Joyland - Why did I read it, and why did I love it?

I am a self-avowed sissy when it comes to horror.  It's a genre I steer clear of--not into monsters, aliens, gore, twisted psychos, etc.  I'm also not a fan of amusement parks, with the sole exception of Disneyland.  I don't like roller coasters, the midway, creaking rides that feel like they're going to fall apart, or games of chance that you know are totally rigged.

So, why did I read Joyland, by Stephen King?

1. I love time-travel books and read King's 11/22/63 last year and loved it.  I was impressed by King as a writer and storyteller, and have been on the lookout for other King books that might appeal to me.  
2. I read a review of Joyland at Shelf Love this summer, and put it on the short list of King possibilities.
3. It was the October book selected by the Goodreads TuesBookTalk Read-a-Longs group that I am a member of.
4. It's October and everyone else in the book blogging world is reading spooky Halloween books, and while I don't like horror I do like ghost stories.
5. It was checked in at the library when I stopped by a couple of weeks ago.
6. I had just finished Madame Tussaud and I wasn't sure what I wanted to read next.

And...why did I love it?

King really is a good writer.  His books are easy to read, his dialogue sounds like real people talking, and the rhythm of his prose sucks me in.

I liked the premise of Joyland--it takes place in the 1970s, and is nostalgic.  I'm convinced that it's at least part autobiographical.  The protagonist, Dev Jones, is 21, tall (6 feet, 4 inches), a wanna-be writer. King in 1973 would have been just a few years older, is every bit as tall, and was an aspiring writer.  Dev is wonderful--angsty, big-hearted, self-deprecating, charmingly naive.  He's a sweet kid, and I liked the fact that it was a story that he as a 60-something tells--this means that I know he survived the horrors he faced at Joyland, an amusement park on the North Carolina shore, during the fall of 1973.

I liked the world King created in Joyland--the beach town where the Joyland amusement park is the main summer attraction.  I liked listening to the jargon of the carnys and the greenies (the new summer hires).  I may not personally like riding roller coasters, but I love the anthropological and sociological thrill I get when I learn about a different culture or society.

I liked the whodunit aspect of the story--as a mystery, I thought King did a great job of setting up the red herrings, providing the clues, and literally providing the fun-house mirrors that distort what seems to be the truth.

I loved the idea that Dev is a life-saver (literally), while trying to track down the identity of a life-taker.

The pace was marvelous--this was not a hectic book wherein the reader is racing from plot point to plot point.  The story unfolds leisurely. The setup is gradual.  The side stories are intriguing, and the side characters are fully developed people with their own stories waiting in the wings.  The final couple of chapters pay off big when it comes to thrills and tensions--I literally couldn't put the book down for the last 50 pages.

All in all, a very satisfying October book.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

The only Stephen King book I ever read before 11/22/63 was The Shining--being a Colorado native and a fan of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, how could I not read it?  I'm not interested in horror as a genre, and I tend to avoid pop-culture icons like King as a matter of course.  However, I love time travel stories and I have been interested in JFK my entire life.  One of my first memories is of my mom crying on the phone after she heard about his assassination when I was five years old.  Given all of this, I decided to read King's 11/22/63.

I absolutely loved it and shelved all other reading so that I could simply forge my way through all 849 pages at breakneck speed. 

Quickie synopsis - Jake Epping is a schoolteacher who eats at a local greasy spoon that is notorious for its low prices.  The proprietor of the diner is dying of cancer and shares a secret with Jake--there is a portal to the past, Sept 1958 to be exact, in his diner and he has been routinely visiting the past to buy supplies for his diner, hence the low, low prices he can charge for meals.  He also has started playing around with the past, and has been working on a project to try to stop the assassination of JFK.  However, since the cancer is killing him, he enlists Jake to take over the project.  Jake agrees and travels to September 1958 and puts together a plan to stop Oswald before he can kill the president.  Along the way, he finds a life that he prefers to the one he left behind in 2011.

I found the story absolutely gripping and Jake an entirely believable character. As one who has thought long and hard about how I would deal with time travel should I ever find my own rabbit hole, I loved reading about Jake's reactions to the world of the 1950's/60's. 

I came to really respect King's skills as a writer and storyteller, particularly his ability to create a shadowy, malevolent character, really the villain of the story, out of the past.  As Epping lives out the five years he has to mark in the past before he can strike Oswald down, he learns that the "past is obdurate"--it does not want to be changed and will fight to not be changed.  It plays dirty and throws accidents at Jake left and right to try to prevent him from accomplishing his mission.  This is such a cool idea, and shows King to be a master of the pyschological thriller.  Most writers settle for creating tangible villains, but King has created a completely conceptual villain, which is brilliant because this is a villain that cannot be beaten even when you think you have done so.

I also thought that King's pacing was excellent--unlike some thrillers that never give you time to breathe, this one provided periods of relative calm in which Epping could explore and enjoy the world in which he landed--he could dance, go out to dinner, make friends, fall in love, and basically live--before the next crisis overwhelmed the normalcy.  I think that's the hallmark of a great thriller, unexpected thunderbolts are so much more unnerving than ones that come from stormy skies.

A completely enjoyable read and one that was refreshingly different from most of the books I tend to read.  Viva la difference!