This is the first Stephen King novel I have had the pleasure of reading. I know his previous works were science fiction or horror. But this book must stand in a league of its own.
The book follows Jake Epping as he travels back in time to prevent the assassination of John F Kennedy. The assassination of JFK has been endlessly discussed and dissected in the literary media; but amid the plethora of literature on the subject, no one realized what we actually needed written was someone travelling back in time to prevent the assassination from taking place.
To my surprise, the time travel device and concept presented here is fresh and unique. Stephen King keeps just enough of the time travel mechanics to himself during the first section of the book to keep the reader fully absorbed on what’s about to come. The concepts of time presented here such as the obdurate past and harmonics of time are brilliant. Another satisfying aspect of this novel is how King ties everything together at the end, leaving the reader fully satisfied.
The US of 1960s is sketched out in such vivid detail that one finds himself right along with Jake Epping as he tries to navigate through the Land of Ago. The characters and the streets are etched in my mind and I still find myself visualising the house on 2703 Mercedes Street.
As I was nearing the end of book, I realized that even though I had been waiting endlessly for the climax, I still wanted the book to continue. Having fully engrossed myself in the 1960s, I didn’t want to leave just yet. Now, I am waiting for myself to forget enough of this book to go for a re-read.
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I’ve read probably 15 - 20 of King’s books, and this is my favorite. Yes, he didn’t quite stick the landing, but the rest of it was great.
After rereading it and then reading Revival the stuff about the ‘obdurate past and harmonic of time’ to me is King’s occasional pulling back of the curtain and getting a glimpse of the Lovecraftian cthulhu whatevers that are pulling the levers and strings of what we perceive as reality.
It was interesting that one couldn’t just pull up stakes and run away to another part of the country and reinvent oneself with a new identity, that people did indeed do background checks.
I just started rereading this and after I while I just skipped to the part where he meets Sadie.
I never thought I would say this about a Stephen King book, but the love story is the best part for me. I entirely skipped most of the spying on Oswald part as I found that very boring.
He could have cut the throwback to IT and had a tighter narrative. That’s my only real criticism of this one.
That was my favorite part of the book by far.
Yes! I didn’t want the love story part to end. I knew it was going to, but I didn’t want it to.
Perfect example of how King essentially creates a lot of his main books by writing what could be a perfectly valid short story then expanding it by adding in tons of unnecessary story that makes mostly zero difference at the end. His short stories are so unbelievably good, they’re all I read from him any more. Trying to read through 11/22/63’s unnecessary, boring love story that essentially goes nowhere was agonizing.
I really liked the love story. Moee than the Oswald stuff
lol I love seeing such wrong descriptions of King
9/10ths of the book is great, it kind of lost we in the last few chapters after he got back after his extended trip. I will say that I think the leadup to the Oswald showdown from Derry to Dallas is some of the best storytelling that King has written, I could barely put it down.
I’ve literally just grown accustomed to reading 80% of Stephen King novels and then shelving them. His endings are complete shit. There is never a payoff and in a lot of cases the ending are just “it was something supernatural.” Yeah, thanks dude.
I like the ending to this one.
Stephen King is notorious for brilliant beginnings and batshit endings.
IT starts with the brilliant line: “The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”
And then toward the end there’s a child orgy.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
I didn’t mind the ending in 11/22/63. It seemed satisfactory to me. It wasn’t really batshit. IIRC it just went on a bit long. Certainly very far from a “throw the book across the room” kind of ending.
The love story struck me like a lightning. I wasn’t prepared for that and I wanted a happy ending for Jake Epping/George Amberson and fell in love with Sadie
One of my favorite books. Highly recommend the audible version as well, the narrator is amazing.
Such a great read. I really felt like I got a sense of what life may have been like in the 50s/60s just from the amount of work King put into his research. Really gripping book, especially for however many 800 pages it is! Appreciate the post for this shout out for sure
I feel the same way! I’ve started a few King novels and never finished. My brother-in-law lent me 11/22/63 because I’m obsessed with the assassination. I LOVED the book. Everything about it!!
Meh, I’m over half way through and it has the problem I have with all King books. It’s 75% filler. I swear, I would pay someone to go through and cut out all of the bs he writes because the main stories are actually good.
Jimla jimla JIMLA!!!
I could talk about this book for hours. Easily my favorite King novel.
I loved Cujo when I was young. So intense!
Tried but couldn’t get into it at all. Lots of “Americanised?” feelings and images being explained.
What do you mean by Americanized?
It’s great but there are like 100 pages with just him and Sadie in the middle that added nothing to the story and could have been cut out.