It - Softcover

King, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0450411435 ISBN 13: 9780450411434

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks, 1987

Synopsis

It was the children who saw - and felt - what made the town so horribly different. In the storm drains and sewers It lurked, taking the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. As the children grow up and move away, the horror of It is buried deep - until they are called back.

About this title

Review:

Stephen King's idea for It came from a favorite childhood image: the entire cast of the Bugs Bunny Show coming on at the beginning. He thought of bringing on all the monsters, one last time: Dracula, Frankenstein's creature, the Werewolf, the Crawling Eye, Rodan, It Came from Outer Space.

It is about a group of adults who were once troubled children in the late '50s--"The Losers." One of them is a best selling horror writer much like Stephen King (or his friend and collaborator Peter Straub). In order to defeat the protean "It" that threatens their hometown, they have to go back- -not only to the town itself, but deep into their childhood memories, to regain the talent for magic they once had. King says It is for "the buried child in us, but I'm writing for the grown-up, too. I want grown-ups to look at the child long enough to be able to give him up."

This huge, baggy beast of a novel is a favorite of Stephen King fans--second in popularity only to The Stand. Perhaps longtime fans develop mental filters for King's sloppy storytelling to tune out the repetitions and silliness. King is like the pointillist painter Seurat: if you stand too close to the little dots, the picture falls apart, and it looks meaningless. That's why he makes the storyscape so big--to take you up to that macro-level where you like the book in spite of its flaws. --Fiona Webster

Review:

One of the great storytellers of our time (Guardian)

A writer of excellence...King is one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel...brilliantly done (The Sunday Times)

His finest to date...Hardly a page is without its shocks and surprises yet King still manages to give us a terrifying climax (Yorkshire Post)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0450411435
• ISBN 13: 9780450411434
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 1120