Review-Stephen King's 11.22.63

11/22/63 by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As Stephen King said repeatedly in 11.22.63, “The past harmonizes”....and so does this book. 11.22.63 shows King traveling in the time streams between 2011 and 1958 United States. I agree with Time Magazine when they said that this book is a great travelogue back to the 1950’s American Landscape. However, this book is much more than just a mere nostalgic kick down Route 66.

The main character, Jack Epping, thinks he must go back in time and stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. He, like many, feels that if just John F. Kennedy was not shot then the world would be a much better place. But we find that changing the strings of time is never for the better no matter the intentions. And you can’t stop God’s hand in our storied time; there is no legislation to do away with earthquakes, or tornadoes.

This book was tremendously researched, and because of this one comes away with a sense that this really could be true. King used his historical research and connected the strands into one epic masterfully. He is a master at pinpointing the zeitgeist for our age; he understands the times and the people better than the talking heads over at C.N.N. and Fox News. I might even say that Stephen King is our current United State's Charles Dickens.

Be careful for time traveling with King has the possibility of creating jet leg without stepping across a time zone. The end of the book is a stunner.

Readers who liked this book can also check out Jack Finney’s Time and Again and From Time to Time.
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