I’ve been reading Stephen King novels since I was thirteen. His books were the first I remember buying for myself with my own money. I’ve reread The Shining, The Stand, and It more than once. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was an annual summer read for me for over a decade. So, surprising as it was, 11/22/63 was one of the very few I hadn’t read. The sheer length was intimidating, as was the premise. It was the only book that I had watched the miniseries adaptation before reading the book.
If you’re unfamiliar, the book follows Jake who discovers through a friend a time warp that sends whoever uses it back to the 1950s. Each time the person goes though the warp, it resets so if you changed something, going back again would erase the change. When Jake’s friend realizes he is dying of cancer, he puts his plan to stop the Kennedy assassination onto Jake’s shoulders. Jake takes this on, and spends years living in the past as he plans out how to stop Lee Harvey Oswald. Time, though, does not like to be changed. Jake is injured more than once, but he also makes friends and falls in love with Sadie. When he does finally stop the assassination – at the expense of Sadie who dies in the process – and goes back to his own time, he realizes that keeping Kennedy alive was a bad idea. Not only did it change the course of history in a negative way, but it broke the normal strain of time, causing irreparable damage to Earth.
This book is both the best and the worst of King’s writing. By worst, I mean that it is overly long much in the same way that It is overly long. So full of detail that it lingers far too long on plot points that don’t necessarily need to be there for the book to be successful. By best, I mean that the story is for the most part engrossing even if its probably 300 pages too long. The only way I made it through this was by listening to the audiobook, and I’m not an audio book fan. I prefer holding the book in my hands. Turning the pages as my eyes lift the story off the paper. Had I tried reading this on paper, I would have given up halfway in.
Jake is a great character, even if his voice tends to muddle the story with the back and forth of deciding what to do next. The love he finds with Sadie made the story better. It gave Jake depth and made the story less of a bore. She is the reason I didn’t give up on the audiobook – it was over 29 hours. I like Jake as a character, but Sadie was the real heart of the novel for me.
In true King fashion, he connects this novel to Derry and to the Dark Tower novels as it deals with all the time travel stuff. Time travel is one of those areas that can either be done well or be completely unconvincing. King uses time as a loop, utilizing the butterfly effect as a way of showing how small changes might not seem like much, but can amount to catastrophic changes later. Once he realizes the mistake in keeping Kennedy alive, he goes back to reset the loop and perhaps save Sadie from getting attacked by her ex. He chooses to go home, though. Saving Sadie might just make everything worse. Back in his own time, he meets up with her one last time and she somehow remembers him as if they had met in their dreams. Time is a loop. Jake may have reset time, but small vestiges of the changes he made previously still linger. Rumor has it that this ending was suggested by King’s son, writer Joe Hill.
As far as the historical aspects to this, it is obvious that Stephen King has an affinity for one of the biggest conspiracies in American history. The time and love he put into this novel is on every page. Any other author probably would have been asked by the publisher to edit it down drastically from a pricing and paper standpoint, but King is so prolific in his writing and so popular among readers that he can publish a book like this. Really is a testament to the man’s career.
If you haven’t read this and don’t mind long, meandering stories steeped in history, then give this one a go. Perhaps you’ll love it more than I did. Perhaps you’ll find the connections to Derry as satisfying as I did. Perhaps Sadie will be the light that sees you through to the end. She was for me.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
I’ve been reading Stephen King novels since I was thirteen. His books were the first I remember buying for myself with my own money. I’ve reread The Shining, The Stand, and It more than once. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was an annual summer read for me for over a decade. So, surprising as it was, 11/22/63 was one of the very few I hadn’t read. The sheer length was intimidating, as was the premise. It was the only book that I had watched the miniseries adaptation before reading the book.
If you’re unfamiliar, the book follows Jake who discovers through a friend a time warp that sends whoever uses it back to the 1950s. Each time the person goes though the warp, it resets so if you changed something, going back again would erase the change. When Jake’s friend realizes he is dying of cancer, he puts his plan to stop the Kennedy assassination onto Jake’s shoulders. Jake takes this on, and spends years living in the past as he plans out how to stop Lee Harvey Oswald. Time, though, does not like to be changed. Jake is injured more than once, but he also makes friends and falls in love with Sadie. When he does finally stop the assassination – at the expense of Sadie who dies in the process – and goes back to his own time, he realizes that keeping Kennedy alive was a bad idea. Not only did it change the course of history in a negative way, but it broke the normal strain of time, causing irreparable damage to Earth.
This book is both the best and the worst of King’s writing. By worst, I mean that it is overly long much in the same way that It is overly long. So full of detail that it lingers far too long on plot points that don’t necessarily need to be there for the book to be successful. By best, I mean that the story is for the most part engrossing even if its probably 300 pages too long. The only way I made it through this was by listening to the audiobook, and I’m not an audio book fan. I prefer holding the book in my hands. Turning the pages as my eyes lift the story off the paper. Had I tried reading this on paper, I would have given up halfway in.
Jake is a great character, even if his voice tends to muddle the story with the back and forth of deciding what to do next. The love he finds with Sadie made the story better. It gave Jake depth and made the story less of a bore. She is the reason I didn’t give up on the audiobook – it was over 29 hours. I like Jake as a character, but Sadie was the real heart of the novel for me.
In true King fashion, he connects this novel to Derry and to the Dark Tower novels as it deals with all the time travel stuff. Time travel is one of those areas that can either be done well or be completely unconvincing. King uses time as a loop, utilizing the butterfly effect as a way of showing how small changes might not seem like much, but can amount to catastrophic changes later. Once he realizes the mistake in keeping Kennedy alive, he goes back to reset the loop and perhaps save Sadie from getting attacked by her ex. He chooses to go home, though. Saving Sadie might just make everything worse. Back in his own time, he meets up with her one last time and she somehow remembers him as if they had met in their dreams. Time is a loop. Jake may have reset time, but small vestiges of the changes he made previously still linger. Rumor has it that this ending was suggested by King’s son, writer Joe Hill.
As far as the historical aspects to this, it is obvious that Stephen King has an affinity for one of the biggest conspiracies in American history. The time and love he put into this novel is on every page. Any other author probably would have been asked by the publisher to edit it down drastically from a pricing and paper standpoint, but King is so prolific in his writing and so popular among readers that he can publish a book like this. Really is a testament to the man’s career.
If you haven’t read this and don’t mind long, meandering stories steeped in history, then give this one a go. Perhaps you’ll love it more than I did. Perhaps you’ll find the connections to Derry as satisfying as I did. Perhaps Sadie will be the light that sees you through to the end. She was for me.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
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