11-22-63

A Novel

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Craig Wasson

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a 35-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away: a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life - like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963 - turning on a dime.

Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession - to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world - of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading, eventually of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful - and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

©2011 Stephen King. All Rights Reserved. (P)2011 Simon & Schuster, Inc

I Owe Stephen King An Apology

Stephen King On Writing is one of my favorite books, and I read it every couple of years. Half memoir, half writing “how to,” it is absorbing and delightful. I recommend it to my students and suggest that they read it every year.

However, that is the only one of King’s books that I’ve been able to read. I’ve tried many times, but kept getting bogged down after 20 or 30 pages. The stories were okay, but couldn’t hold my interest because the writing seemed too heavy handed, brutish, like he was typing with his fists.

So, after days of consideration, it was with great reluctance that I downloaded 11/22/63. The reviews were good, glowing, in fact, and I’ve learned to trust the opinions of Audible listeners. Plus, the book is more than 30 hours long, which the bargain hunter in me always finds attractive.

I just finished it tonight. It is a wonderful and fascinating story, based loosely on an English teacher’s obsession with Lee Harvey Oswald and the possibility of going back in time to prevent the Kennedy killing. I also enjoyed the love story, which the author handles with charm, humor and honesty.

The writing is wonderful, masterful, vivid, compelling. The characters are rich and deep, genuine, involved, and I find myself thinking about them and their lives often throughout the day. Life in small-town and big-town 1958 up to 1963 is mesmerizing, much as I remember it, with the constant but subtle hint of mysterious dangers to come.

You’ll get no more details from me, only a hearty endorsement. Well worth every minute, made doubly valuable by the excellent and interesting reading by Craig Wasson. Totally believable, wonderfully surprising, and, well, I was going to say something about the ending, but you'll want to find that out for yourself.

Interjections of pesonal politics... blah

I may have underrated this title's "story" rating, as I couldn't delineate King's political sentiments bleeding through the pages and the incredible story.

Normally I don't have a problem with authors' personal beliefs as the stories they write are a reflection of who they are, however this one is different. King asserts that the assassination of JFK, portrayed as just shy of deity, resulted in the escalation of Vietnam, MLK's assassination, and a really big stretch to GW Bush becoming president. If he can stop that assassination the entirety of the current world problems never would have come to fruition and our present world would be a utopia thanks to JFK's completed tenure and the resultant butterfly affect.

To be fair, this is my first King Novel. I absoluteness loved it. The detail, the imagination, the heartbreak with the obdurate past, had me emotionally tied to saving JFK as well, but King's "cri de couer" over JFK's death really tarnishes the novel.

****SPOILER ALERT****

The end of the book is where I really had the biggest problem. The entire story is about the butterfly affect i.e., how an action ripples through time and affects something else but really only observable through comparable time travel. King's afterword concedes that he wants to display the worst possible scenario if JFK survives 11-22-63, in order assuage liberal minded peoples' love affair with Kennedy's death. Within 24 hours a sizable earthquake occurs (directly related to Kennedy surviving the assassination attempt), intense seismic activity continues for decades, yet, somehow Bill Clinton still marries Hillary, he still runs for office but dies before he can take office, so Hillary becomes president. I don't know how King reconciles the intensity of the butterfly affect with major seismic activity but other things remain completely unchanged.

There are a few other examples of either blatant laziness by the author, or intentional political purveyance. Although his examples are bias, his analogy of a "harmonizing effect" of the different time strings is insightful.

Definitely worth your time, but be prepared to roll your eyes if you don't subscribe 100% to a liberal political leaning.

'Who's the Lovin' Daddy'...Cue the Band!

You'd think after 50 novels even a distinguished author would be creatively wrung out, cranking out literary Pablum, possibly living comfortably off the body of works from "Ago", but no no no...King has somehow evolved--(indentured soul to the devil in trade??). Not only is his writing still inventive and original, it is insightful, intelligent, and intimate, and as is true with the best of the best of them, it reflects true dedication and respect to the art of writing, it is masterful.

King's trend away from boogey men (never "boogie" men--SK likes his tunes) toward the monsters within, is obvious with 11-22-63, and should once and for all show how adeptly King can stand proudly among giants, both literary main stream genre giants and the one-eyed-one-horned slimy kind. Surprisingly, the story is not as focused on the alternate history as it is on an alternate universe, and about what King does best, the story of people in extraordinary circumstances--missed opportunities, what-if's, hopes, dreams, good guys and very bad guys. It's familiar in many ways, even comfortable, loaded with heart and soul, maybe a little sap, and just when you reach for the tissue--out pops evil incarnate (ala Hitchcock-- via Derry, Pennywise, Christine, Lee Harvey, etc.) just to remind you...it is, after all, King, Stephen King. And, if familiar with King, you know it's long (let's not hear anymore about editing), you know it's entertaining, but you may be surprised by the polish and maturity. I've read some critiques that say this is "the book King was born to write." Personally, I wouldn't limit such a talented and prolific writer with that kind of statement!

Highly recommend; big claps for the meticulous research; kudos for time traveling with flair-not cheese. The narration is outstanding, absolutely equal to the work it performs and should be considered the high mark in audio performance. Could not get better.

* If you've read the book or the reviews, how's this for an eerie "harmonious" coincidence?: I just happened to also be reading Chris Matthew's Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, (which I also highly recommend) *shiver moment* and find the research in both books praiseworthy.

Have not finished yet, but had to comment....

I am only on Chapter 3 and am hooked! So glad for the holiday weekend so I'll have more time to listen.

One of Stephen King's Best

I stopped reading Stephen King a while back because he got just too odd for my taste, but this is right up there with my favorites like The Stand, The Shining, and IT. I love time travel stories and this is really one of the best. Well thought through and just all around an excellent story.

The narration was excellent and the ending was so perfect. I can't recommend this one enough!

Nice but too long

What did you love best about 11-22-63?

Cool and original time traveling twist, really good descriptions of the 50s.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Made early it altogether shorter

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No it's too long and not nearly exciting enough to sit through all the descriptions and slow parts of the story

Any additional comments?

A nice and exciting story, some really good characters. But I must admit I didn't even finish it, at some point the story is moving too slowly forwards and you kinda loose track of what's going on. The book would be a five star if it'd been only a little shorter and the story had been more concentrated.

A Masterful Speculation

So, I confess: I started and stopped reading Stephen King after a single short story scared me witless in the 70s. But this book got such good reviews, and was billed as "speculative fiction", I succumbed and bought it. Also, I'm a sucker for really long audiobooks, since I go for really long walks in the early morning. Apparently, horror is just part of his DNA, because I couldn't really listen to it, all by myself on deserted streets on pitch black, windy mornings -- you just never know when his Norman Rockwell Americana will abruptly turn terrifying. Save it for gardening or housework. But anyway -- a great, great read. This is a complicated story, it involves time travel (which always makes my head hurt), lots and lots of characters, lots of researched detail, lots of plot -- but he keeps it all spinning, never dropping the narrative thread, with nary a cardboard character and always a sense of compassion. His hero IS a hero, but utterly believable. Stephen King is a better writer and storyteller than Stieg Larsson on every possible dimension, including writing in Swedish.

Narration nearly ruined this.

The narrator’s performance nearly ruined this audio book. Talk about over performing. Somehow he managed to turn the 35 year old 21st century protagonist into a 65 year old sounding fuddy duddy. Read book but skip the audible version.

Great narration, tedious story

Where does 11-22-63 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The audioubook rate above average. The narrator performance compensated for a rather tedious and wordy story.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The ending was pleasant, but contrived. King does a poor job of tieing all the threads together for a logical conclusion. In the end he sums up all the unexplained time travel paradox with a simplistic supernatural explanation. Becasue the ending didn't really ties into the plot, King could have pasted the ending into several points of the novel and ended much earlier.

Which character – as performed by Craig Wasson – was your favorite?

Jake/George. Wasson does a great job making the characters distinct to the listener. Each characters' voice is consistant, and his female falsetto is believable.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not teall

I'm just not a Stephen King guy

I would have to say that I am just not a fan of Stephen King. Even in the movie form. The premise of the story sounded so good, and I just came out of series of books that referred to the JFK assassination and so it just seemed like it was the natural next book.

I just get from the way that Stephen King writes is a an arrogant attitude that just makes me not like him.

That has nothing to do with anything but my personal bias i guess. Keep that in mind if you are using this as a basis to pick this up or not.