My Thoughts on 11/22/63

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. We’re in the middle of an ice storm right now. It was supposed to be much worse than it is, and I’m glad it’s not as bad as it was originally predicted. I’m crossing my fingers that we don’t lose power.

I’ve been busy dealing with sick kids after the holidays, so I haven’t had a lot of time for writing or exercising. So, I’ve got to get back on track with both of those goals.

But enough about that. Today, I want talk about what I’ve been reading. I finally finished Stephen King’s 11/23/83. I enjoyed it. The time travel element was a nice spin and I enjoyed the relationship between George and Sadie. Did it answer the burning question, ‘did Oswald work alone?’

One of the Ten Best Books of The New York Times Book Review
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Now a miniseries from Hulu starring James Franco

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 readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-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 fifty 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.

My Thoughts:

Like I said before, I loved the relationship between George and Sadie. King has a way of creating believable characters. He has a way of showing them as flawed and strong at the same time, but enough about that. Did the story answer the question, ‘did Oswald work alone?’

According to the story, he did and the afterward in the book seems to lean that way as well. I wish there were a more concrete answer to that question, but I think you’ll have to do your own research to find an answer that satisfies you.

The story was told in fresh Stephen King style, and I liked it so much, I picked up another Stephen King book. So, this is what I’m reading now in between writing jaunts, work, and family. 😊

Soon to be an HBO limited series starring Ben Mendelsohn!

Evil has many faces…maybe even yours in this #1 New York Times bestseller from master storyteller Stephen King.

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens—Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon have DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying details begin to emerge, King’s story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.

I’m excited about this story. It looks really good and what better time to read than during an ice storm, right?

How about you? What are you reading? Do you have any recommendations for me? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!