11/22/63


By: Stephen King

Published: 2011

# of pages:  849

Official description:On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed forever.
If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you?Would the consequences be worth it?
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.

My opinion:  I have to rave for a second -- I love this book!!  Why did I love it?  I love the LOVE STORY.  I was surprised to find that in this book.  I expected it to be more like the other novels by King I've read, which are less personal.  What struck me most about the romance was how real it was.  It was beautiful and pure without being mushy.  I was trying to describe it to my husband.  I said, "If I told you specific things about the romance, it would sound hokey.  But that's the reason I liked it so much, it wasn't hokey."

And I love the setting in the late 50s/early 60s.  It was neat to read about life back then from the point of view of someone traveling there from 2011.  My favorite parts was when Jake described the food and drink.  It's neat to think about the fact that the food did taste better back then because most of it wasn't processed and filled with chemicals.  I was also amused at the descriptions of how predominant smoking was back then.  I can tell King is not a fan of smoking, which is great!  I think smokers reading the story will feel a little bad and hopefully rethink the habit for health reasons and to spare other people having to suffer the grossness.

There was a small part of the novel that referenced King's book, It.  I have never read It, but kinda sorta knew the basic plot and so recognized when the reference became a little more obvious (he talks about some characters from It).  I could tell the characters were significant when they were mentioned in 11/22/63.  I don't know if any of his other novels were referenced since I have only read Cell and Under the Dome before.

There was only one thing I didn't quite like, but it was minor compared to the novel as a whole.  I recommend this to lovers of sci-fi/time travel, fans of King, fans of historical fiction, and anyone who enjoys well written, detailed books. There is some bad language, but it's not overwhelming or used casually.

Why I gave this book 5/5 stars:  Well-written, detailed, touching love story, likeable characters.

Other reviews: 
Literary Musings

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