It

Name: It
Author: Stephen King
ISBN: 1094059242

by Stephen King · 2020

It was very hard to choose only one Stephen King novel. Although I’ve never written specifically on him, King is one of the writers that had the most impact on me growing up. His sprawling storytelling has been compared to that of Charles Dickens , and I think his novels certainly provide huge mosaics that synthesise the dynamics of twentieth-century small-town America. It is a novel about a group of teenagers (The Losers Club) growing up into adults, and the disappointments that come with this process. But then there’s this creature—an alien entity—that can morph into your worst fear, with Pennywise the clown the main recurring embodiment (and who doesn’t find clowns a little scary?). The novel explores their relationships coming together later in life and their communal effort to expel ‘It.’ It’s a novel that touched me in many ways. I found Pennywise as scary as it gets, especially its ubiquity and unpredictability. I read It the same summer I watched the TV adaptation with Tim Curry, which is spectacularly well done. I must have been 15 or 16, which is the right time to engage with it too. There is something about the nature of children’s fears in particular that I just couldn’t get out of my head. I think it’s a very well-structured novel that is also a complex analysis of coming of age, of how that process involves leaving things behind, losing people, life not always turning out the way you expected. But there’s also the hope of rekindling friendships, of love and understanding. Yes, absolutely, to the point where It becomes something that enhances and feeds off that violence. I think that’s one of the reasons why the novel is called ‘It’ and not something more determinate. Really, it’s a conglomeration and encapsulation of all of that—all forms of hatred and fear. And things like homophobia and racism are always based on prejudice and lack of knowledge of the Other. Stephen King has often said that Lovecraft was a big influence on him. ‘Crouch End,’ one of his short stories, and the novella The Mist evince this. So, yes, there’s this complex mythology behind the alien, perhaps as an attempt to ground It as a material creature. At the same time, It takes the shape of your own personal fears, whether that’s a mummy or a fountain of blood. Like fear, It is amorphous and malleable.

Recommended by

Xavier Aldana Reyes

"It was very hard to choose only one Stephen King novel. Although I’ve never written specifically on him, King is one of the writers that had the most impact on me growing up. His sprawling storytelling has been compared to that of Charles Dickens , and I think his novels certainly provide huge mosaics that synthesise the dynamics of twentieth-century small-town America. It is a novel about a group of teenagers (The Losers Club) growing up into adults, and the disappointments that come with this process. But then there’s this creature—an alien entity—that can morph into your worst fear, with Pennywise the clown the main recurring embodiment (and who doesn’t find clowns a little scary?). The novel explores their relationships coming together later in life and their communal effort to expel ‘It.’ It’s a novel that touched me in many ways. I found Pennywise as scary as it gets, especially its ubiquity and unpredictability. I read It the same summer I watched the TV adaptation with Tim Curry, which is spectacularly well done. I must have been 15 or 16, which is the right time to engage with it too. There is something about the nature of children’s fears in particular that I just couldn’t get out of my head. I think it’s a very well-structured novel that is also a complex analysis of coming of age, of how that process involves leaving things behind, losing people, life not always turning out the way you expected. But there’s also the hope of rekindling friendships, of love and understanding. Yes, absolutely, to the point where It becomes something that enhances and feeds off that violence. I think that’s one of the reasons why the novel is called ‘It’ and not something more determinate. Really, it’s a conglomeration and encapsulation of all of that—all forms of hatred and fear. And things like homophobia and racism are always based on prejudice and lack of knowledge of the Other. Stephen King has often said that Lovecraft was a big influence on him. ‘Crouch End,’ one of his short stories, and the novella The Mist evince this. So, yes, there’s this complex mythology behind the alien, perhaps as an attempt to ground It as a material creature. At the same time, It takes the shape of your own personal fears, whether that’s a mummy or a fountain of blood. Like fear, It is amorphous and malleable."

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