IT
IT
By Stephen King
So in my limited spare time recently, I've managed to read IT by Stephen King...and I'd say it's probably the best King novel I've ever read. It's really hard to compare it to his others because there's a little more than a horror novel there—I'd argue that there's a bit of literary fiction lurking within the pages, waiting for every reader to uncover it.
I think that's what makes this book special most of all. King takes a story that, at its core, is about coming of age and growing up and frames it in a terrific horror story. In doing so, he not only terrorizes his readers but also holds a mirror up to them. Reminding them what it was like to be a kid once and how we come to be the adults we are—through experiences which shape us into who we’re meant to be.
But besides that, I think it's noteworthy to also consider it from a craft point of view. It may not be fair necessarily, but being that IT is the longest of King's work that I've read at 1,090 pages (paperback), I think it's important to also mention The Tommyknockers to provide perspective for how King handles this one.
Don't get me wrong; The Tommyknockers was an interesting novel when I read it. But when I think of that one versus this one, the difference is huge; where The Tommyknockers seems to drag halfway through, IT keeps a sense of forward momentum that pushes the reader through the book.
Granted, King considers The Tommyknockers his worst, but still.. He keeps IT interesting by laying it out as part horror, part mystery, part coming of age/literary fiction to create an epic focusing on the difference of adulthood and childhood and the way that belief (especially childhood belief) has a special magic to it that makes it truly special.
This is intermixed with explosions of characterization that allow the reader to become deeply invested in the Loser's Club. In a gutsy move, King gives us not one character arc for them but three. I’ve never seen that completed in a novel before, and the effect is truly amazing.
In his craft book Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass characterizes a breakout novel as any book which is exceptionally well-crafted. He includes a few common elements which he’s seen throughout his career as a literary agent. While I won’t go into extreme detail (but would highly recommend this book to any emerging writer, like myself), a few of these elements are tightly woven thematics, intricately carved characters, and even some elements of blending genres. I would say that IT does a fantastic job of representing exactly what Maass is talking about.
That being said, there were some parts towards the end (I won't say which parts, but if you read the book, you'll see what I mean—particularly around the climax) that I found a little out there. There was one section where I could feel the intensity King must have felt writing the climax, and the transition into the awkward space was so jarring that I had to go back and re-read an entire page before it sank in what just happened.
It's true that this novel was written in 1986, which was towards the tail end of King's cocaine addiction (his last novel before sobering up was The Tommyknockers), so on one hand, you can say those parts are partly the byproduct of that. But they still make the climax launch into space (so to speak) in such a way that I think the reader notices it. And doesn’t necessarily expect it.
Still I would say that because this novel seems to examine the power of belief so closely, I found these parts to be more of a way of asking the reader to believe in the novel, until they're left (like I was) with no objections and are brought along for the journey. Accepting reality as King portrays it in total. No matter how fantastic they might be.
King examines our fears and our desires and our own personal magic, flipping back and forth through time and space till the last 150 pages fly by and head for an ending that is absolutely wonderful (but is also unbearably heart-wrenching).
In short, forget the movies; just read the novel.
You'll thank me later.