Slow down, it's bliss.
Of course the sad, bittersweet scenes with breakups and yearning. We've all been there, the thoughts afterwards, the missing you feelings, the wondering what the other is doing now, the caring still, the I love you but you are not here, the My Sadie but not my Sadie feeling. Beautifully expressed.
The community. Today it's gone, at least everywhere I have lived. Life has become insular and I wish it wasn't. I go to work, I come home, I sleep I wake and the cycle begins. I want time to slow down, say hello to others, be with friends and enjoy life. The best times in the book are those community times, those times with friends, the plays, the feeling of being there for each other. The times following the plot of watching LHO are like modern life, cut of and lonely hard work.
The ending. How often have we thought about someone we once knew? A friend we have lost contact with? A past love? How often have we wondered what they are doing now, are they happy, even are they still alive? I know I have. A few years back I went to a reunion with a couple of old school friends, it was great. It was as if the years between had gone and we were once again friends, we haven't seen each other since, pressures of work but I know they are OK and that makes a huge difference. There are still some I wonder about, perhaps one day.
Sorry this is long but I simply had to share.