Book Title: "11/22/63"
Author: Stephen King
Version: NOOKbook
Publisher: Scribner
First Published: November 2011
Voice: First Person
Number of ebook Pages:697
I recently read a book entitled "The Kennedy Detail" written by Gerald Blaine and Lisa McCubbin and reviewed here on January 26, 2012. In case you would like to see the review here is the link http://girlinthetinyhat.blogspot.com/2012/01/small-slice-of-history.html. Ever since then I have become curious about all things Kennedy, well actually it just fueled the flame of my interest, and I have been researching other books related to President Kennedy. I of course knew of "11/22/63" by Stephen King (I do work in a bookstore after all) and was curious about it. Because I was not only interested in all things Kennedy but also have a desire to read more Stephen King I decided that this may be the perfect book for me. I bought it on my NOOK (for only $14.99) and commenced reading it.
The story begins with mild mannered Jake Epping an English Teacher in Lisbon, Maine teaching GED classes to adults to make some extra money. As an exercise he has the class write a first person narrative about a moment that changed their lives. He recieves one story that describes a night 50 years ago on Halloween when a man named Harry Dunning witnessed his father murder his entire family with a hammer. Harry managed to escape with a smashed leg and a slightly dented head. And although Jake isn't a very emotional man the story brings him to tears. When Harry recieves his GED diploma Jake takes him to his favorite resturant 'Al's' to buy him a burger. The chef and owner Al takes a celebratory picture of the new graduate and his teacher to put it up on his Wall of Fame.
Because Jake is one of his best customers Al ends up trusting Jake with his biggest secret. His pantry is actually a portal to the past. Jake takes an exploratory trip through the "rabbit-hole" (as Al calls it) and lands in Maine in September of 1958. He meets the Yellow Card Man and goes for a root beer in the Kenebec Fruit a root beer that tastes so heavenly it sells Jake on 1958. When Jake gets back to 2011 and sits down with Al, Al tells him that he has an idea of how to put the portal to the best use. Al tells Jake that the last time he went back to 1958 it was for four years, even though only two minutes had passed in 2011, and it was with one purpose to stop President Kennedy from being assassinated on November 22, 1963. Al, a big smoker, contracted lung cancer and was unable to finish his mission and so asks Jake to take up the torch and finish the job. After thinking about it for a while Jake decides that although Al has tried, and succeeded in changing a small part of the past, Jake wants to do his own test run. And so he returns to 1958 in order to save the Dunning family from the horrific death that awaits them.
From there Jake Epping becomes George Amberson in the world of 1958. And what follows is an adventure that keeps Jake on his toes and trying to stay one step ahead of the obdurate past. Along the way he meets a cast of characters that are both charming and heartbreaking making them so real they practically jump off the pages. Stephen King has a unique voice and though I have only ever read one other book by him I can tell it is a voice that I love. He knows how to blend fact and fiction so well that you don't quite know what is real and what is fantasy. In "11/22/63" Stephen King brings the world of the 50's and 60's into a sharp focus and then seamlessly blends in Jake of the 21st century. This is an adventure tale that shouldn't be missed. Stephen King has put together such a great story that I don't know where to go from here. He has created a world that should be impossible or at the very least feel strange but what King has done is make the world not only possible but probable. I highly recommend this book to all Stephen King fans as well as anyone who has a love for great fiction.
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