11/22/63 [A Novel] Book Feature
Paperback: 880 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books; d edition (July 24, 2012)
Language: English
Publisher: Gallery Books; d edition (July 24, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1451627297
ISBN-13: 978-1451627299
Product Dimensions: 6 x 2.1 x 9 inches
11/22/63 [A Novel] Book Synopsis
Life can turn on a dime or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does
for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine.
While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome,
enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago,
Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire
family. Jake is blown away…but an even more bizarre secret comes to
light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to
take over the mission that has become his obsession to prevent the
Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s
storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock
hops, and cigarette smoke… Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas,
Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled
loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be
rewritten…and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.
11/22/63 [A Novel] Book 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, oddly enough, “mature”. I have read every novel and
anthology that King 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, best 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. Get online 11/22/63: A Novel today.
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