- Stephen King, 11/22/63
I
am just old enough to remember how the world changed in 1989, when I
watched people torn down the Berlin Wall on TV as an 8 year old. A
month later, George H.W Bush met up with Mikhail Gorbachev and ended
the Cold War. The world was going to become a better place. Since
then, I have witnessed a few other moments that changed the world;
Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1991, Nelson Mandela's release
from the prison in 1994, the attacks at the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001, and many many more. The long river of history is
full of watershed moments, some good, some bad, but what would the
world be like today, if some of those bad moments didn't happen in
the past?
What
if, JFK didn't die on November 22, 1963?
In
11/22/63, a quasi historical, time travel romance novel, prolific
author Stephen King transported readers from the 21th
century world of iphone and broadband internet back to mid twentieth century, a
world of root beer, Jazz music and swing dancing (lots of them), food
without chemical preservatives, black and white TV, racial/gender inequity, Billy Graham, and the Cuban missile crisis. In 11/22/63, Stephen King takes his
readers on an adventure to prevent the assassination of JFK. Let's
take a deeper look at this book.
Synopsis:
The
year was 2011, Jake Epping, age 35 and divorced, taught high-school
English at Lisbon Fall, Maine. While Jake was grading essays of his
GDE students, he was touched by an essay from the brain damaged
school janitor. On the graduation day, Jake took the janitor to a
local restaurant owned by his friend, Al Templeton, Al's Diner was
well known for feeding customers with solid, meaty burgers at
impossibly low prices. Soon, Al revealed his secret to Jake about a
mysterious time traveling rift in the storage room of his restaurant.
It is a rift that took its passengers back to 1958. Al enlisted Jake
into a plan that is more than just traveling back in time to buy
cheap meat. It was a plan that would change the fate of the world..
preventing the assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963.
Jake
agreed to carry out this mission. He went through the rift, back to
1958, living, waiting, and embracing the life of an average US
citizen of the era. At the turn of 1960, other than tracking the
whereabouts and the life of a certain troubled young man called Lee
Harvey Oswald, Jake's life was good. Jake found friends and a sense
of belonging in the town of Jodie, he also met and fell in love with a
beautiful highshcool librarian called Saide Dunhill. Life was going
well for Jake. However, as the date 11/22/1963 approached, Jake soon
discovered, the past has a way of preventing itself from being
changed. Should Jake succeed in his mission, what would be in store
for the world in 2011?
What
I think about this book:
Stephen
King is one of my favorite authors, and he proves why he is one of
the greatest storytellers in modern American literature with
11/22/63. Everything about this book in masterfully crafted, and it
is a truly amazing book. I had read some of Stephen King's books from
The Dark Tower saga, and I have seen a few movie adaptations from
Stephen King's literary works, such as The Shawshank Redemption, The
Shining, The Green Mile, IT, Carrie, Misery, Salem's Lot etc.., and I
liked them all. While I cannot say this is the best book Stephen King
has ever inked on white paper because I haven't read his other
monumental works (such as The Stand and Under the Dome), but out of
all stories spun by Stephen King that I have encountered in the past,
11/22/63 is my favorite.
At
700+ pages, 11/22/63 is a fat, hefty tome that appears to be a
daunting task to read. This is not true, this book is an absolute
blast to read. In this book, Stephen King provided colorful, vivid, and honest descriptions of life in the US in the 1950s. These lively descriptions appealed to all
five senses of a reader with masterfully rendered sentences tinged with good humor, which flowed naturally to fill every page. They described the music, food,
conversations, streets, buildings and the social atmosphere of the
era, bringing an engaging reading experience. It was so realistic
that you'd start wondering if the author has access to time travel
himself.
This
book scores big points on characterization. Every character appeared
in this book, from the main characters to supporting characters, are
memorable, interesting and believable. I really like the way the book
portrayed Lee Harvey Oswald as a mentally disturbed, troubled young
man with family problems, instead of just an impersonal villain with
a name that appeared on the pages of history books or TV
documentaries. The protagonist, Jake Epping, is someone the readers
can relate to in this book. In the story, Jake is a hero who made
mistakes every now and then, but that's ok, because he learn from
them and he was generally brave and noble.
Stephen
King also succeeded in creating the right amount of suspense and
mysteries that will keep the readers turning the pages. I felt a real
sense of danger for every character that made appearance in the story
and I cared for them. When I was reading this book, I truly felt
Jake's every step, and I was so eager to find out what was going to
happen next. The main female protagonist, Sadie Dunhill, is bound to
make a deep impression in readers' minds, her character is
courageous, noble and loyal. Her relationship with Jake was genuine
and heartwarming as they worked through difficulties in their
relationship, like everything else in this book, it felt real. I am
not a fan nor a reader of romance books, my favorite genre is
epic/heroic fantasy books about sword swinging, death dealing
barbarians, but in Stephen King's 11/22/63, I found myself moved by
the beautiful love story between Sadie and Jake. I felt for them, and
I wanted them to have a happy ending so badly. When I read the last
two sentences in the closing chapter of the book, I smiled. Even
after I put the book back on my shelve, I still kept on thinking
about the love story between Jake and Sadie, and the numerous scenes
of them dancing. 11/22/63 is a truly remarkable story.
This
book also asked an interesting question: Would we really be better
off, if certain bad things didn't happen in the past?
I
speculate a lot of people on earth share some form of experience (be
it collectively or individually), about bad things happened in the
past. Then sometimes we all wonder, would I be better off if X didn't
happen? Or, why did X happen, was there a purpose or a reason behind
it? Unlike Jake, we don't have access to a time traveling rift to
find the answer, but even in the story, changing the past doesn't
always lead to a better future. Among the gulfs of uncertainty that
is life, I suppose we can be pretty certain, that what we do now can influence the
lives of people around us. Therefore, instead of getting stuck in the
past, why don't we help each other, hold each others' hands like Jake
and Sadie did, spur each other on, and together dance a good dance that ripples goodness into each
others' lives? A dance in defiance of the dark. Because as Jake would
say, dancing is life.
11/22/63
is one heck of an achievement in the genre of literary fictions. Highly
recommended.
*Below is a book trailer for 11/22/63, from Hodder Books
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