11/22/63 Review

11/22/63
By Stephen King
From Goodreads:

 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.

My Thoughts: Is there any topic, any era that Stephen King can't bring to life? I don't think so either. I loved how he brought the late 50's and early 60's to life- yes, certain aspects of life back then were simpler, but King also reminds us that 10 cent gallons of milk come with racism, sexism and choking cigarette smoke. Sure you could leave your doors unlock, but you also stayed with your husband after he beat you. Yes, you could pick up hitchhikers without getting your throat slashed, but it was best not to be caught talking about equal rights for women. I recently watched a 1964 movie called "Kisses For My President" about the first female president having to handle her husband's pride while also trying to be the leader of the free world. Then she gets pregnant and, of course, steps down as president, and her husband tells her "You know, darling, it took 40 million women to get you in the White House but only one man to get you out." It's supposed to be a chuckle moment, and indeed the wife, former Madame President, just smiles instead of decking him. Because that's how it was in the Land of Ago- as Stephen King calls it. Of course a communist would have had a better chance of getting elected as President in 1964 than a woman, but the movie is a comedy.

Back to the book: I am astounded by the thought and research this book required of King and his helpers. He first came up with the idea in the 70's but I'm glad he waited. The idea that changing one big act in the past could change the course of our future is thrilling. Because while I don't buy into the whole Kennedy fairytale, I do think his assassination ended whatever innocence our country still had back then. And the idea that if Kennedy hadn't died then maybe Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy would have lived too, that maybe John Lennon would have been somewhere else, that Vietnam wouldn't have happened... life is based on so many chances and decisions that it just boggles the mind.

But in King's time travel tale, the past isn't that easy to change, because it doesn't want to be changed. It's not as simple as walking up to Lee Harvey Oswald and slipping some arsenic in his soda. And the main character, Jake, wants to make sure that Oswald really is the killer. I have always believed that he was the lone shooter, but there have been so many conspiracy theories it's hard not to have some doubts. Would you want to go back in time to shoot a man that might not even be guilty and still have Kennedy assassinated by some shadowy group? And if you are able to change the past, what kind of future are you going back to?

11/22/63 is a brilliant novel, it's not quite The Stand or It for me, but it's still a thrilling read. I am thankful to whatever muse is wielding the whip to keep King writing, because I don't know if I want to live in a world that isn't graced with his imagination.

I often say that I'd love to live inside Stephen King's mind, but that's not exactly true.  I just want to be able to visit once and awhile.  Although there's lots to like about 11/22/63, the best part of me was seeing Bev and Richie from It.  They make a quick cameo as Jake heads to 1958's Derry to stop a brutal murder.  I've been blessed with amazing friends, but part of me will always feel a part of the Loser's Club with Stuttering Bill, Bev, Beep-beep Richie, Stan, Ben, Mike and Eddie ("This is battery acid, you slime!").   I wish there was a Stephen King amusement park, where you could explore the sewers of Derry, take the Cujo car ride, a dance at Carrie's prom- just be sure to leave before she's crowned Prom Queen!  Seriously, how is this not already in production?

Quotes:

“I had been hobbled, perhaps even crippled by a pervasive internet society I had come to depend on and take for granted... hit enter and let Google, that twenty-first century Big Brother, take care of the rest.

In the Derry of 1958, the most up-to-date computers were the size of small housing developments, and the local paper was no help. What did that leave? I remembered a sociology prof I’d had in college - a sarcastic old bastard - who used to say, When all else fails, give up and go to the library.”

 “On that gray street, with the smell of industrial smokes in the air and the afternoon bleeding away to evening, downtown Derry looked only marginally more charming than a dead hooker in a church pew.”
 
“Like all sweet dreams, it will be brief, but brevity makes sweetness, doesn't it?”

 “The past is obdurate.” 

 11/22/63 gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

Because, really, if King can't give me a Midnight Read than who can?  Happy readings!