On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force. Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history. Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time. A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best.This was a good book. I really enjoyed it. King does a great job of describing the time from 1958 to 1963. He doesn't hold back either. It's there in all it's glory as well as it's shadows.
When I first held the book I was surprised at how thick it was. I couldn't imagine how King could make such a big book out of the premise. It seemed pretty cut and dry. But this is Stephen King and this book shows just how good of a writer he really is.
Surprisingly the parts of the book I liked best were the parts about Jake just living in that time. The parts with him and Sadie. The book seemed to bog down at the Oswald parts, where Jake spied on him and did his research.
The parts about Jake living? Good stuff. It was all good, but the "side" stuff, the stuff not involving the main part (stopping Oswald) was the best.
And since it was King, there is a horror element to it. It tells us that sometimes things happen for a reason and well it might have seemed a major mistake, it might have been the best alternative.
There's a neat little surprise in here for fans of It, as King revisits Derry briefly. I definately got a kick out of it and I like these little touches that show off King's "shared" universe.
King fans will enjoy this and non-King fans should check it out as well.
