I finished it about a week back, but I've sort of been without internet and in and out, but still, here we go:
It - (S. King, 1986)
This is, in all the world, of every book I've read, my single, absolute favourite. No, I'm not sure the prose is as good as some I've read (and I'm sure that The God of Small Things is probably being short changed here, but the emotional and deeply personal response I have to this is just without comparison. I find it so sad and wonderful and beautiful.
I actually had a thought reading it this time that in small way these children are almost superheroes. Not in the traditional sense of course, but they have these strange powers and abilities, and I mean, they're small, but they're still there, you know? Like Ben has this incredible mechanical mind, and Bill has Charisma, and Eddie has an uncanny sense of direction, and somehow they realise this, and somehow they don't and it's not just an important part of the magic in the plot, but also in the way it wraps around my heart.
I love the small things too. The way he'll break a paragraph with a single line that is all in italics
(something like this you know what I mean)
and in parentheses without punctuation. And somehow it works so, so well. And the way he carries sentences across sub-chapter breaks, and sets things up, and all of it.
But most of all I think it's the characters. I always like to pretend I'm Bill Denborough, but really, I'm not. I'm Ben Hanscom, through and through. Genuinely. It's why I adore it so much. When I finished At Swim, Two Boys, the main characters felt like real, flesh and blood people. Long before I finish It, I feel like King has made up a story about me, and given me the most beautiful friends, and the greatest adventures, and sure, I get sad when it ends, but I love it for it's middle. Hell, every time I read the thing I find myself wishing I could have an apocalyptic rock fight. I mean, surely it can't be pleasant, but there's something so vital about it, so real, and it's what I adore about this.
I love the foreshadowing, I love the beautiful, heart rending close; I simply adore every single aspect. One of the great novels of all time.