Customer Reviews

11/22/63: A Novel

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Stephen King started publishing books around roughly the same time I started reading them. It was the mid 70s, and I was a precocious young thing. I was fearless, and man I loved what he was writing! I haven't read nearly all of his novels in the decades since, but enough to have a pretty good familiarity with the universe that his works share. Now entering my more fearful middle age, I can tell you there is, oddly, something deeply comforting about submerging myself again in his rich, folksy world where heroes ARE heroic, all stories come full circle, and pretty much all nagging questions are eventually put to rest.

The hero of 11/22/63 is Jake Epping, and early on in this novel he is presented with something inconceivable, a sort of wormhole in time. It leads from 2011 Maine to September 9, 1958. You can visit the past for as long as you like--years even--but when you return to the present it's always exactly two minutes later. Every subsequent visit is a "reset." You can change the past (and consequently the present), but as Jake learns, "the past is obdurate." It resists.

There's more to the set-up, of course, but that's all you really need to know. Because with this portal to the past, Jake is set on a mission that would probably be the goal of most every person of a certain age--to stop the Kennedy assassination. I don't think it resonates quite so strongly with those of us who weren't around to remember Camelot, but, sure, 11/22/63 was one of the most pivotal days in this nation's history. It's a day that surely scarred the psyche of every American who remembers it.

For long-time readers like myself, there are some wonderful Easter eggs to be found in 11/22/63, tying back to past novels, and probably to future ones as well. It's amazing how King does that. Characters I haven't seen for decades make cameo appearances and gosh it's great to see them. If Mr. King has one skill above all, it's the ability to breathe life into his characters. No wonder they live on long after their stories end. And it's not just the characters that feel like old friends, it's merely inhabiting the King-verse with its familiar town names, attitudes, and themes. Like I said, comforting.

So, if it's not obvious already, I loved this novel from start to finish! Heck, I read 849 pages in less than 48 hours. But Mr. King might have written this one just for me. I have a thing for time travel stories. In fact, 11/22/63 has several similarities with an old favorite I recently re-read: Replay, by Ken Grimwood. The ideas of this novel are pretty compelling, and it's not surprising that others have explored them. Reading the two so close together made for an interesting counterpoint, and did disservice to neither.

Thirty-seven years and several dozen novels after his first, Stephen King is still finding new stories to tell in inventive ways. Yes, those familiar echoes are there, but somehow Mr. King is keeping his prolific output fresh. 11/22/63 is a blast from the past. I'm glad I got to travel there with this dear old friend.

I first read about this book a few months ago. While I am a fan of Stephen King, I'm not a huge fan. I don't typically buy his books the day they are released, but when I read the premise for this one I just thought that it was a really neat idea and I couldn't wait for it to be released so that I could read it. Then I got a little nervous about it. From the time I read the teaser I thought that there were so many interesting directions that someone could take this story, but what if it tanks? That's always the pitfall of a really neat idea... what if it fails to really bloom like you think it could? But this is Stephen King. For my review, I'd like to establish that I was born almost 7 years after JFK died. I am not a JFK scholar and I did not read this book trying to hyper-analyze the historical accuracy of the book. I took it as a fictional exploration of a historical event produced not to answer any historical questions but just to entertain and provoke thought. I feel it was very successful on both points. My fears that Stephen King was going to take a great idea and go nowhere with it were definitely unfounded. He also works in all his usual Stephen King "givens"... the story starts in Maine. We even get to "visit" a couple of characters from other Stephen King books and the town of Derry, though the majority of the book is set in Texas of course. On the whole I usually review books based on how well spent I feel my time was in reading it and I am in no way disappointed in this one. If you buy the book I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and thank you for taking the time to read my review.

"11/22/63", Stephen King's latest, might just be his greatest. Seriously. At least as far as "mainstream" fiction or "literature" goes. Yes, it is built around a well-used SF trope, time travel, but really, the portal to the past that Jake Epping is shown in the back of an aluminum diner is only the launch mechanism for this fantastic journey. There are no monsters here, at least none that aren't human and little or no horror in the supernatural sense that KIng's constant readers have come to know, love and expect. Even SK's other "straight" fiction, "Misery", "Dolores Claiborne" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" come to mind, had elements of the supernatural and/or flat-out horror. Not this time.

But that doesn't mean that 11/22/63 is boring. Quite the contrary. Although it might seem that it would be tough to build suspense around a conclusion that seems to be inevitable, this turns out not to be the case. Big time. I just finished playing hooky from work for a day when I read the last 400 pages non-stop (except for a couple of bathroom breaks), because I just couldn't stop. I just kept pressing the advance button on my Kindle.

The adjective that first comes to mind in describing 11/22/63 among SK's oeuvre is "mature". I have read every novel and anthology that he has published, plus a large number of single short stories, starting with "Carrie" in a borrowed paperback back in the late 1970s. I have never before thought of describing his work in any of them, many good, some great and a few clunkers (some of which I have reviewed as such), as mature. But that is the first word that comes to mind in describing 11/22/63. There were others too; exciting, romantic, bittersweet and, as with all SK's stuff, well-written.

Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy assassination were obviously very well-researched, clear even before one gets to the afterword describing some of the sources and methods used, and the lead-up to the day of the assassination is described in great detail, along with Oswald's relationship to his family and associates, all a matter of historical record.

The world of 1958-1963 is described in wonderful detail, through the eyes of Jake as he gradually sheds his early 21st century armored shell and falls in love with a small Texas town and Sadie, its new young librarian. Their love story is a (actually the) centerpiece of the novel and is told with great depth, sensitivity and believability. I'm old enough to have experienced lots of the stuff that Jake encounters in 1958 (albeit as a child) and it jives with and jogs my recollections and induces a feeling of longing for older, simpler times. For King''s "Constant Readers", there are easter egg cameos from "It" and "The Langoliers" that I recognized. Knowing SK, there may well be others.

The ending is not predictable (if you say you saw it all coming you are either lying or should be a best-selling novelist) and is surprisingly satisfying. To those who say KIng doesn't know how to end his novels, I say, read this one.

Highly Recommended for all (even those who think they know but don't "like" Stephen King).

JM Tepper

Hey, dedicated Stephen King fans! You're in for an epic treat--an odyssey, a Fool's journey, an adventure with romance. A genre-bending historical novel with moral implications, this story combines echoes of Homer, H.G. Wells, Don Quixote, Quantum Leap (the old TV show), Jack Finney's Time and Again, and even a spoonful of meta-King himself, the czar of popular fiction.

The voice is familiar--the reluctant, lonely, courageous, romantic, destiny-bound hero/scarred social warrior. The story is King-esque- towering, prophetic, and flamboyant. This is mainstream entertainment; King is King of what King does--the unruly escapist story with a blazing heart. King is loyal to what he calls his "Constant Reader."

This is not horror, in case you are strictly old school fans. However, there is a touch of the supernatural via time-travel. If you are new to King, and are reading this for more insight into the fateful day of 11/22/63, or a "what would the world be like if...?," this is not King's principle design. It hovers, yes, and is material only to the primary theme.

Through a time portal in the storeroom of a greasy spoon diner, is a way back to 1958. Do we have the moral right to alter history, if we could? This is Jake Epping's noble journey--to answer that question--and, even more so, to ask it. King's demonstrates how the past and the present have a harmony that echoes, sings, dances, and shadows. He has refined his work from the genre horror, and the horrors that he now portray are undeniably real.

King provides details that make the time-travel plausible--suspending disbelief is playfully easy. Jake confronts the prophecy that "the past is obdurate," and "life can turn on a dime." Inevitably, his mission and his new life rub together, generating poignant conflicts and urgent demands.

King's strengths include his sense of place and time. He renders 1958 so specifically that you will be transported. Ten-cent root beers with foam; fin-tailed Chevrolets; cigarette smoke wafting inside and out; Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis from the jukebox; dancing cheek-to-cheek; mink and Moxie; rotary dial phones and party lines, and so much more to texturize the "Land of Ago." King makes it credible for memories to branch arterially from past to present, for different time periods to cast hazy shadows on each other.

"It's all of a piece...It's an echo so close to perfect you can't tell which one is the living voice and which is the ghost-voice returning."

Despite the voluminous research done by King into the Oswald controversy, his historical conclusions are woven into the book rather cursorily, but emphatically. Does this matter? It might. I was distracted at intervals. We don't have to necessarily agree with a character's actions, but if an historical context is displayed as fact, but the facts don't add up for the reader, then the framework strains to hold together. Then again, it might not matter at all.

The narrative is earnestly embellished, characters and motives occasionally simplified, and plot devices wistfully executed. He isn't one for much technical subtlety, and he justifies (too many) coincidences by cleverly making coincidence part of the theme. But this is King's signature style, and it works. I cared as passionately as Jake. Sadie, however, is the unforgettable character in this book. Jake/George may be the hero, but Sadie is the spirited touchstone. Comely, fetchingly clumsy, and wounded, she dances off the pages.

No popular author opens and closes a story like Stephen King. Enchanting and sublime, he builds deft bridges and ladders that are not only elaborate and infinite, but also inspired and relevant. He captures in a few chapters what an evocative song can capture in a few minutes. Whatever his flaws, his rewards are plentiful. Classy, cosmic, mystical, and kaleidoscopic--the story was radiant and clear, through a glass, darkly.

Addendum: Simon and Schuster sent me a copy in October for review. The views are entirely my own.

Many of you will cringe at the following sentence.

This is my first Stephen King book. Yes, I know. Stop looking at me like that and listen for a second. This book is amazing. The opening pages really did a lot to get me invested in the main character. When I say that, really I mean to point out that the writer did so much, with so little. It's a simple introduction to a complex character. Someone you will WANT to follow and see where the path leads. There is where many modern books fail, and fail hard in my opinion. Those first two pages are crucial in getting me hooked, and King managed to do that with just a few sentences.
JFK was, and still is an American hero to me. And while I do differ with Stephen's opinion on the lone shooter theory, that does not take away from what is done here. It is riveting work, and he obviously did a lot of research because some of the ways history ties into the main story is incredibly clever. Mixing my favorite fringe science genre (time travel) and one of my favorite characters in history so well is an accomplishment. I have had many day dreams myself about the what if's. What if we could go back? Who would we save, and how would we do it? It's all here, and what's here is fantastic.
Stop reading this, and START reading this book. You won't regret it.

Not horror and not science fiction but a supernatural "what if" that King does better than anybody. I can only think that the author has fired a whole group of "handlers" in the past couple of years and is back to writing what moves him rather than what is due to fulfill a contract. This book is not only entertaining, it's a moving love story woven into the fabric of a watershed moment that affected this whole country, especially those of us that were alive at the time.

Never have 900 pages gone so quickly and I can't believe I'm saying this but I wish the book had actually been longer. Maybe a tiny bit slow during the time when the protagonist is staking out Oswald in the various residences but ultimately it's necessary background. The research into this book is incredible if you've ever read some of the actual history of the event.

This and Under the Dome mark a return of one of the great authors of our time. Good riddance to some of the trash that's he produced in between his "good periods" and I hope it never returns. I'd rather see King never write another book instead of putting out drivel to satisfy publishers and agents. When he "feels it", King produces works like no one else writing today. Is it literature? I doubt it although several of his novels (most notably The Stand) are studied in modern literature classes in almost every college. Does this book come close, I think so.

And to all those people giving this book a 1 rating because they think it cost too much on Kindle - get over it! The prices are pretty clearly published and vote with your pocket book but don't downgrade the book because you're not happy with what you VOLUNTARILY paid for the book. Frankly, I gladly paid the $17 to read it on my Kindle so I didn't get another hernia like with Under the Dome. If you don't like the book, that's one thing but don't blame King and dissuade readers because you think it's priced too high. Sure, I wish it was a $1.00 book but I doubt we'd see this level of quality writing (although some have done it for a dollar). You're always free to buy the book, put it on reserve at the library or wait for the paperback. Or skip it all together but giving it a one rating because you don't like someone's pricing policies is spiteful and immature.

Cell and Cujo were page-turners that keep you guessing, creating a sense of danger and uncertainty that few authors can achieve. This book has that.
Salem's Lot and the whole Castle Rock cycle and It have extremely detailed, vivid settings that draw you in like you fell through the page. This book has that.
The Stand and It have the Big Face-Off between good and evil, which set them apart from books of equal quality but lesser themes. This book has that.
The Gunslinger series has the effect of causing you to question the sturdiness of reality, so thoroughly that you start to question your own. This book has that.
And Hearts in Atlantis is about more than its subjects. It's about America, what we've sold and how cheaply, and how much we would give to have it back. This book has that in spades.
I'm really happy to have Stephen King back in this kind of form, and I hope he lives another thirty prolific years. Thank you, Mr. King.

I started this book with high expectations. While I have never been an avid Stephen King fan, I nevertheless enjoyed his last couple of books and had no doubt that this one would be at least as entertaining. Luckily, I was right...Unluckily, I was right only about half of the book.

Jake Epping is just your typical, average, divorced high school teacher until he came into an amazing secret: There is a warmhole in the pantry of his friend Al's diner that is a bridge between the past and the present - the past being the fall of 1958. And before Jake knows it, he has been sent back in time by Al to stave off the JFK assassination. The catch? Since the warmhole - or the rabbit-hole and Jake and Al like to call it - can only send time-travelers back to September 9, 1958, Jake will have to stay in the past for four years to accomplish the feat that will alter history as we know it forever. Thus begins the epic adventure that will span more than 4 years and over 800 pages before it reaches it's heartbreaking but inevitable conclusion.

To me, the book is at its strongest when it focuses on the characters. Jake, after making his way across half of the United States and after altering a couple of life-changing events for people he knew back in 2011, eventually settles down in Jodie, Texas. It is here that he meets the love of his life Sadie, and here that he becomes part of a close knit community and forms the crucial friendships that will make him consider staying in the 50-60's for good. During this part of the book, readers can clearly see Jake emerging as a three-dimensional character - a person who cares about his friends and the commnuities he live in and yet is always haunted by what lies ahead on 11/22/1963. And despite the character-centric plot during this part of the book, Mr. King still managed to build a palpable sense of doom and suspense as he creates a juxtaposition between good and evil, joy and sorrow. My fingers couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

Unfortunately, after about the midway point, the book stalled. Instead of focusing on the good citiznes of Jodie, whom we actually care about, Mr. King spent pages after pages detailing the daily activites of the Oswalds. In order to make sure that Lee Harvey and Lee Harvey only was involved in the JFK assassination, Jake rents an apartment across the street from the Oswald residence so he can conduct surveillance on the Oswalds. From that point on, each fight between Lee Harvey and his wife Marina was described in excruciating detail...each visit from Lee's mom...each visit from Marina's Russian friends..each inane conversation...it just goes on and on. I have noticed even while reading Mr. King's last book ("Under the Dome") that Mr. King tends to be a bit self-indulgent when it comes to his writing, and that is in ample evidence here. It is obvious that the book is well-researched and that Mr. King has a lot to say when it comes to the Cold War atmosphere of the 60's. But just because the research has been done does not mean that everything should be dumped in the book, especially when the information is delivered in the form of characters so unpalatable to the readers that the readers can't care less about what happens to them. In this case, tighter edits would definitely done this section of the book a world of good and the book could have been trimmed down by at least 200 pages without losing anything.

In the end, the book ended in the exactly same manner I predicted it would - with Jake racing against the clock to alter history and facing the ramifications of his actions. There was no surprise to me on how the book would end, but that is not the point. The point is that Mr. King had something to say about time travel, about the kind of fear peopled lived with in the 60s, about owning up to your actions and facing the consequences..and he did it in a way that was vastly entertaining, the boring middle section notwithstanding.

As a 68 year old from Ft Worth and having seen JFK the morning of 11-23-1963 I feel more than qualified to say: Bravo Mr. King.

Have driven all the roads you mention and studied the people you make come alive in Texas during the telling of your wonderful story from Round Rock to Killeen to Dallas and of course Cowtown. I am nearly speechless!

I think it has been years since I have been able to get through a King book. I've thought of his recent efforts as a sad decline in quality. I was a huge fan of his earlier work, his collections of short stories, The Stand, IT etc. But in the past five years I've pretty much felt that he has lost it. This book, however, is wonderful. Does the actual writing compare to his earlier efforts? In my opinion, no, but it doesn't matter. This is still the King of old, a book you do not want to put down, even if you have to stay up all night to read it. It isn't the masterpiece that I felt The Stand was, nor as beautifully written as some of his older short story collections, but there is much to love in this newest effort. It is a satisfying ride, and you are sad when it ends.