The Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from the sixth floor.
“The past is obdurate. It doesn’t want to change.”
That’s the verse that was repeated over and over as I moved through the time travel tune of Stephen King’s “11/22/63.” I read this 849-page book a few months ago, and much to my surprise, I wasn’t as impressed as I expected to be.
Set in 2011, the book centers on the idea of a post-1963 society that isn’t tarnished by the John F. Kennedy assassination. What would the world have been like, had Lee Harvey Oswald been stopped in his tracks? That’s the exact question posed by Al, owner of a diner based in Lisbon Falls, Maine. After Al befriends main character Jake Epps, he introduces Jake to the “rabbit hole,” a time portal found in the back of his diner.
Out of curiosity, Jake takes a trip down the rabbit hole and cannot believe his eyes. Each time someone goes down the rabbit hole, they’ll find themselves in the same spot at the same time: two minutes before noon on Sept. 9, 1958 in Lisbon Falls. In utter disbelief, Jake returns to 2011 with a number of questions to ask Al, who then drops the bomb on him — Al is terminally ill with cancer, and he needs someone to travel back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination from happening.
After much doubt, Jake accepts the challenge.
To be honest, I struggled with the premise of why Al wanted Jake to return to 1963 to prevent the Kennedy assassination from taking place. He didn’t have a reason to give except, “The world will be a better place.” But what if the future isn’t a better place after all? (Of course, you don’t find out until the end of the novel.)
The journey Jake takes to reach Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963 is intriguing. I especially enjoyed reading about Jake’s adventures, throughout which King combines science fiction with romance, history, mystery and action to create a driven plot that is far from the horror stories for which he is typically known. But as Lev Grossman wrote in his review for Time magazine, “The build-up is better than the payoff, as it almost always is.” I couldn’t have agreed more.
Have you read “11/22/63?” What did you think? Feel free to leave a comment.
I just finished reading 11/22/63 this week. I was pondering the thought of writing my own review, when I stumped upon yours. (I may post some of what I’m about to say as my own review blog post.)
I didn’t actually read the text. I listened to the audible audiobook version. I’ll say from the start that I really enjoyed the narrator. He did a fantastic job with the text and voices in the book. He easily has the best audiobook voice I’ve heard to date. I don’t know if that skewed my appreciation for the book, but the audio certainly provided a very lifelike reality to the words.
I got sucked in early. I really enjoyed the characters, my favorite being Al. My reading reached a climax with Jake/George’s first attempt to stop Frank from murdering his family on Halloween. I was literally on the edge of my seat. I thought the writing was fabulous. After that incredible scene was over, I remember the words, “…then I stepped out into Halloween night of 1958.” The way that the audiobook version delivered that line was simply superb.
After that point, the book dragged along a bit, with George’s excursions in Jody teaching school. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was rather lengthy. I knew a second climax was building in the attempt to stop Oswald in 1963. After a long time coming, that moment finally took place and I was once again on the edge of my seat. Again, there was great writing and suspense in those moments.
My intrigue was with the rabbit hole itself and the potential to travel back to a specific point in time. Such a concept could have been made into a series of books. I wish it weren’t such an open and closed story in this book.
I really enjoyed the book, but I do feel like it went astray, or at least went on for too long after that second climax. It took too long for him to go back to the future, for one. Once he returned to 2011, I wasn’t all that thrilled with how things progressed, or at least the way that was all delivered. I wish it had been left on a cliffhanger of sorts, leaving to the imagination of the reader to determine what happened later.
The yellow card man didn’t really need such a detailed explanation. Why did Jake receive a whole explanatory speech and Al had not, despite going back in time to buy meat for the diner, possibly hundreds of times? I suppose because he tried to change so much. But why didn’t Jake ask if there were other rabbit holes, or other information?
The ending was a little ho-hum for me. I wish it had been left with a little more mystery and uncertainty. Leave more questions than answers, I say. I was actually hoping that the book would end with him taking a breath and going back once again to 1958 to start all over with Sadie. Jake steps through the rabbit hole, his ears pop, and close curtain.
Regardless, I will say that I really enjoyed this book. It’s apparent that an abundance of research and talent went into writing this novel.
Craig,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I agree with you on a number of things — the character development was great, and the two major climaxes were absolutely gut-wrenching. I thought that the plot dragged on quite a bit as well, so this book could have easily been hundreds of pages shorter.
For me, my satisfaction with the book was pulled down by the novel’s beginning and end, both of which I thought were extremely disappointing. I desperately wanted to be in awe when I met the conclusion of the book. The rabbit hole and the time travel concepts were so great that I thought I had to be awe-struck once I got to the end. But, the only thing I could think once everything came to a close was, “Is that really it?”
Stephen King’s extensive research and fascination with the 1950s certainly shone through in this novel, and that helped me to truly enjoy the storyline. As I already said, I loved the characters as well. The problem was that, overall, I just didn’t enjoy 11/22/63 nearly as much as expected.
I look forward to seeing your review!
-Desiree