11/22/63: A Novel

I just finished reading Stephen King's 11/22/63, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. At 800+ pages, I somewhat expected it to be a long laborious read. In fact, it was anything but. Certain reviewers have panned it for being overly long and containing far too much description, but I found it to be a light and airy read, albeit on a literally mind-boggling subject. I couldn't put this book down and I ended up finishing it in no time.

11/22/63 is a thoroughly entertaining novel about time travel and the basic premise is revealed early on in the narrative. The story begins in the present day with protagonist Jake Epping a thirty-something year old remedial English teacher. He befriends Al Templeton, who owns a diner and is dying of cancer. Al has a terrible secret to unload before he dies and he unloads it on Jake, but he exacts a promise from Jake in return. In the basement of Al's diner is a portal to the past, specifically 1958, and Al presses upon Jake the task of passing through this "rabbit-hole" and literally changing history by preventing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (The rationale is that if JFK lives to enter a second term in office, the Vietnam War would be nipped in the bud and never allowed to escalate under LBJ, thereby saving thousands upon thousands of American lives.) Of course, since the portal only enters into 1958, it will be necessary for Jake to live through five years worth of the past to bring him up to the time of the assassination. Jake, who has taken on the alias of George Amberson, spends much of these five years doing mundane things like teaching high school, forging friendships and, basically, living in the past, and part of the charm of the story is the description of life in the 1950s, a time of no cell phones, cheap gas, youthful innocence and trust among your fellow man.

There is an intriguing subplot where Jake/George in 1958 changes the fate of one of his 2011 elderly remedial students whose young family had been killed by their drunken father in a murderous rage. But by story's end when Jake contemplates if this was necesssarily a good thing, he has his doubts.

Along the way Jake/George meets his love interest, Sadie, and the description of their relationship constitutes the most poignant prose I've encountered in a Stephen King book. His love for her is so sincere that, even after a hideous injury, "If there is love, smallpox scars are as pretty as dimples." Sadie plays a major role in the final outcome of George's mission.

Apart from the love story, George spends his time stalking Lee Harvey Oswald to make absolutely certain that he and he alone was responsible for JFK's death. If not, then stopping Oswald may not have the intended effect. (He entered 1958 aware of the JFK assassination, but since even today that event is shrouded in mystery and conspiracy theories, Jake/George did not have the benefit of this definitive knowledge at his disposal.)

The creepy aspect of this book involves the interweaving into the narrative of real-life characters who in the story meet fates that are different from those with which we are all too familiar. There is a high "creepiness" quotient in the passages where George is observing or even speaking with Lee and Marina Oswald as well as John and Jackie Kennedy.

One of the more interesting and certainly thought-provoking themes of the book concerns the "Butterfly Effect," the notion that even the most minute of events can have unanticipated, seemingly unrelated - and sometimes earth-shaking - repurcussions far into the future. That fascinating notion is certainly food for thought. The book teaches us in chilling fashion that perhaps we should leave well enough alone and NOT tamper with fate. "Peek not through a keyhole, lest ye be vexed." Chilling. Life is fragile and it can turn on a dime. A sobering thought.

By story's end, when Jake climbs back through the rabbit hole into 2011, he is ruminating about the repurcussions and ramifications of his act. When one stops to think about the innumerable "strings" attached to one's actions, your imagination can cause you to spin off into infinite "what-ifs."

I have read many if not all of Stephen King's books. I have enjoyed most of them but some were simply too....bizarre....for my tastes. 11/22/63 proves Mr. King to be a master of the imaginative, asking you to suspend belief but without resorting to his usual bogeymen. This is a thinking (wo)man's novel.

I have found Mr. King's later works (e.g Bag of Bones, Duma Key) to show a maturity and sensitivity that were lacking in his earlier works, and 11/22/63 is no exception.

The ending of this story - involving an 80-year-old Sadie and a 30-year-old Jake - will touch your heart.

I won't give the conclusion away but rest assured your mind WILL be boggled, and if you - like me - love a book that really gives you something to ponder, you will not be disappointed.

This book is my favorite King book of all time, right behind The Stand. It hooked me from page one, and I could not put it down. I read all 800+ pages in less than a week and found myself being late to obligations because I couldn’t stop reading it; I had to know what was next. It is a complete novel, with history, nostalgia, horror, suspense, romance, and action. I had just finished It and I really liked the tie-in with Derry. I only wish the ending could have been different because it hit me in my feels 😭

SPOILER ALERT: DISCUSSES KEY PLOT POINTS

In The Dead Zone, Stephen King posed the familiar three o'clock in the morning question about what someone should do if given the opportunity to kill Hitler before he came to power. There, psychic Johnny Smith must decide whether he should assassinate senate candidate (and ersatz Hitler) Greg Stillson, thus changing the apocalyptic future he has foreseen. In 11/22/63, he poses a similar question, but this time gives his protagonist, Jake Epping, a man who exists in 2011 Maine, the chance to change the past. Jake, you see, has the opportunity to prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

Time travel books are often the source of headaches. Very few are as well conceived as classics like Matheson's Bid Time Return (a.k.a. Somewhere in Time), Jack Finney's Time and Again, or Lewis Shiner's Glimpses. Then there are the inherent time anomalies involved, which many resent because they just get in the way of telling a good yarn. But, as with its predecessor, Under the Dome, 11/22/63 is a fine book, once you accept its premise.

And it's a doozy. Thirty five year old English teacher Epping is introduced to what might be classified as one of King's "thinnys," a break in the fabric of one reality which permits those who utilize them to enter another reality, in this case Lisbon Falls, Maine, as it existed on September 9, 1958, at 11:58 a.m. Al Templeton, the dying man who introduces Jake to this anomaly, has already done some research, discovering that actions taken after passing through that door do indeed affect the future. He also knows that everything resets to "normal" once one passes back through to modern day, and subsequently re-enters.

Jake's first experiment with altering time brings him to Derry, Maine, one of King's favorite locales (IT fans will be cheered to hear that Jake interacts with Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh). He goes there to prevent the personal apocalypse of Harry Dunning, one of his GED prep students, who broke Epping's heart with a gut wrenching essay that centered on the tragic events of October 31, 1958, where, as a boy, Harry lost his entire family. It's on that night that Jake first learns some of the trickier ins and outs of time travel, unwritten rules which will have a profound effect on his existence in the world of 1958 to 1963. These rules, which Epping discusses in terms of "harmonics," "echoes," and through analogies to the famous "butterfly effect," all boil down to one basic tenet: history wants to follow a certain path, indeed actively strives to do so, so interfering in essentially preordained events can result in horrible consequences.

Despite this foretaste of disaster, Jake, now an experienced time traveler who thinks he can handle its pitfalls, decides to pursue the goal Al Templeton was unable to, namely preventing JFK's untimely demise. Traveling under the name of George Amberson (a nod to Booth Tarkington?), King does a wonderful job of describing a man out of time, evoking his wonder at the smells, tastes, and sensations of another time, touching on the advantages and disadvantages of each era. Jake establishes himself as a teacher in 1958 Maine, supplementing his income with strategic wagers on sporting events (later, this practice provides a grim example of the inflexibility of history).

Eventually, he moves to Texas to actively pursue his goal. He spends his time shadowing Lee Harvey Oswald, in order to assure himself that the assassin was in fact acting alone. He has to be careful, both not to influence events, or to reveal that he is a man living in another time. To complicate matters, he falls in love with Sadie Dunhill, the local librarian, who proves to be his soul mate. Although she's troubled by his strangeness and secrecy, Sadie returns his love.

King reveals the substantial research he (and pal Russ Dorr) have done on the era in general and the Kennedy assassination in particular as November 22, 1963 draws near, describing the day to day life of Lee and Marina Oswald, and spotlighting figures in their orbit, like geologist George de Mohrenschildt. The fated day arrives, and, the past proving to be "obdurate," tragedy ensues, but not of a nature you might expect. And, history having been changed, an alternate timeline springs into existence. Having the ability to hit the reset button by re-entering his native timeline, Jake has to decide whether he can live with the consequences of his actions. His decision, while considered, unselfish and mature, is heartbreaking.

11/22/63 is a big book, but one which is quickly and avidly consumed. It feels very personal to King--started before the publication of his breakout novel Carrie, it is in effect a time machine for the author, a link between his salad days and his later success. King takes his gift for creating relatable characters to new heights, providing the perfect tragic hero in Jake, and complementing him with a suitable mate, the indomitable Sadie. Even the smallest of supporting characters spring to vivid life, their very presence advancing an already compelling, textured tale. King writes with verve and pathos, effectively combining what is at its heart a (forgive this) timeless romance with an edge-of-your-seat thriller, as the countdown towards that fateful day in Dallas proceeds.