11/22/63 excerpt


I spotted this first over at the awesome Lilja's Library!  (There are a ton of updates the last few days, so go check them out.)  King has decided to wet our appetite for his latest gigantic novel with a special gift -- a taste test.  Yep, it's an excerpt from 11/22/63.  Dread Central excitedly put news of the excerpt this way: "Few authors look out for their fans like Stephen King does."

The excerpt reveals a first person account (unless there is a change mid-book, like Christine).  The writing is King's usual energetic, strong prose.

Here is a snippet, but the full except is below.

On Monday, March 25, Lee came walking up Neely Street carrying a long package wrapped in brown paper. Peering through a tiny crack in the curtains, I could see the words REGISTERED and INSURED stamped on it in big red letters. For the first time I thought he seemed furtive and nervous, actually looking around at his exterior surroundings instead of at the spooky furniture deep in his head. I knew what was in the package: a 6.5mm Carcano rifle—also known as a Mannlicher- Carcano—complete with scope, purchased from Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago. Five minutes after he climbed the outside stairs to the second floor, the gun Lee would use to change history was in a closet above my head. Marina took the famous pictures of him holding it just outside my livingroom window six days later, but I didn’t see it. That was a Sunday, and I was in Jodie. As the tenth grew closer, those weekends with Sadie had become the most important, the dearest, things in my life


Here is the PDF from dreadcentral: http://www.dreadcentral.com/img/news/jun11/excerpt.pdf

13 comments:

  1. This novel may be one of King's most distinct - I cannot think of any others he has done which cover similar territory, except maybe for Dead Zone which might be a thematic opposite.

    Do you suppose the assassination will actually be prevented?

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  2. I do think the assassination will be prevented. Or that alternate realities will be created. ?

    Wouldn't it be cool if it all connects somehow to the circle of the Dark Tower?

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  3. I would advise you both that if you want to know how this novel might turn out, King has already dropped some major info about it. Several years back, in a piece he wrote in ... I'm blanking on the exact name, but I think it was Marvel Comics Spotlight. It was an issue all about the Dark Tower comics, and he mentioned having an idea for another comic. He then described something that sounds identical to "11/22/63."

    He also gave very specific info about what happens regarding the assassination itself. I have no way of knowing if King followed through on those ideas, or came up with new ones. In any case, if you want to know what he said, you can probably find it fairly easily by Googling it; on the other hand, if you want to NOT know it, I'd steer way clear of reading that particular piece between now and November.

    Personally, I wish I hadn't read it. But I'll say this: it sounds like it's going to be a hell of a good novel.

    Haven't read the excerpt yet; debating holding off on it for a while. Probably won't be able to, though.

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  5. Having found the comments you are discussing, that is a suitably King type of story.

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  6. There is also a signed limited edition planned by Simon & Schuster, for $150.

    The link on the publisher's website do not work anymore (redirect to the homepage... so i guess that it's something that they didnt want to mention so far)

    However, there is also an amazon page about it :
    http://www.amazon.com/11-22-63-Special-Signed/dp/1451663854/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307126101&sr=8-2&tag=csk-21

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  7. Yeah, G.C., I still wish I didn't know about it ... but it sounds freakin' awesome!

    Thanks for the heads-up about the limited edition, C.S.K.!

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  8. Like your profile pic, Bryant!
    I'm on the fence about the limited editions. Seems like I spent a lot of money for the UTD "special" edition, then about $200 for a signed edition. And truth is, what I really like is the CD editions. I wonder if Cemetery Dance is going to give us a special edition.

    --david

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  9. Yeah, that's a pic of me at Dragon*Con a couple of years ago. That Pennywise kinda freaked me out a little. He told me they all float down there, and I believed him.

    I've got what you might call strong feelings about limited/signed editions. It takes a lot to get me to buy one, and when I do, I generally resent it a little bit. I doubt I'll buy one of the signed editions of "11/22/63," although if there's really cool exclusive artwork or something like that, it's a possibility.

    I'm a fan of Cemetery Dance, too. My only problem with them is that I wish they would give fans some notice before putting their books on sale. Like, with the 25th anniversary version of "It," I'd have appreciated a little bit of time to save up the money to buy it. As was, I was able to get to it before it sold out, but man, if it had been a different month ... well, let;'s just say that there are times when I can barely afford to buy a taco on a moment's notice, much less a $125 book.

    It worked out this time, though, and in the grand scheme of things, I'm still affluent enough that I CAN (at least occasionally) spend money on non-essential things like that book; a lot of people aren't fortunate enough to have even that much, so you'll only hear me complaining to a certain extent.

    I do look forward to hearing more about this limited edition of "11/22/63," though; might be something worth splurging on.

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  10. The deal at CD is that they always act like it's an emergency release. Intensity sells books. But even now, a couple weeks after the announcement, you can still get IT. Only if you want signed stuff do you have to jump right on it. So save a couple hundred bucks now if you're going to want a signed copy of 11.

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  11. Yeah, I'm used to the "BUY IT IMMEDIATELY OR YOU'LL NEVER HAVE ONE!!!!!" mentality that comes along with limited editions. I'm guilty of falling for that on a few occasions, but there have also been occasions when I decided to wait and then never ended up getting the thing I wanted to buy.

    As for signed editions ... I'm not into those at all. If I opened up my normal edition and found that the author had signed it, I'd think that was pretty cool, but I doubt I'd ever pay more just for a signature. That's just not for me.

    Throw in some high-quality artwork, though...? That's going to catch my eye every time. Speaking of which, I'm still bummed our that I don't have a copy of "The Secretary of Dreams." Need to get on that at some point before used copies become astronomically expensive, rather than just expensive.

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  12. Yeah, I've missed some stuff that was awsome. . . like CD edition of "From a Buick 8"

    CD is selling art work from FDNS.

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  13. does anyone know if the signed edition of 11/22/63 planned by scribner is signed by stephen king or is it like some artist edition, signed by the cover artist instead?

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