11/22/63

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/n0QqnWkqFMw

Enjoy! ( )

I listened to this on Audible

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Craig Wasson, first and foremost, did an unbelievable job with this story. He has himself a new fan in me.

Now, about the story. This is a long, long story with many many twists and turns and strong emotional punches. Grab some tissues, you’ll need them. This is easily one of Kings best stories. Though I will admit that there is a lull in story about half way through. You start to think, alright already let’s get it going. Power through it. Trust me. It is absolutely worth powering through that slow middle because what comes after is truly magical. The way this story ended will stick with me forever, that’s how fucking good it was.
Buy this story.

Listen to this story.

Right now.

You’ll be happy you did.

You can thank me later. 😉 ( )

What a story! What a story! This is my first King and only because my superior at work lent me his copy of the (Dutch) version of this book. 'This book is right up your alley.', he said, and *bam*, the next day it lay on my desk, without me even having asked to read it; not in the least because of my huge TBR-pile.

The only book I read that was close to King's more horror-related novels - and I'm not really a fan of horror -, is [b:Le Songe d'Adam|22365404|Le Songe d'Adam|Sebastien Peguin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1401298353s/22365404.jpg|41774851] by [a:Sebastien Peguin|8280992|Sebastien Peguin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], which the author said was inspired by a.o. King's [b:Pet Sematary|832795|Pet Sematary|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379369000s/832795.jpg|150017].

Time-travel is the theme here, but King doesn't venture that far into the past: 1958 and up to 1963, the year of John F. Kennedy's assassination. The main character, Jake Epping, who's an English teacher, has some talks with his good friend Al, who runs a burger restaurant where the food is cheap and people wonder how the man can survive and continue to run the business like that. It seems there's a rabbit hole at the back, which leads to the year 1958. And that's part of the explanation about Al's cheap, but good enough food. He buys his meat in the past, and not just once. Back then, the prices were lower compared to the year 2011, or, with today's money, you can buy more if you were to do your shopping in the past.

I'm not going to go into full details, because it's too much to write about. In short: What would the world in the 21st century look like if JFK would not have been killed, if one could prevent it by disabling or even killing the assassin, aka Lee Oswald, himself? Jake needs much convincing, because Al isn't getting any younger and even worse, he's terminally ill. Going back and forth through the hole causes one to age. However, in the real world, it will look as if you've been gone only a few minutes, even if you spent a few years in the past. Al also said that coming back causes a full reset, that what you did back in 1958 won't have a lasting effect when you return another time. Later it will turn out to be half true: you do leave a trace, you do set things in motion, which have an effect on the future.

So, Jake finally decides to help his pal, and undertakes the dangerous mission. Of course, he can't keep his mobile phone with him or other modern stuff. Adapting to the past takes time and effort. But he manages to put on a mask, create a fake profile with a fake name and a fake alibi, etc. He finds a job somehow as a teacher.

With the little cash Al gave him, he buys what he needs, even opens a bank account, as he will have to spend quite some time in that period: 5 years isn't to be underestimated. And to obtain more money, he decided to gamble. That was easy, because the results were long known in the future. Al also provided Jake with a little notebook about the period, about certain important events, about certain persons he would surely meet or have to deal with. But after a few bets, certain people in the world of gambling would become very vigilant about Jake's, eh, George's winnings. Especially as his bets were unconventional. Later in the story, he would have to pay a price for that. Rich gamblers, especially those exploiting such an office, didn't like to lose much money, especially not in such a manner.

The world looked very differently from today. Industry ruled, the Food & Drug Administration probably wasn't as active as it is today, there was poverty, poor housing, and what have you. There were, on the other hand, as we have today, also rich people. There was and still is corruption everywhere. People smoked and drank as if their lives depended on it. But it isn't any different from today's world, in which smoking doesn't seem to have diminished. On the contrary.

George Amberson (Jake Epping) has to disable / take out not just Lee Oswald, but also Frank Dunning, alcoholic father of Harry Dunning, the janitor in Epping's school in 2011. That way, Jake / George hopes Harry will have a better life in the future.

George also meets a woman with whom he will fall deeply in love, knowing full well the relation can not continue, as his mission is not to continue the rest of his life in the past. Her name is Sadie Dunhill, also addicted to smoking. And sex , also called "cake". The reason is that George had bought cake for her, but that cake didn't survive, for one reason or another.. The girl sadly had an awful marriage, wasn't really free, missed the required love, etc. Her ex-husband was a dangerous man, especially after the divorce.

So, while George/Jake had a lot on his mind to prepare for his "true calling" (he preferred helping out kids in school, getting them on the right track, including theatre pieces), it wasn't as if he had to play with his thumbs or play the tourist.

As you can imagine, Jake manages to stop Lee Oswald from killing JFK, but loses Sadie in the process. Jake is taken to the police station to tell his story. He counters the accusations of the inspectors (who claim Oswald and him were in this together, but he got remorse) by talking about the role of the secret service, the police, in shadowing Lee Oswald, keeping an eye on him, not stopping him when they could and should have, etc. One of the inspectors is taken by surprise by the information Jake spews out. But as JFK AND Jackie called to thank him for saving them, he can't be arrested and has to be set free. Later, that one inspector (Holsty?) will make a deal with George / Jake, so no trace of him is left and the dark dealings of the CIA, FBI, ... are left uncovered. Luckily for George/Jake, his real background is also left uncovered, despite him getting close to revealing it all by trusting them more than himself.

When Jake does return to the present, he sees the world looks completely different. As if there has been a massive flood that wiped it all away. People struggle to survive, the world is worse off, Harry is definitely worse off as handicapped being bullied by youngsters who are on drugs and alcohol; Harry doesn't recognise Jake, but does tell him what has happened the past decades, now that JFK survived after all. It seems the world wasn't better off afterwards. Serious political and economic problems arose, there were wars (incl. atomic bombs), etc., etc.

As was written earlier in the book: the butterfly effect. Depending on what you do, something else happens elsewhere in the world. The past is hard-headed, doesn't allow to be changed. Jake did it, but it had serious and unforeseen consequences in the future. After he'd got the update, Jake decided to undo what he had done. One more time through the hole, especially if he wanted to save his Sadie and meet her in the present (2011-2012). And so they danced, once more.

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I can only heavily recommend 11/22/63 (or 22-11-1963 for the Dutch version). See also Wikipedia for more info. It's a thick tome (my edition has 879 pages), but it reads very smoothly. Some parts are slow-going, but it's one hell of a page-turner, I can assure you. Of course, maybe the book could have done with, say, 200 pages less, if only to avoid some dragging parts. But would that have made it better?

King has done a tremendous job to bring the past back to life. His research (he altered some details for the benefit of the story, obviously; as he states in the afterword, there are still so many questions unanswered, regarding JFK's assassination), his vivid descriptions, how the takes the reader him/herself back in time and witness Jake's / George's adventure through his own eyes. Simply mind-blowing!

And indeed, as the question goes: If you could change something in the past, what would it be? We all have something we would want to change. How often don't we say 'If person x (anybody, even you) hadn't done y, we would(n't) have z. If event a had happened, we would(n't) ...'? But we can't know what would be or have been the outcome of that change. Nobody can look into the future. You can assume something (economy, weather, ...), based on calculations and alike, but there's never a guarantee that the outcome will be as you think it will be.

King also referred to [b:Time and Again|40526|Time and Again (Time, #1)|Jack Finney|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393198563s/40526.jpg|6887879] by [a:Jack Finney|6944|Jack Finney|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1243650090p2/6944.jpg]. Maybe I'll read that one, too, one day. Very unlikely, though, considering my TBR-pile. Still on the pile, though: [b:The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF|17408359|The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF|Mike Ashley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437944042s/17408359.jpg|23912945].

One other time-travel book I can recommend: [b:Arcadia|24861409|Arcadia|Iain Pears|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443298536s/24861409.jpg|44508961] by [a:Iain Pears|9833|Iain Pears|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1208208589p2/9833.jpg]. See my review here. ( )

leuk geschreven, maar het gegeven van tijdreizen is niet echt realistisch en dat maakt dat ik wat sceptisch ben over het boek. Het verleden is moeilijk te veranderen, dus veranderd het zichzelf om te voorkomen dat de hoofdpersoon het veranderd, erg tegenstrijdig dus... ( )

Takes you back.

It took me awhile to really get into it. But, the last few hundred pages flew by. One note: King's theory of why Ruby shot Oswald is rather dubious to say the least. His connecting a stripper to that is plain silly. But, that's the afterword and not in the story. I read the enhanced ebook version which has a short film by Stephen King. Also, a list of 60's songs and the one's he listened to during his editing and preparation. It even has book club discussion questions and bar b q recipe as well as cake and burgers. ( )