4.12: 11/22/63, by Stephen King (2011 hardcover, borrowed from Tracy D.)

In posts 46 (American Vampire) and 92.11 (Full Dark, No Stars), I expressed my admiration for Stephen King's storytelling skill. I have, I believe, read every book King has written, and at times I find myself defending my devotion. When I recently told a friend I was reading 11/22/63, he exclaimed skeptically, "Stephen King? Really?" Really.

I think many of my contemporaries read Carrie and The Shining, and even more saw the movies, but fewer have followed the rest of King's career. I took a 15 to 20-year break myself, until I stumbled upon The Dark Tower series King started in 1982 at age 19 and took 22 years to finish  (publishing additional volumes in 1987, 1991, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2004). It's claimed that King intentionally set out to write his own Lord of the Rings epic, and the alternative reality established in The Dark Tower books is just as compelling as anything by Tolkien--although a bit darker, as one might expect of King. The books, inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and borrowing from Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," follow the tales of Roland Deschain of Gilead (The Gunslinger) as he pursues the man in black (No, not Johnny Cash, alas.) who sets him on a journey to the Dark Tower. This review isn't about the Dark Tower, of course, so I won't go further into it, but what did come out of my reading the series was a new love of King's writing. Add the fact that he managed to weave in story threads from his previous novels--which I was then compelled to go back and read--and I was smitten.

While the Dark Tower series was King's venture into a completely different world/time, the majority of his books are set in contemporary American society. There's a great familiarity to events, people, and places--but with a twist of the unreal, unlikely, or downright insane. 11/22/63 starts off in a familiar 2011, with an average high school English teacher doing typical things. When Jake Epping steps sideways, though, into another time--1958--we're in the realm of Stephen King.  There's a lot to this realm, evidenced by the 842 pages it covers, but the main premise is that Jake sets off with the goal of stopping the assassination of JFK, armed with the meticulous notes of a man who set off to do the same but was unable to complete his mission once cancer and age caught up with him. The possibility of taking on a task such as saving Kennedy exists due to the particular characteristics of King's time portal--no matter how much time is spent on the other side, when Jake returns to this side, only two minutes will have elapsed. And, when he travels back, he arrives in the exact same place and time in 1958 as before, essentially resting anything he did during the previous visit.

King always does a remarkable job of making the impossible seem entirely normal, and that holds true in this book as well, mainly because the majority of things that happen are just so average--eating and traveling and driving cars and falling in love. Like Jake, who must live in an alternate time for five years after arriving in America at the end of the 1950s (14 years before he was born) in order to change the history books, readers are immersed in the time period. The past is obdurate, we learn with Jake, and resists change. And, if Jake can change events, what would ultimately come of a world where a watershed moment is remarkably altered? Would saving JFK also save Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, as Jake and his predecessor hope? Would the Vietnam War be avoided, saving thousands of American lives? What of the Civil Rights movement?

Jake spends most of the book pondering these thoughts, which allows readers the same opportunity. It's exhilarating, and difficult, and a bit scary. It's King at his enduring best.