11/22/63 – Stephen King
I’ve read quite a bit of Stephen King, but after reading all the way through The Dark Tower series, I felt like I needed a break. I’ve since read many other novels (most of which you can find here), but after getting 11/22/63 for Christmas from my mother, it seemed like a good time to jump back into the Stephen-verse. It took all of one page for me to feel like I was reunited with an old friend.
11/22/63 starts off with our protagonist, Jake Epping, living his casual life as a school teacher in, of course, Maine. He teaches high school English and does some stuff on the side, too, helping adults earn their GEDs. As always, King has a tremendous ability to connect us to his characters. He has a knack for making them relatable in a way that allows the reader to feel instantly involved in the story. In this instance, Jake is still feeling the effects of his recent split from his alcoholic wife and trying to maintain some normalcy in his life. Everything seems pretty normal until he gets a call from Al.
Our boy Al owns a diner in town best known for having suuuper cheap burgers. Suspicious, but not alarming. Al calls Jake up and wants to talk. They’re acquainted, but not friends. Jake decides to go, and finds Al in a miserable state of health. Because of this, Al spills the beans that there’s a portal in the storage room of his diner that transports you instantly back to September 9, 1958, at 11:58 a.m. Uh, ok… Obviously Jake is hesitant to believe such a thing really exists, so Al convinces him to try it for himself. Sure enough, Jake suddenly finds himself buying a root beer float in a confection store that, in 2011, is completely run down.
Stunned, Jake returns and Al lays out the plan that he tried, and failed, to accomplish. Saving President John F. Kennedy. Al believes that in doing so, the world will be a better place. Vietnam, race riots, and a multitude of other things will never happen. And the best part, no matter how long you’re in the past, you come back only 2 minutes later in 2011.
So this is what I love about Stephen King. This plot is ridiculous, right? Does it make for a good story, of course! But King has such a talent for writing us into reality, that when the plot develops into something outrageous, as the reader, I don’t even care. I have no problem with the arc of this story, and in my mind, it seems completely plausible given the setting. Never once did I look up and think, wait, that could never happen. King gives me just enough information to make it seem tangible while withholding enough to make me want to furiously read each and every word to see what happens next. I love it.
Mostly convinced, Jake feels like he needs a trial run to make sure his efforts won’t be in vain. After all, it would take over 5 years of waiting around in the past to get to 11/22/63. Can’t say I blame him really. Jake remembers one of his GED student’s essays in which he describes the night his alcoholic father killed his mother and siblings with a hammer (harsh, I know), and decides this is perfect opportunity to test the theory as it takes place on Halloween of 1958. Alrighhhht. Here we go.
Jake quickly discovers a couple of things. One, the past doesn’t want to be changed. This proves to be a running theme throughout the novel and something Jake constantly has to deal with. And two, he learns that death is just about his only option on impacting the future, so he has to decide if he can kill a man to save many more. Here we start to see Jake in a vulnerable state. His inner conflict over what he might have to do and the consequences of those actions is captivating, and again, continues throughout the remainder of the story.
Not so much of a spoiler here, but he does it. He follows through with his plan and afterwards returns back to 2011 where Al is waiting. However, Jake quickly realizes that things are not exactly as he anticipated. His efforts had a definite impact on the future, but the ways of the universe cannot be controlled so easily and the past is resistant to change. It is at this moment we find Jake wavering. He has to make a decision. The problem is that every time you go back, there’s a reset. That’s how Al was able to keep buying meat over and over again for a cheap price. Does Jake go back, reset the past, and save JFK, or does he ride out the rest of his life here in the reality he just created?
He goes back. Wouldn’t be much of a story if he didn’t.
For the rest of 11/22/63, which I won’t spoil, Jake finds himself becoming part of the past. We read about his relationships, friendly and affectionate, that he forms, and slowly his way of life changes. He had enough knowledge about the outcomes of sports to never want for money, and with the right investments, he’d be set for life. He could still teach and feel like his calling was being fulfilled, and ultimately live out his life in a place he wanted to be.
His relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald is fascinating and suspenseful all at the same time. Jake’s ups and downs and the way his emotions evolve is quite the journey. Jake’s not perfect either. This wasn’t a walk in the park. He makes plenty of mistakes and we are right there with him, watching as he pays the price. What was once an unemotional husk of a being, develops into a caring, deeply thoughtful man that makes an impact on the world around him.
My biggest issue was, and seems to always be, the end. I won’t say lazy, that’s not it, but it feels like the effort seems to fade away. We reach the climax of the novel and everything seems to slowly start to degrade. The paragraphs become short and more journal-esque, and the use of adjectives declines. You could make the argument that the writing is echoing the character, which I might could buy, but I didn’t like it. I had invested so much time and energy into this book, I felt like I was being robbed of a proper conclusion. It seemed like King looked at his watch and thought, “Ah crap, I gotta wrap this up,” and hurriedly typed “The End.”
Despite that, read the book. I thoroughly enjoyed 11/22/63 and it’s characters. King takes us on a wild ride based on historical information and it’s well worth the time. But I’m not so sure about James Franco.
★★★★☆
