“It”: differences and secret connections between the book and the film. “It”: differences and secret connections between the book and the film Reviews of the book “It”

I dedicate this book with gratitude to my children. My mother and wife taught me to be a man. My children taught me how to be free.

Naomi Rachel King, fourteen years old.

Joseph Hillstrom King, twelve years old.

Owen Philip King, seven years old.

Guys, fiction is truth hidden in lies, and the truth of fiction is quite simple: magic exists.

From under the blue into the darkness.

A SHADOW OF THE PAST

Born in a dead man's city.

After the flood (1957)

The beginning of this horror, which will not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ends at all - was laid, as far as I know and can judge, by a boat folded from a sheet of newspaper, sailing along a rain-swollen ditch.

The boat nosed down, heeled over, righted itself, bravely navigated the treacherous eddies and continued sailing along Witcham Street to the traffic light at the intersection of Jackson Street. In the second half of that autumn day In 1957, the lamps did not light on any of the four sides of the traffic lights, and the houses around them were also dark. It had been raining non-stop for a week, and the last two days the wind had increased. Many areas of Derry were left without electricity, and it was not possible to restore its supply everywhere.

A little boy in a yellow raincoat and red galoshes ran joyfully next to a paper boat. The rain has not stopped, but has finally lost its strength. He tapped on the hood of his raincoat, reminding the boy of the sound of rain hitting the roof of a barn... such a pleasant, cozy sound. The boy in the yellow raincoat, six years old, was named George Denbrough. His brother, William, known to most children in primary school Derry (and even his teachers, who would never call him that to his face) like Stuttering Bill, stayed home recovering from a bad flu. That autumn of 1957, eight months before the real horror came to Derry and twenty-eight years before the final denouement, Bill was eleven years old.

The boat George was running next to was made by Bill. He folded it from a sheet of newspaper, sitting in bed, leaning back against a pile of pillows, while their mother played “Fur Elise” on the piano in the living room and the rain beat tirelessly on his bedroom window.

A quarter of a block away, closest to the intersection and the non-working traffic light, Witcham was blocked by smoking barrels and four orange barriers, shaped like sawhorses for sawing wood. Each crossbar was stenciled with the words "DERRY PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT". Behind the barrels and barriers, rain splashed out of storm ditches clogged with branches, stones, piles of stuck together autumn leaves. At first, the water released thin finger-like streams onto the tar, then began to rake it in with greedy hands - all this happened on the third day of rain. By noon on the fourth day, chunks of road surface were floating across the Witcham and Jackson intersection like miniature ice floes. By this time, many Derry residents were nervously joking about the arks. Department public works It was possible to maintain traffic along Jackson Street, but Witcham, from the barriers to the city center, was closed to traffic.

However, now, and everyone agreed, the worst was behind us. In the Badlands, the Kenduskeg River rose almost flush with its banks, and the concrete walls of the Canal, the straightened riverbed in the central part of the city, protruded mere inches from the water. Right now a group of men, including Zach Denbrough, Bill and George's father, were clearing away sandbags that had been dumped in a panicked rush the day before. Yesterday, the river overflowing its banks and the massive damage caused by the flooding seemed almost inevitable. God knows, this has happened before: the 1931 disaster cost millions of dollars and claimed almost two dozen lives. Many years had passed, but there were still enough witnesses to that flood to frighten others. One of the victims was found twenty-five miles east, in Bucksport.

“It” is one of Stephen King's most voluminous and profound novels. Making a good film adaptation of this book is not easy. Argentine director Andres Muschietti mastered this, creating an amazing film about friendship, fear and hope. But even he had to sacrifice some of the book. Some scenes and plot lines were not included in the film, while others turned into Easter eggs, which are a pleasure for a King connoisseur to catch.

The editors of MirF walked through the streets of Derry and even ventured into an abandoned house on Nable Street. We talk about the results of our expedition through the pages of the book and the new film.

Time and place of action

One day, on the streets of Derry, a provincial American town, children began to disappear - a monster awakened, hungry for children's fears. In the novel, before the reader’s eyes, two parallel plots develop at once: about adult heroes and their childhood memories, which drag them into an endlessly repeating nightmare.

Andres Muschietti moved away from the book format and divided the chapters of children and adults into two separate stories, of which only the first was included in the film. This weakened the connection between the past and the future, but the plot became less predictable.

Muschietti also moved the action forward 27 years - now it’s not adults who live in the 1980s, but teenagers. This also influenced the fears that haunt the heroes. The werewolves and mummies of 1950s films have been replaced by new horrors - clowns and headless children. Only half of the “losers” have their fears unchanged: Beverly Marsh, as before, is afraid of blood (as well as her own father), Eddie is afraid of diseases, and Bill Denbrough is lured into the sewer by his dead brother Georgie.

The bloody fountain in the bathroom is reminiscent of a scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

The guys take refuge in the Wasteland from the deadly tricks of Pennywise and the Henry Bowers gang. They perceive it as “their” territory, a safe refuge where nothing threatens them. It is thanks to this confidence that children win the “apocalyptic battle of the stones.” But in the film, the Kenduskeg River valley is an ordinary, unremarkable place. U screen heroes there is no attachment to him: at first, Bill even persuades his friends to go there in search of Georgie.

Forgotten Scenes

Even if we take only the line of children, the director missed several large-scale scenes. One of them is the murder of Eddie Corcoran. Eddie and his younger brother Dorsey suffered from domestic violence. One day, the father went completely crazy and killed Dorsey with a hammer, and Eddie, frightened, ran away from home. Unfortunately, in the Wasteland, he came across Pennywise: he took on the image of his dead brother, and then, turning into a swamp monster from the horror film “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” beheaded Eddie. This is not in the film - either the special effects were too expensive, or the director decided not to overload the film with another line with parental cruelty.

The scene with spontaneous turning of pages was replaced by frames switching on the projector - it turned out spectacular!

In the book, children learn the nature of It through the ancient Indian ritual “Chud”. Inhaling the smoke of smoldering grass, Mike and Richie see that Pennywise is an ancient monster who is fueled by childhood fears. This mystery is revealed when Bill enters the void between our universe and other dimensions, where It was born. During the ritual, Bill meets Maturin, ancient turtle, who created the world - from her he learns that Pennywise can only be defeated by the power of the mind.

In the film, the origin of the monster remains a mystery. As actor Bill Skarsgård said, a flashback about the 17th century was cut out of the final film, which described the backstory of Pennywise and his awakening after millennia of sleep. Perhaps it will be included in the sequel.

In the final battle, Pennywise transforms - but in different ways. In the book, he turns into a huge spider with bulging red eyes, who is waiting for offspring. Moreover, this is only one of the incarnations of the clown, the closest to his metaphysical essence. Its true form is a collection of orange "dead" lights that live in the void between universes. In the film, he rushes about and takes the form of fear of one child, then another. A hint of the lights can only be seen at the end of the film, when Bev looks into the monster's mouth.

Finally, the most controversial scene of the novel was not shown - the group sex of the “losers” with Beverly. In the book, after the final battle with Pennywise, the guys got lost in the labyrinths of the sewers. To restore spiritual unity and find a way out, the children perform this strange and shocking ritual. Of course, no one bothered to film such a scene. According to rumors, Cary Fukanaga, who was originally planned to direct It, was considering including some kind of analogue of it in the film - and was removed from the project.

Stephen King himself admits that he only thought about the emotional side of the transition from childhood to adulthood and likened intimacy ancient initiation rites. However, most viewers breathed a sigh of relief when this outrage was never shown.

In the film, the "losers" swim together, stare at Bev, and later two of them kiss her, but otherwise everything is innocent

"Losers Club"

In the book, the “losers” always stuck together - this was the only way they could defeat the monster. In the film, their friendship is at some point under threat: after the first foray into an abandoned house, Richie Tozier demands to stop the hunt for the clown, to which Bill, angry, slaps his friend. Bookish Denbrough would never have done this: he understood how important it was to maintain peace in the team.

The characters of the other guys were also reviewed. Beverly's image at first coincides with the literary one: a bright, fighting girl who will give any guy a head start. But her relationship with her father is more complicated. In the book, she is afraid of him, but in her own way she loves him, just like he loves her. Because of this unhealthy love, Bev even marries his copy. In the film, Al Marsh is a real threat to his daughter, and it is because of him that she falls into the clutches of Pennywise. This couldn’t happen to bookish Beverly: she’s not afraid of the clown’s tricks and can stand up for herself.

Rumor has it that in Fukanaga's draft, his father's harassment of Bev was much more explicit.

The character that was cut the most was Mike Hanlon, the narrator and one of the key characters in the book. He shows the “losers” his father’s album with old photographs, which contains evidence of all the misfortunes that have befallen Derry since its founding. Then the children learn that Pennywise is not a person, but something more. In the film, this role went to Ben Hansom.

By the way, Ben is not only an avid reader, but also a talented engineer. In the book, he built a secret underground base for the "losers" and even made a silver bullet intended for Pennywise.

In the book, Mike's father is alive and plays an important role

Eddie is not the brightest “loser”, but he also has a couple of decent scenes. Particularly interesting is his meeting with a leper who treats the boy with a placebo - all this embodies Eddie's fears of disease. In the novel this scene is deeper. The stranger offers the boy intimate services, which reflects Eddie's fears of his awakening sexuality, which were nurtured by his mother. She not only limited physical development son, but also held back his emotional and sexual maturation.

To stop Tozier from saying anything too much, his friends would tell him, “Beep-Beep, Richie.” In the film, this phrase is heard only once, at a rather scary moment.

Villains

Henry Bowers's father in the book was always a scoundrel, and after being injured in the war, he completely went off the rails. He kept snapping at Henry or quarreling with Mike Hanlon's father, whose family he hated because of the color of his skin. On-screen Butch Bowers is also cruel to his son, but still keeps his emotions under control - it’s not for nothing that he works as a police officer. And you can’t call him a racist.

In the film, the Bowers gang doesn't live up to the scumbags in the book.

Apart from a couple of episodes, Henry's gang is much inferior to their book prototypes. In the novel, they, like predators, hunt down the guys, inventing new and ever new bullying. Most of their anger is directed at Mike: it comes to the point that they throw mud at the boy and kill his dog.

The craziest member of the gang is Patrick Hockstetter, a sadist and psychopath. As a child, he strangled his younger brother, and when he got older, he began capturing wounded animals and leaving them to die in an old refrigerator in a landfill. He himself died there: giant leeches sucked all the blood out of him, leaving wide bite holes all over his body.

It's a bit of a shame that in the film Patrick is just another victim of Pennywise.

Henry Bowers himself goes crazy when the clown in front of his eyes deals with the remnants of his gang. In the book, after emerging from the sewer, he confesses to the police that he killed his father; he is also found guilty of Pennywise's crimes. But in the film he fell into a well and, it seems, died. But in the sequel it is still possible to play out the book plot if Bowers survived the fall.

Links to the original

In the film adaptation, Muschietti removed or reworked a lot, but compensated for this with Easter eggs and references to the original. One of the most important is the turtle, which flashes here and there. In King's multiverse, the turtle Maturin is the creator of this world and the Guardian of the beam that supports the Dark Tower. In the film, Bill noticed the Lego turtle in Georgie’s room, and then Ben saw the turtle in the water when the “losers” were relaxing at the quarry.

The novel devotes several chapters to the history of Derry. There are a couple of references to her in the film: the children talk about the fire at the Black Mark club and the explosion at the factory. And outside the butcher shop where Mike faced his fear, there is graffiti reminiscent of the massacre of the George Bradley Gang, which terrorized the city in the late 1920s.

The Bradley Gang massacre is one of Derry's many tragedies.

Another eerie moment in the city's history is recalled by a photo Ben saw in the Derry yearbook. There is a picture of a boy's head on a tree. Robert Dohai's head was blown off in an explosion at a metallurgical plant. A second before the explosion took his life, the boy was chewing candy - and his lips were stained with chocolate.

After the tragedy, Robert Dohai's head was found on a neighbor's apple tree.

Patrick Hockstetter saw red before he died balloon with the inscription "I Derry". This is a reference to the murder of homosexual Adrian Mellon at the city fair mentioned in the book. That day, his partner noticed a clown with a whole bunch of red holiday balloons with the same inscription. The analogy with Adrian Mellon hints that the book Patrick was partial to men. By the way, this story is based on the real murder of 23-year-old Charlie Howard in Bangor in 1984: then three teenagers beat the man and pushed him into a canal under a bridge.

Trying to cope with his stuttering, Bill repeats the tongue twister “He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts!” Readers will remember that it was she who helped Bill win a mental victory over Pennywise in the final battle. King borrowed this tongue twister from the science fiction novel Donovan's Brain by Kurt Siodmak, where the hero also reads it to protect himself from a hostile hypnotic force.

Several shots show Bill's Silver bike. In the novel, he first saves Eddie's life and, 27 years later, Bill's wife.

The route along which Georgie pursued the paper vessel was also not accidental. Jackson Street and Witcham Street appear several times in the book. As did the orange construction fence, reminiscent of a sawhorse, that the boy hit.

Muschietti did not forget about the guys’ canonical fears. In the final battle, It, turning to Ben, momentarily takes the form of a mummy - Ben was afraid of it in the novel. And during his first visit to Nable Street, Pennywise's fingers briefly transform into werewolf claws. This is an obvious reference to Richie's fear of watching horror movies.

The werewolf Easter egg is so well hidden that finding it is doubly pleasant

By the way, there Richie comes across clowns, one of which is a copy of Tim Curry from the old film adaptation of “It”.

The filmmakers paid tribute to the first screen Pennywise. Here it is, just to the left of center

In the original, Richie's fear was not clowns, but the animated statue of Paul Bunyan - and it also appears in the film, but it doesn't scare anyone.

The statue of Paul Bunyan actually stands in the city of Bangor, one of the prototypes of Derry

And how many Easter eggs the costume designers hid! One of Eddie's T-shirts features a print of the supersonic Airwolf aircraft from the television series of the same name. On his other T-shirt you can see the car "Christina" from King's novel of the same name. And Richie wears a T-shirt advertising Freese's, a popular Bangor department store.

But the most interesting T-shirt is Bill's. At first glance, it shows an incomprehensible logo on a green background. But if you look closely, you can make out that this is a sign of Tracker Brothers, a Derry shipping company. After 27 years, it is at their factory that the matured Eddie meets Pennywise upon his return to the city.

In the finale, Bev tells the guys that under the influence of Pennywise, she began to forget the events that happened. This foreshadows that the "losers" won't really remember each other until their next meeting with Pennywise. The order in which the guys leave the final scene is also interesting: Stan leaves first, followed by Eddie. This is the order in which the characters die in the book.

There's still hope for Bev and Bill - they're the last to go!

The first part of Andres Muschietti's film adaptation deviates greatly from the book, but the director so accurately captured the mood of the characters that all the inconsistencies fit harmoniously into the plot. And every Easter egg you notice makes your soul warm - and Pennywise is no longer so scary.

Stephen King, the true and unique master of utter horror, evokes delight with his author's narration and the depth of meaning in his dark works. His characters literally come to life and take up residence under your bed the moment you read the next novel, from which, despite all the fear, it is impossible to tear yourself away until the very final sentence.

The book “It” is another masterpiece from Stephen King, which will not leave even the most calm and balanced reader indifferent, making him worry about the fate of the heroes of the novel and deprive him of a sound and restful sleep.

Initially, the novel takes place in the late 60s of the last century in the small American town of Derry. Operates in the city brutal killer, which only preys on children. The seven main characters, united into a single cohesive team, decide to fight back the reigning horror, which the children nicknamed It, for the ability of Evil to take different guises and forms. Adults cannot even see It, and the series of deaths continues. That is why eleven-year-old children decide to fight against the Evil that has settled in their hometown. Having fought back the terrible nightmare, they go to different parts of America, vowing that if history repeats itself, they will fight again. But what will be the surprise of the heroes when, 27 years later, It begins its hunt for children again.

You have the opportunity to download Stephen King's book “It” for free in fb2, epub, pdf, txt, doc on our website using the link below.

In the novel It, Stephen King embodied true fear and horror, recreating a universal monster with the ability to change. In fact, King's nightmare has become the embodiment of all Evil, which can appear before the victim in any guise and form. This novel is capable of awakening the childhood fears of every reader, recalling those things that once inspired horror, but then seemed completely harmless and unreal. King proves that even at a conscious age there is something to be afraid of, and nightmares simply do not leave a person, returning to him again and again, but now becoming real and truly dangerous.

Stephen King in the novel “It” sets out to not only scare the reader by supporting his image of the Master of Horror, but also raises deep social themes that can provoke reflection - the power of human memory, the power of cohesion, the power of childhood fears over adult life.

If you are delighted with King’s authorial style or just want to get to know the author better, then the novel “It” is an ideal candidate for your debut meeting. Read for everyone who is crazy about horror and wants to remember what instilled fear in him as a child, and find out what consequences such a childhood nightmare can have.

One day someone great writer(at that time even he himself had no idea about this greatness - most critics believed that his opuses were not worth a sausage roll, but he just chuckled) went home. The road passed through a bridge; the old boards cracked so much with every step that the writer involuntarily remembered one old tale. Now, right now, a menacing voice will be heard from under the rusted piles: “Who is that walking across my bridge?!”

Writers, unlike ordinary citizens, notice everything, cling to every little thing in search of a good idea. By the time our writer got home, he already knew for sure: there was something in this! This is how one of the greatest American novels was born from the creaking of boards underfoot.

It is not known for certain why Stephen King suddenly decided to make “It” a key work in his work; the idea was, at best, like a short story. But this idea unexpectedly absorbed not only all the main motifs of King’s work, but also its, so to speak, origins, and transformed it into a completely original novel, at the same time dynamic and wise, cruel and kind, disgusting and beautiful. While sociologists have been writing about the influence of life realities on popular culture(and vice versa), King simply combined mass culture with reality into a single whole, creating both a “guide to the horror genre” and an “encyclopedia” American life"", and reflections on the nature of fear, and, finally, a novel about childhood... and about love. A small town as a model of the universe, and the great Evil that rules the souls of its inhabitants, the magic of childhood, opposing the cruel rationalism of the adult world, reflections on the art of writing, the survival of individuals in an indifferent and blind crowd - all these (and many other) motives encountered in creativity King earlier and later, in “It”, were revealed to the maximum. Each, even the most insignificant character (and there are more than a hundred of them) is written so carefully that there is not the slightest doubt about his reality. Each scene is depicted so vividly that the reader seems to lose touch with reality, completely feeling himself in the place of the characters. The alternation of episodes from childhood and adulthood, interspersed with interludes from the history of Derry, creates a large-scale picture of what is happening. All components complement each other so perfectly that it is impossible to throw away the smallest detail without destroying the entire structure. No wonder King said that “It” would become his last novel““about monsters”” - he was disingenuous, of course, but most of his later works are indeed based on one of the lines of “It”. THE REGULATORS, THE TOMMINOCKERS, HOPELESS, THE NEEDED THINGS, DUMMY-KEE, BAG OF BONES, ROSE MADDER - each of these books makes you remember "It". If you haven't read this novel, then you haven't read Stephen King.

If they ask me what this novel is about, I will answer that it is, indeed, about a monster. About the monster that lurks in everyone's soul. It is part of the human essence, and every person - if he is a real person - must give Him battle even in childhood. Then it will be too late, and a person who has come to terms with part of the monster inside himself can become part of the monster himself... as was the case with the good residents of the town of Derry.

Rating: 10

Four months of work completed! With a feeling of deep satisfaction and a feeling of having accomplished hard, but damned pleasant work, I closed the thousand-two-hundred-page volume, put it on the shelf and thought.

Definitely, this is not just good, wonderful or even brilliant book. This Great Book Great King. That's right, all words are capitalized. I don’t understand and can’t imagine how one person can write this! I feel something similar when reading PLIO. But there is a huge picture of hundreds of characters, intricacies of plot and events. And in “It” there is a grandiose and complex microcircuit of intertwined threads of the human soul.

There is one problem with Great Books - after them it is impossible to read anything for a long time. Well, like after absolute immersion; 100% presence effect; Absolutely reliable, deep, contradictory and multi-faceted characters can you read a deliberately fictitious story with God forbid that there is only one poorly written main character? And that’s the point: I quite liked the conventional book of the conventional Henry Danilovich Chekhov and seemed quite a masterpiece... But after “It” I want to lower all my ratings by at least one point, and leave the honorary ten only to His Majesty.

As I write, I think: the review resembles enthusiastic boyish snot. But that's how it is. Long enough reading fiction for me it has faded and faded. And here an author appeared (I haven’t read much of King yet), who again made me believe in a fictional story, empathize, and be afraid to read at night in an empty apartment! He gave me EMOTIONS – and very vivid ones at that. So thanks to him for that.

And not the last advantage of “It” is that it is a book where the fantastic component is far from being in the foreground. She is only a prism through which the topic is viewed, which has become one of the main ones - the very notorious Absolute Evil. And a clear answer is given: There is no Absolute Evil (“the true form of It cannot be comprehended”). Because for every person, any evil towards him is absolute. But in relation to someone else – it’s not so absolute. We are not inclined to look for reasons, find out motives and allow excuses for an evil act directed against us. But we are ready to justify and understand the villain who caused harm to someone else.

But at the same time, not a single villain does evil to others for the sake of evil itself (except for the insane sadistic psychopaths that Henry Bowers became by the end of It). Everyone has a motive that more or less justifies their actions.

The ultimate evil is Miss Kaspbrak, Eddie's mother. Which deliberately convinces her son that he is sick. Deliberately raising someone who is not healthy, full of strength a boy, but a wimpy mummy's boy. And if at the right moment Eddie did not have an inhaler and he died, all the blame would lie only with his mother! But what else should a lonely middle-aged woman do, whose husband died, and a couple of years later her child almost died? Who has nothing and no one except this boy, who in any other way can be tied to her forever?

The absolute evil is Mrs. Hanscom, Ben's mother. Who deliberately feeds her son to the point of being a fat pig, which is fraught with humiliation and bullying. Which sharply opposes her son’s desire to bring himself back to normal! But what else should a woman do who works all day and cannot express her motherly love in any other way except for pies and other goodies?

The absolute evil are Bill Danbrough's parents. Who, having lost one son, completely deprived their elders of warmth, love and at least some attention! Who closed themselves off from him in their grief, as if in an attic, and did not hear his screams and tears when he tried to break through to them. But the youngest - probably beloved - son died. What else could they do?

Absolute evil is Mr. Marsh. An unrealized pedophile who beats his daughter. Well, what else should he do? After all, he doesn’t want to beat her, he wants to show tenderness to her, but he can’t allow it... He’s jealous of her, but he can’t do anything about it either. So it hits. Beats means he loves.

Absolute evil is Henry Bowers. Sadist, psychopath, maniac. How can you grow up not to be a sadist, a psychopath and a maniac on a filthy farm next to your father - a drunkard, a psychopath and also a sadist? How to grow up to be a kind and sweet boy, being beaten almost daily by your own father?

Absolute evil is Tom Rogan beating his wife (and not only her). But my wife liked it at first, didn’t she? How could he do anything differently if she liked it?

And let it sound pretentious, but each of us is a portal of Absolute Evil into this world. And the point here is not the devil and other religious dregs. The point is: do we tend to justify to ourselves the evil that we can do (or do)? And if so, then what awaits us is decline and degradation, like Henry, like Marsha, like Rogan. And their ending is one!

Rating: 10

It’s an amazing thing - written, as King himself admitted, “by the way,” the novel “It” became perhaps the most important work of the American author. “It” can be called a kind of encyclopedia of the entire work of S. King. The story of a group of teenagers from a provincial American town who entered into an unequal and almost hopeless fight against Absolute Evil becomes the main theme for many of King’s works. Children who speak out against evil find themselves almost alone in the novel. The world of adults, at best, simply does not want to notice Evil, or (wittingly or not) falls under its influence.

Unlike his later novels, King says virtually nothing about religion or Christianity in It. However, the novel contains a 100% Christian message - King’s “Be like little children...”, which refers to the famous gospel words: “Unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven...” These are exactly the kind of children’s words. qualities such as spontaneity, responsiveness, the ability to accurately understand people, the ability to intuitively, at a deep level, recognize good and evil, will play a decisive role in the victory over the infernal substance that has tormented the city of Derry for several centuries.

By the way, again, according to King, the novel largely reproduces the childhood impressions of the writer himself: Barrens, and Kenduskeag, and even Henry Bowers - all this really happened... Who knows, maybe it actually happened ( and is now) and the clown Pennywise himself?...

Rating: 9

I'm starting to fall in love with Stephen King's work more and more. After the first novels I read, “Lizzie’s Story” and “Mobile”, I decided for myself that this was not “my” author. The narrative in these books was so ponderous, the idea and its implementation were so incomprehensible. But after the last novels I read, “The Dead Zone”, “Inflammatory with a Glance”, “11/22/63” and finally “It”, I can only say one word, King, you are truly a KING, a king in all available and existing genres (fiction ,mysticism, horror, historical novel, fantasy cycle “The Dark Tower”). Writing on this is stable high level For almost half a century, this is only available to Geniuses.

Why did the novel “It” hook me? A lot of people. Firstly, the original plot. Every twenty-seven years, a great evil comes to the city of Derry, children begin to disappear, they are found killed and mutilated in different places. Evil lives, it flourishes and there is no mercy from it, it is as ancient as the earth itself, coming from dimensions unknown to us, cruel, merciless, invulnerable. Invulnerable until he makes the fatal mistake of killing his younger brother Bill Denbrough (Bill the Stutterer).

King did an excellent job with characters, both positive and negative. Of the positive ones, this is, of course, our “magnificent seven”, who are destined to enter into mortal combat with the creature of hell or the devil himself. Bill the Stutterer, Richie Tozier, Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak, Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon and Steve Uris are these guys, seven best friends, the “Losers Club” as they called themselves, whom fate itself brought together for a common goal. King’s negative characters also turned out beyond all praise. These teenage bastards were started by Henry Bowers with his sycophants Victor Chris, Belch Huggins, Los. And also the pervert, sadist and psychopath Patrick Hockstetter, it would seem difficult to come up with a more disgusting character, but IT the clown Pennywise does not want to give the palm to anyone and Patrick faces an unenviable fate.

I really liked King’s time jumps in presentation. First, the story is told in 1958, then it abruptly jumps to 1985, and such castlings continue throughout the entire book, which I really liked.

The novel “It” is a wonderful work not only about a monster and the fight against it, but also about love, true friendship and devotion proven over the years.

Rating: 10

After reading such works, it is quite difficult to find new novel, which would correspond to this level. "It" by Stephen King is a book from the major league, another proof of the unusualness of the author. Who whispers to King the plots of his stories? Who shows the life of ordinary people through the eyes of monsters? His books are very scary to read, so what is it like for King to come up with them?

The small American town of Derry, which lives a leisurely, measured life. Everything in it is good and decent, except for the periodic disappearances of children and teenagers, as well as increased mortality among the same children. Children die in different ways, but very often their death is cruel and sadistic. Maybe these lands are rich in maniacs and sadists? Maybe there are too many psychopaths and crazy people in this city? No one knows the exact answer, although at different times dozens of criminals were sentenced to life, but were all of them the real culprits of the murders that happened in these places?

Stephen King will tell us a story about a strong friendship that has stood the test of time. Seven teenagers will play a central role in this work, it is they who will face the nightmare of the city of Derry. The author describes the life of twelve-year-old children in such detail, he shows it all so clearly that for a second there may be a suspicion that someone of the same age helped him come up with all this, or he is simply describing his own childhood. First love, the first blows of fate, the first overcoming of their own fears, they have to experience all this together and only thanks to the support of a friend, they manage to fight their phobias. Many note the writer’s excessive passion for detail in describing the slightest details from the lives of his characters, but thanks to this, the reader gets a clear picture of what is happening and one can easily imagine any of the “magnificent seven”.

The novel “It” is a cocktail of a wide variety of emotions. Fear, hatred, desire, despair, hope, joy, all this will pass before your eyes. King scares not with the bloody details, although there is enough of this in the book, he makes you experience what is happening with the characters, the emotional intensity in the work is simply crazy.

Stephen King rightfully bears the title of the King of Horror. No one has ever managed to intrigue my attention so much and make me worry so much about the fate of the characters.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the AST publishing house for the opportunity to read the full version of the novel, and special thanks to the translator, who did an excellent job.

Rating: 10

There are writers who have won the hearts of millions of readers. They say about such writers - “well, this is a Writer, with a capital letter.” Those. doubting their skill is almost a real sin. One can say about someone - this book of his is good, I recommend everyone to read it. but others are worse, but that one is no good at all, don’t read it.

King is a book virus. Any of his books is an event with a capital letter. One online store where I buy books regularly sends me announcements about the release of King’s new book, although I only bought one of his books, called “It.” But judging by how many reviews the announcement of this book is collecting, how much awe, tears and drooling, this very online store does not even doubt that I can be neutral to what King wrote new book. Am I really not like everyone else?

To check whether I am all or not all, I decided to get acquainted with what first came to hand, i.e. with “It” (although I’d ​​be lying if I kept silent about the fact that I’ve seen almost all of King’s films).

The novel takes place in Denbrough, Maine. A small town in the northeastern United States. In the 50s, children began to disappear there. Someone regularly kidnaps them, kills them, tears them into pieces and does other obscene things. The police are looking for murderers and maniacs among parents, homeless people and hooligans, but seven eleven-year-old boys are sure that It is all to blame.

What is It? At first they stubbornly force us to believe that It is a crazy clown monster. He lures children into the sewer, he comes to them in their dreams, children hear his voice in their heads. A group of teenagers decide that adults cannot help them, because they have no contact with It, and It has no contact with them. So you need to take everything into your own hands.

And here the story is divided into 2 parts - the children are still children (the 58th year) and the children are already adults (the 85th year). In one and the other form of narration, the main characters are doing the same thing in parallel - they are looking for a meeting with It for the purpose of reprisal. But still, the lion's share of the novel is devoted specifically to the childhood period. It describes in detail how the children separately met with Ono, how they met each other. And at the same time, what the city lives with is revealed. Denbrough is by no means a dream town. Sometimes it seems that Denbrough is It. Who knows, who is scarier - some unreal monster from the sewer or a stepfather who killed his stepson. It is the spirit of Denbrough.

The narrative moves slowly, King describes the city in detail, introduces new minor characters into the novel, who are not at all memorable. It seems to me that the book is very long drawn out. King slowly reveals the characters' characters, he gets into the head of each child, describing him more early years lives from which you will learn why this child is the way he is. Why is a bully a bully? Why is Eddie asthmatic? Why is Beverly the only girl in this group? Etc.

Maybe if it wasn’t King who wrote this, but someone else, I would have stopped reading, but King writes well, it’s pleasant to read. And even though the horrors are mostly described from a child's point of view, at several moments I still managed to get excited and I thought that these scenes would make me shudder if I were watching the film. At their core, the horrors themselves are not childish - blood is shed, bones are broken. This is not a children's horror film. Just the horrors themselves from childhood, when we were afraid of the dark, basements, attics and scary clowns. Just what adult can be scared by rotting clowns in makeup? Reading a book is like looking at the world through the eyes of a child.

And I liked it all and intrigued me until I began to reach the end of the book, when the main characters of both ’58 and ’85 went in search of It. It is completely incomprehensible to me why neither children nor adults take anything with them except a box of matches. It suddenly turns out to be a shapeless monster with a thousand masks. It, which mercilessly dismembered children, moved into their heads, subduing their bodies, suddenly begins to be afraid of an ordinary inhaler.

The scenes of the final meeting of children and adults with It did not impress me at all. But the scene with group copulation completely killed it. I immediately thought - what was King smoking when he wrote this, my God... What do you need to do to get out of the maze? Of course have sex! Ariadne would have known about this when she handed the thread to Theseus...

Plus, by this time my book had fallen apart (the cover had fallen off on one side). Children have sex, covers fall apart, It pours out pus - oh, that's what King is like.

I was not impressed with the novel and I definitely won’t re-read it. Maybe I just started in the wrong place? Or maybe I’m not “everything” after all.

Rating: 4

Let me start by saying that I first read King in 11th grade. It was the novel "It", the volume of "War and Peace". I read it secretly, instead of preparing for the Unified State Exam. And on last call I was completely immersed in the life of a group of friends, in the tragic history of the town of Darry, I was gloomy and detached, as if I was surrounded by the same rain in which stuttering Bill lost his younger brother. And I won’t say that I’m overly impressionable. But, you see, when a 17-year-old boy shys away from the drain in the bathroom, is it for a reason? Exactly, for good reason. One writer is guilty of this, who managed to make me believe in the world he invented.

Now, if I start to review the key characters and the time period covered by the novel, I will see a story so vast that I will be overwhelmed by its scale and depth of elaboration of each situation. Any scene is described to the smallest detail, which never turns out to be superfluous and does not burden the reading - they only create an absolutely realistic picture.

At the center of the story is the “losers club” - a story about six teenagers who are faced with universal evil, and continue to fight this evil as adults, during the next awakening of the monster. But the story doesn't stop there. There are dozens of problems considered by the author. There is homophobia, childish cruelty (stronger guys harass weaker ones, abuse animals), and racism ( detailed description unfortunate burned discotheque of blacks), and the way adults do not see the problems of children, as if children cannot have problems at all, and the way adults turn a blind eye to the systematic disappearance of children, as if this is a sacrifice for the benefit of their quiet life... it’s just simple can't be counted.

In addition to the social, there are also a lot of creepy scenes in the novel. For example, escaping from the basement from a half-decomposed zombie, or a conversation with It in the shower (“we’re all flying here... do you want a ball?”), or adult Beverly’s trip to her former house, when the water dripped into a full sink... All these episodes (even now) gave me goosebumps.

But all this would not be enough to call the book almost a masterpiece. There is something universal in the novel. Turtle made up of galaxies and stars. This is the image by which the Universe is represented in the imagination of children. She helped them defeat It the first time. The second time everything was a little different... The important thing is that the feeling of the presence of something global, universal, does not leave in every scene. It was as if the Turtle was sitting next to me and watching what was happening. It is this feeling that runs through the entire novel and, at its end, develops into extraordinary delight. It’s as if I myself survived this battle with evil, took part in something important, and at the same time matured at least five years. An indescribable feeling.

This is a book that you don't read - you live it. And this is not 1000 pages read, but 1000 hours that I witnessed. This is a grandiose work of authorship. Kudos to Stephen King for making this story possible.

Minus one point for a completely unnecessary and inappropriate scene

Spoiler (plot reveal) (click on it to see)

copulation.

Rating: 9

IN last years I am increasingly faced with the fact that when the thought and desire to read something else unread by King comes, and you take it up, terrible boredom and disappointment literally immediately sets in. Either the writer is still of age, influencing only the growing and strengthening psyche, and I have already left the circle of those who perceive his creations, or I came across the wrong books...

And for about two years I had the imperishable book “It” “lying” in my reading room. As a child, the film made an impression on me, although it was immensely drawn out, the images of scary clowns always attracted me, and this trend almost started from this book... In general, all the prerequisites for reading were there. I was very embarrassed by the not bad volume of the work without cuts and abbreviations, but I could not even imagine how bad it would be.... No, some passages and descriptions really still make an impression, but in general it is boredom and mortal melancholy. King dumps on us his favorite clichés and plot devices, again these endless children and their growing up, writers and their wives, a provincial town gone crazy, etc. and so on. I’m already silent that this person clearly has something wrong with his head: I’m not a prude, but the sexual and pre-sexual experiences described here at the age of 11 are something transcendental, beyond good and evil...

I wanted Pennywise and a dive into the depths of his character - shush, I wanted suspense and powerful plot development, vivid characters and a non-trivial atmosphere - shish. In general, sheer green melancholy and disappointment. It’s even strange that “It” was written almost simultaneously with “Gerald’s Last Game,” which at one time made a very strong impression on me. I don’t know, maybe if you read “It” as a teenager (with banknotes, of course), it will impress you, but now - no, no, and no again.

Rating: 5

After reading the book, I can confidently say about myself that it was not for nothing that I refused to read it for so long. For me, it turned out to be too difficult a journey, full of painful impressions, fear, horror, sadness, pain - and absolutely joyless. Almost for the first time, I deliberately read a book for a long time, with breaks to rest from impressions - two and a half months, that’s how long this journey lasted. Almost for the first time, I didn’t try to keep up with events and the outcome. I understood perfectly well that nothing good awaited me ahead.

Although no, I’m wrong, of course there was good there - it’s a strong friendship, when one is for all, and all for one, when for the sake of a friend one goes into fire, and into water, and into the basement, and into the sewer, and into the darkness, and into the darkness, and against the ill-fated Henry and his friends, when it doesn’t matter that someone is too fat or stutters, when someone is too intelligent, neat or suffers from fake asthma and constantly walks with an inhaler, when one is black and everyone else is white when there is only one girl in the company. And what a pity to read that this strong friendship was forgotten and I had to remember the events bit by bit. But this is understandable - remembering her and each other means always remembering It, living in constant fear and waiting for It to return. Probably then there would not be enough strength to live at least for any number of years, which would turn into eternity.

In this book, the Author especially, it seems to me, thoroughly tries to delve into details, subtleties, details in order to explore, understand and bring to us, the readers, where evil draws its strength from. Why It is cyclical and every twenty-seven years it manifests itself in the most terrible measure, and it is in this small American town of Derry that it creates hell for all its inhabitants. How, where and why every twenty-seven years a wave of aggression, cruelty and violence breaks out, why monsters are born in the heads of children, in their consciousness. Of course, every person has their own fears, concerns, unfulfilled dreams, but not everyone can cope with them, fill the emptiness that fears and uncertainty give rise to. And it is this emptiness that feeds It, gives endless food. After all, negative characters are deprived of kindness and the ability to sympathize; their essence is an emptiness filled with evil, perversion, and cruelty. And even though each of the Losers took with them adult life a piece of their childhood, not everyone ran away from him, from his fears, but they were initially creative people, and also kind, selfless, capable of the most devoted friendship, they had something to drive and defeat the dragon in themselves, so it was they who had the unenviable fate - defeat It, and not succumb to it.

The book is quite impressive and, in my opinion, the Author is doing the right thing by starting to describe something in great detail and scrupulously from time to time. It seemed to me that by doing this he was giving me some respite. And it didn’t matter to me at all whether any of the details would play a role in the future or not, whether a character would be mentioned again or not. It is unlikely that I will ever decide to re-read the book - for me, an impressionable person, this is backbreaking work. And the book won’t become a favorite, but that doesn’t matter at all. I give credit to the Author for his colossal work, amazing development of characters and their characters - to thoroughly feel hatred for Tom Rogan, experience wild indignation towards the crazy mother Kaspbrak or such a caring mother of Ben, shake Bill’s parents with considerable force, etc.; for how wonderfully all the nuances that connect the childhood and adult lives of the heroes are taken into account, for the many details that only emphasize and fully reveal the full depth of the many questions that are spelled out in the novel and for the fact that this book is probably really one one of the most important in his work.

Rating: 9

I suddenly realized how much fear I owe to Stephen King. This is an unconscious fear of hotels and long corridors with red carpets (what if, around the next corner, Two Little Dead Girls will meet me?!) And anxiety in front of a closed bath curtain (a dead, smiling woman!) Disgust and fear of clowns with their makeup and airy balls (Pennywise!!!), and an incomprehensible, cautious attitude towards the sink drain hole... Although this is not fear... no, we are adults. Rather, it is disgust, completely unconscious by the brain, entrenched in the subconscious since childhood. The fact is that at the age of 6 I watched “IT”, at 11 my favorite TV series was “The Shining”. Then there were “Children of the Corn” and “Pet Sematary”. That is, before I met my Favorite Writer, my Fears were already shaped by the film industry. And, of course, in the future they significantly influenced my worldview :) I was always indignant when King was unfairly, as it seemed to me, called the “king of horror”, when people saw the author’s name on the cover and said that I read “cheap horror films” , although I had in my hands such books as “The Shawshank Redemption”, “Misery”, “Insomnia”. To my refutations “What do monsters and horrors have to do with it, read it right away clean water psychologism and drama!” they remained silent, remaining to their opinion. But after reading IT, I began to see new facets of King. He really masterfully instills fear, perfectly outlines the atmosphere, immerses you in the state of Maine, where its laws and rules reign. He not only gives the characters personality, but somehow magically makes us treat the characters as close friends, or... enemies. He's also scary! I finally, after reading a bunch of gothic novels, vampire chronicles and zombie stories, found something that could scare me, because “We’re all flying down here.” In general, if you want to plunge into my beloved state of Maine, with its sometimes boring and so familiar inhabitants, live a small, creepy and at the same time such a wonderful summer from childhood, get acquainted with the “Losers Club”, then Derry is for you!

Rating: 10

For some, a book that evokes memories of childhood is “Dandelion Wine,” for others, books by some domestic authors, but for me, such a book is “It.” Maybe my childhood was difficult, since it is associated with this novel, but it is so. Just a lot of similarities. We (our company) played in all sorts of vacant lots, we had our own Barrens - some bushes on the banks of a small river, rather a stream, where we built huts, brought food and had a “picnic”, someone even tried to smoke, in a word we did everything that children do when left at least for an hour without the control of their parents, feeling the taste of “freedom”. After all, this is precisely what attracts such abandoned wild places children - although a little scary, there are no adults. We had our own Barrens, our own Henry Bauer and our own Beverly Marsh. Only It was not there. Or was it? What is "It"? This is an irrational, inexplicable fear. Childhood fear, not subject to the influence of the adult rational mind, fear that can hide, but which never goes away, because everything that happens to us in childhood remains forever. It takes on different guises, appearing to the heroes of the book, and everyone has their own fears, everyone has their own “It”...

As the novel progresses, the story of the town of Derry is told - this is definitely a terrible place. Derry is described so meticulously that it just seems to materialize. We see its entire history, and this story is the story of the fear that the city has lived with all this time. It’s scary to even count how many people did not die a natural death here; “It” probably holds the record for the number of corpses in King’s book. But, despite all the bloodiness, the main motives of this book are friendship and love, and the author can describe this perfectly. This is the special magic of the Master’s books, there is always Good in them, it lives in people and always wins. Evil helps to understand the price of happiness, forces the heroes to make a moral choice: give up, close their eyes to everything (which is what the residents of Derry did for a hundred years) or fight and be ready to sacrifice themselves.

Everyone was very struck by one of the scenes at the end of the book, associated with a group act of er, love between children. And I also didn’t really understand the old King in this case, this scene somehow darkens the memories of innocent childhood, and I just didn’t understand its meaning. What does it symbolize? The highest degree of unity between them? This is good, of course, but why did it happen...

“It” is rich in events, there are so many storylines, characters, interesting moments, that it would be possible to write several books based on them, simply by drawing out a plot and stretching it into a novel. How King did not hesitate to use all the ideas in one novel. And his imagination ran wild here (maybe spurred on by alcohol, as they say). The thick volume is easy to read, the style is truly “King”: an interesting tense plot, clear characters in which you recognize yourself or your friends, psychologism, “Freudianism”, in general, everything that we like about this author. For me, this is one of the best novels, both by King and in the genre in general.

“It” looks like a photo album with two photographs. One is black and white, faded, and the other is bright, colored. These photographs are of two times described in the novel - the past (childhood) and the present (adult years) of the heroes. But bright colors it is the past that is described. You read and feel the summer heat, the blow of the wind, the coolness of the rain, you visually imagine a child’s love, a child’s fear, a child’s desperate courage, a child’s embitterment.

For me, “It” is a novel about childhood, not about evil. If we assume that “It” is a novel about evil, then the main characters are Pennywise the clown, Oscar and Henry Bowers, Tom Rogan and others. But monsters in any guise are only terrible secondary characters, they are episodic. The Losers will take care of that.

Seven guys believed that they could kill the creature and did. They killed him with a fake weapon. Just like they kill when they play a war game. A plastic pistol is pointed at the enemy, they say “Bang-bang, you’re killed” and the enemy is defeated. That’s how the children pointed a conventional gun at It and It died.

Well, now, in order.

I came across a lot of reviews and criticism regarding the fact that supposedly in “It” there are too many drawn-out and boring moments, sagging, etc. Lord, no! “It” is built very harmoniously, all the plots and episodes find their further development, they are in place, and they are exactly where they should be. Imagine this quality maintained over 1,245 pages. Impressive. For example, next I read “11/22/63” (800 pages) - and that’s where the middle sags.

The chapter that made me fall in love with this piece is called “Six Phone Calls (1985).” In it, the reader meets each of the main characters of the book almost for the first time (except for Bill). The chapter is designed perfectly, but we won’t talk about that, because it would be too tedious to describe each individual chapter. “It” is teeming with colorful characters, but you get along with these seven as if you were family. Everyone has their own fears, their own problems, their own undisclosed feelings and character traits. Stephen made a smart move, using the gaze of children as the most receptive and subtle creatures.

Now directly about Evil. I will not copy someone else's thought. One of the reviews said that Evil is in each of us, and it always wants to take over. Evil takes the most varied and sophisticated forms, even the following: the ability of adults to ignore their children, the mother’s excessive concern for the health of her son, overfeeding her son as a sign of love and at the same time the fear of loneliness, etc. What else needs to be said about Evil? Of course, the fact is that adults don’t notice him. King is a master of symbolism, and therefore his thought can be understood in different ways. For me, this is a reluctance to delve into the problems of children (1), a frivolous assessment of their adversities and difficulties (2), an inability to go beyond the boundaries of the world they are familiar with (3). It is in Derry that this quality of “adulthood” is elevated to an absolute level. When the whole history of a small town is filled with blood, the residents of the city simply turn away and no longer notice what is happening. That's what's scary, as they say...

About Chernukha. This is what I mean in a good way when it comes to very tough, vivid and honest descriptions of bloodthirsty or extremely evil details/episodes/stories. For such blackness I fell in love with “Fury”, “Cujo”, “The Shining”. In It... oh, Stephen King did his best here. Here I saw the most vivid and powerful difficult episodes. I’ll name a few of the most heartbreaking ones: 1) a fire in the establishment “ Black spot"; 2) a shootout on the street with a gang; 3) the story about Patrick Hockstetter and the details of the death of his younger brother (this is where I felt scared and unwell...); 4) several episodes concerning Eddie, for example, dialogue with the pharmacist. Yes, there are a lot of strong dark episodes.

About philosophy. The author’s actual battle with It is replete with symbolism and philosophy, the nature of fear. Even earlier, when the guys who breathed in saw the genesis of It - what does this mean? That It existed before people, before humanity. It is older, wiser, more cunning, but we still have to give it a fight. So, about the battle. Where should we fight him? That's right, in your head. For Stephen, the battle of minds appears in some kind of cosmic transcendental space, black, empty, in It’s lair. This black empty space is the soul of an evil person, every person who has surrendered to Evil. The author directly shouts this to us from the pages.

“It” is frighteningly voluminous. But the person who read "A Song of Ice and Fire" big amount You won’t be scared of the pages :) “It” is large-scale, but at the same time there is nothing superfluous. “It” is very atmospheric, characterful and superbly written - which is very important! – in simple and understandable language. “It” is written on behalf of children - for adults. About the absence of childhood as such. And this is the worst thing...

Rating: 10

Stephen King

I dedicate this book with gratitude to my children. My mother and wife taught me to be a man. My children taught me how to be free.

Naomi Rachel King, fourteen years old.

Joseph Hillstrom King, twelve years old.

Owen Philip King, seven years old.

Guys, fiction is truth hidden in lies, and the truth of fiction is quite simple: magic exists.

What are you looking for among the ruins, stones,
My old friend, returned from a foreign land.
You kept about your homeland
Pictures cherished by memory.

Georgos Seferis

From under the blue into the darkness.

A SHADOW OF THE PAST

They're starting!
Perfections intensify,
Flower opens bright petals
Wide towards the sun.
But the bee's proboscis
Misses them.
They return to the rich land,
Crying -
You can call it crying
Which spreads through them with trembling,
When they fade and disappear...

"Paterson", William Carlos Williams

Born in a dead man's city.

Bruce Springsteen

After the flood

The beginning of this horror, which will not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ends at all - was laid, as far as I know and can judge, by a boat folded from a sheet of newspaper, sailing along a rain-swollen ditch.

The boat nosed down, heeled over, righted itself, bravely navigated the treacherous eddies and continued sailing along Witcham Street to the traffic light at the intersection of Jackson Street. In the afternoon of that autumn day in 1957, the lamps were not on on any of the four sides of the traffic lights, and the houses around them were also dark. It had been raining non-stop for a week, and the last two days the wind had increased. Many areas of Derry were left without electricity, and it was not possible to restore its supply everywhere.

A little boy in a yellow raincoat and red galoshes ran joyfully next to a paper boat. The rain has not stopped, but has finally lost its strength. He tapped on the hood of his raincoat, reminding the boy of the sound of rain hitting the roof of a barn... such a pleasant, cozy sound. The boy in the yellow raincoat, six years old, was named George Denbrough. His brother, William, known to most children at Derry primary school (and even to teachers who would never call him that to his face) as Stuttering Bill, was left at home recovering from a bad flu. That autumn of 1957, eight months before the real horror came to Derry and twenty-eight years before the final denouement, Bill was eleven years old.

The boat George was running next to was made by Bill. He folded it from a sheet of newspaper, sitting in bed, leaning back against a pile of pillows, while their mother played “Fur Elise” on the piano in the living room and the rain beat tirelessly on his bedroom window.

A quarter of a block away, closest to the intersection and the non-working traffic light, Witcham was blocked by smoking barrels and four orange barriers, shaped like sawhorses for sawing wood. Each crossbar was stenciled with the words "DERRY PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT". Behind the barrels and barriers, rain splashed out of storm ditches clogged with branches, stones, and piles of clumped autumn leaves. At first, the water released thin finger-like streams onto the tar, then began to rake it in with greedy hands - all this happened on the third day of rain. By noon on the fourth day, chunks of road surface were floating across the Witcham and Jackson intersection like miniature ice floes. By this time, many Derry residents were nervously joking about the arks. The Department of Public Works managed to keep Jackson Street moving, but Witcham was closed to traffic from the barriers to downtown.

However, now, and everyone agreed, the worst was behind us. In the Badlands, the Kenduskeg River rose almost flush with its banks, and the concrete walls of the Canal, a straightened riverbed in the central part of the city, protruded mere inches from the water. Right now a group of men, including Zach Denbrough, Bill and George's father, were clearing away sandbags that had been dumped in a panicked rush the day before. Yesterday, the river overflowing its banks and the massive damage caused by the flooding seemed almost inevitable. God knows, this has happened before: the 1931 disaster cost millions of dollars and claimed almost two dozen lives. Many years had passed, but there were still enough witnesses to that flood to frighten others. One of the victims was found twenty-five miles east, in Bucksport. The fish ate the unfortunate man's eye, three fingers, penis and almost his entire left foot. With what was left of his hands, he held tightly to the steering wheel of the Ford.

But now the water level was falling, and with the commissioning of the new Bangor Power Station dam, upstream, the threat of flooding would cease to exist altogether. That's what Zach Denbrough, who worked at Bangor Hydroelectric, said. As for the others... for that matter, they weren't particularly interested in future floods. It was about getting through it, getting the power back on, and then forgetting about it. Derry had learned to masterfully forget tragedies and misfortunes, and Bill Denbrough was to learn this over time.

George stopped just beyond the barriers, at the edge of a deep chasm that cut through the hard surface of Witcham Street. The crevice crossed the street almost diagonally, ending on the other side about forty feet below the place, to the right of the pavement, where George stood. He laughed loudly (a sonorous childish laugh that brightened the grayness of the day) when, by the whim of the running water, his paper boat was dragged onto the small rapids formed on the washed-out tar. The flow of water cut a diagonal channel through it, and the boat rushed across Witcham Street with such speed that George had to run as fast as he could to keep up with it. Water flew out in dirty splashes from under his galoshes. Their buckles jingled joyfully as George Denbrough raced to his strange death. At that moment he was filled with pure and bright love for his brother Bill; love - and a bit of regret that Bill cannot see all this and participate in it. Of course, he would try to tell Bill everything when he returned home, but he knew that his story would not allow Bill to see everything in great detail, as would happen if they switched places. Bill read and wrote well, but even so at a young age George was smart enough to understand that this was not the only reason why Bill’s report card showed only A’s and why his teachers liked his essays. Yes, Bill knew how to tell stories. But he also knew how to see.