Sunny's Reviews > 11/22/63

obdurate (ob-dyoo-rit): adjective 1. unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding. 2. stubbornly resistant to moral influence; persistently impenitent; an obdurate sinner.

When reading a story, if I come across a "new" word, I'll typically just try to figure it out from the context rather than looking it up. However, King used this word - obdurate - so many times, that I found myself compelled to familarize myself with the dictionary definition. Just in case, I've posted it here to save you some time.

I reluctantly read this book because it was so popular on goodreads. Having been haunted by Stephen King stories in the past, essentially incapacitating my ability to be alone at night, my husband was concerned for himself when he saw the book in my hands. But, 849 pages later, it turns out that our concerns were unnecessary.

Early in the story, I scoffed at many of the ideas that were brought up simply because it was reminding me quite a bit of Back to the Future. Taking the sports winner listings for the period 1958-1963 back in time, and gambling on the sure bets to get money? Al the diner man saying "Where you're going, nobody wears backpacks."? (Think, where we're going, we don't need roads.) There was even the English teacher narrator's comment "Sometimes life coughs up coincidences no writer of fiction would dare copy." Yeah, right.

But, as I got further into the story, it became clear that even if King was inspired by other stories, this is a completely new take on time travel.

It's also very un-King like in content. Sure, there were a few gory details, but nothing that really kept me up at night. What really surprises me is the lack of truly disturbing, goose-pimple raising scenes. I can think of only three: the field in Derry and twice at the building in Dallas. Even with these scenes, I got the impression that King threw them in there just to hit his status quo - they didn't strike me as necessary to the story at all. Because the story was much more about the relationship between a man of the future and a woman of the past.

Very good, Mr. King. I'm a fan again.