11/22/63 - Stephen King (bought)
Synopsis:
ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN DALLAS, PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED, AND THE WORLD CHANGED. WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BACK?
In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer—takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.
It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away—a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life—like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963—turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.
So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.
My Thoughts:
I loved Mr. King's new book! His books always take me longer to read than most. I think because I take more care with his words and don't want to rush them, even if I feel like devouring every last one. I just don't even want to miss any little details.
When I found out what this book was about, I couldn't wait to read it. I kept thinking, what if you got the chance to go back in time and stop the assassination? What would the world be like to day if you could? I also kept wondering what the ripple effect of something like this? Any small change can alter one's life. I figured a change this big would have a dramatic ripple.
As I long time fan of Mr. King, what holds me true to his books, is his storytelling. I just really enjoy it. I love the world he creates, his characters. He certainly didn't lessen his ability in this book. Jake, George however you wish to call him, is a well built, and likable character. I admit my soft spot is for Sadie. I really enjoyed her character. I loved her fiery spirit. Another character I found myself fascinated with was the Yellow Card Man. A tiny part in the whole scope of things but one of the more important characters. I was glad to have learned what we were able to have learned about him, but would've loved to learn more.
Read the book. You'll enjoy it.
