Reviews for 11/22/63--Many contain spoilers

**Moderator** · November 4th, 2011

If we started obsessing over negative backlash, whether that be bad reviews, accusations of political or any other bias, etc., there wouldn't be any new releases. The attitude or reality we've come to accept can be summed up in the immortal words of Roseanne Rosannadanna, "Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it's always something--if it ain't one thing, it's another."

**JohnDalglish** · November 4th, 2011

Originally Posted by PrisonerNumber6

Still, it's not like Spin speaks for Democracy.

Hi,

Tell that to the Athenians who are being refused a vote today.

(Or the OWS protesters being refused a voice worldwide by the right wing media!).

Long days and pleasant nights

**bobledrew** · November 4th, 2011

Prisonernumber6 et al, doesn't this all come down to free speech? King has written his novel. Then it's up to the "official" reviewers and gatekeepers and the unofficial ones (you and me) to read it and judge it, on whatever criteria we choose.

Keep in mind, SK got where he is DESPITE, not BECAUSE OF, critical acclaim. His early works, and even his whole oeuvre, have been the subject of some scathing criticism. Harold Bloom says even calling him a "penny-dreadful" writer is too good for him. S.T. Joshi has written (thanks to Delbert Grady for this quote): He is, to be blunt, not a very good writer. His conceptions are stale and largely derived from the films, television shows, and comic books that he openly admits constituted his literary diet in youth (see his ruminations on the horror field, Danse Macabre (1981)); his prose is flat, plain, and mundane almost beyond belief and tolerance; his novels are shambles of extraneous verbiage, episodes that go nowhere, and characters who are stale, stereotypical, and hackneyed. It is exactly these qualities that both condemn him (rightly) in the eyes of many critics and engender his popularity among a readership that would find anything more literarily elevated beyond its scope and comprehension.

If Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly or whoever use the new book as a talking point, I don't think it matters a whit to SK, or to his fans, or to the others.

I wouldn't waste my few remaining brain cells worrying about it.

**bobledrew** · November 4th, 2011

Originally Posted by PrisonerNumber6

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The worst part is it kind of validates what I worried about. The following link
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/sidewalks/please-leave-john-f-kennedy-rest-in-peace-133146273.html

Is the first negative and politicized review I found. What's real disappointing is it all happened so quick. Well, here it is for any who'd even care to read it. For what it's worth. Sorry if this makes me the killjoy for the day.

PS: Given that there's a grammar error in the hed and another in the first four paragraphs, I think this guy might want to stop columnizing for a bit and pick up "On Writing."

**PrisonerNumber6** · November 4th, 2011

Yeah, sorry about that. Hands type too fast and I'm still a poor spotter.

**bobledrew** · November 4th, 2011

P6 -- I wasn't finding errors in what you'd written, but what the IrishCentral guy had written.

**omm poppa mow mow** · November 4th, 2011

Maslin's review:

Mr. King’s books have a far stronger real-world component than they used to

I disagree...one appeal his stories hold is that they contain people that are real....ha ha ha ha! Has the reviewer read any of them?

in ways that make this an unusually romantic novel for its author.

Nope...Maslin has not read the erotic westerns from King, the heart-throbbing romances...oy!

**randallFlaggfan1** · November 4th, 2011

Originally Posted by Moderator

If we started obsessing over negative backlash, whether that be bad reviews, accusations of political or any other bias, etc., there wouldn't be any new releases. The attitude or reality we've come to accept can be summed up in the immortal words of Roseanne Rosannadanna, "Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it's always something--if it ain't one thing, it's another."

It does always seem to be something, doesn't it, Ms. Mod?

("All things serve the Beam")

**jchanic** · November 6th, 2011

Cleveland Plain Dealer:

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index...is_a_surp.html

John

**PrisonerNumber6** · November 7th, 2011

Well, I just got a look at the touring and publicity schedule. Already missed the JFK Library with Tom Perotta (say sorry.) Hope it went okay. The only thing I'd like to know is did Matthews contact for an appearance?