Part of the allure to Stephen King as a writer is his ability to warp anything to his sensibility. Over his career, he's reinvented teen angst ("Carrie"), haunted houses ("The Shining"), rabid dogs ("Cujo"), and even alternate dimensions ("The Dark Tower" series). The concept may be hokey, but it has made him one of the most recognized and adapted authors in history. Still, there was no bigger challenge than finding a way to make "IT" scary. After all, IT is a two letter word that could encompass anything, good or bad. In a King book, it is ALWAYS going to be bad. Using the phrase "Don't talk about it." as a jumping off point, he delves into one of his lengthiest and most excessive books of his entire career, serving as his definitive masterwork and sloppiest book simultaneously. It is a fascinating read, if it isn't always satisfying.
The concept starts off beautifully with a passage in which young Georgie Denbrough sails a paper boat towards a storm drain in Derry, Maine. What lies beyond the drain is a clown; an already peculiar sight given the juxtaposition of a comical figure in a seedy place. It's safe to say that Georgie is the first casualty of "IT," but whose influence rings the loudest as the town's history unveils a lot of corrupt behavior related to negligence, mental illness, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and every last taboo that audiences could find shocking. It is true that "IT" generally refers to the clown who kills Georgie, but whose real name is Pennywise (a clown whose appearance shifts to the eye of the beholder). Even if Pennywise is referred to in hushed tones as "IT," the book's horror comes not from the shape shifting clown, but the horrors that mankind brings upon itself.
Over the extensive book, there are three parallel stories. The main two focus on The Losers Club, all of whom are victims of trauma caused by Pennywise and general bullying. They live in fear because of their differences, whether it be that they're asthmatic, fat, female, or black. Everyone feels like an outcast, and they all form the central integrity of the book. They are children forced to grow up fast in order to overcome fears thrown at them by Pennywise. Sometimes it's murder, others sexual assault. Whatever the case may be, King finds a way to explore the horror by excellently showing the impact that horror movies and culture can have on children. As much as it's fun escapism, King sees it as a bonding tool that also helps to overcome fears of the monsters who live in the sewer underneath the town, which is accepted as being far beyond redemption.
Derry is a town that King loves to use in his books, and it makes sense. The third parallel story involves the city itself, which very well may be the true "IT." Through various interludes, Derry gets further back story as it explores various criminal acts from throughout history. It's the type of behavior that humanizes Pennywise more and makes Derry all the more uncomfortable. Even the way that King has constructed the town feels like it is secretly a breathing, mythic being. As The Losers Club quickly realizes, the sewers is Pennywise's home and, much like "Les Miserables" before it, King revels in the construction history of the underground as well as what's seen. It adds a psychological layer that is both upsetting and maybe exploitative at points.
King's prose is also his greatest gift and curse here. Depending on the passage, he manages to lay out a detailed scene that makes minute details last for pages. At best, it creates a sense of dread and uncertainty that is necessary to make a story as heightened and soporific as this work. There is constant sense that childhood innocence is dying in favor of the dark perversity of adults. It lasts as a burden, serving as a deeper metaphor that may be also indicative of King's career before. He turned to horror as a way to express himself, which isn't far off from these characters. At its worse, the scenes linger on for too long and make intimate moments feel dull instead of significant. Still, it's fascinating to see his take on the epic in which everything is understood, but too much information is also given. As it stands, his frank details of childhood development can be a bit too sexual in ways that make any faithful filmed adaptation impossible to achieve without paying for lifetime therapy.
This may all be the point. King swings for the fences in a fashion that is astounding and covers every last base. Pennywise may be the central threat, but he explores every form of trauma and horror imaginable within these pages. He explores the desperation of the submissive types. He finds triumph in their ability to fight back. In some ways, he even manages to have one of the greatest and most optimistic endings of his career despite spending everything before the last dozen pages in a slump. He's brutal, but he's truthful to his characters. They evolve in ways so personal that it makes the ending as tragic as his work in "The Body." These characters worked so hard just to be happy, but other problems now come for them, and that comes from themselves.
The trouble is trying to figure out what stays and goes from King's large amount of filler here. In some ways, his world building skills alone warrant the fascinating detours that lead to nothing. Even the graphic and sexual content achieve at worst a memorable outcome. He may have issues dishing out equal punishment (female character Beverly's arc insists on a lot of sexual assault), but it creates the sense that the scariest thing about "IT" isn't clowns, but the community that allows creatures like Pennywise to exist in the first place to embody its every bad tendency. The story is a metaphor for childhood trauma, and it does so beautifully amid some extremely crass language and an extended riff on fart jokes. It's not King's best book, but it may be his most assured in ways that only epics are allowed to get away with. "IT" wouldn't be as scary without the extra unnecessary details. Even then, the amount of baffling content is hard to ignore. Pennywise alone makes this book worth reading, though it's likely that its somewhat dated mentality (white characters say racial slurs casually) and vulgarity may not as play well today. Still, if King was to be remembered for one book, "IT" covers all the bases nicely.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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