11.22.63 by Stephen KingMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Blurb from Goodreads
This enhanced edition includes the trailer and a short film written and narrated by Stephen King, which gives a unique insight into '11.22.63'.
WHAT IF you could go back in time and change the course of history? WHAT IF the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless . . .
King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life - a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.
With extraordinary imaginative power, King weaves the social, political and popular culture of his baby-boom American generation into a devastating exercise in escalating suspense.
My review
I have been looking forward to this since I heard it was getting written. A story with time travel and heading back to when Kennedy was around with the chance to change the future, fabulous idea. Jake is a great character who changes and grows and he goes through the mind boggling experience of time travel whilst trying to keep his mind focused on the task in hand he can't help but get caught up in other peoples lives.
The only thing that might annoy some readers is that the story doesn't just go straight to Kennedys assassination, there is a whole chunk (3 quarters of the book) of what he does until that time, the characters he meets and relationships he builds up. However I really liked that aswell as the characters all play an important part to the story and for a small part we have a link to one of Stephen Kings previous books, I love when a character from a previous story shows up (even if in passing or a small part).
I have often heard people say Stephen King isn't as good as he once was however I would say pick this up and give it a go, it will restore your faith and rekindle the love for Stephen Kings writing. 4/5 for me.
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I've heard good and bad things about this one. It seems like one of those books you can like if you keep an open mind and recognize that it's not just a straight up assassination story. That's what I take from your review at least.
ReplyDeleteNice review! I've had this on 'the list' since I first heard about it and it sounds great. I loved King in my teens but haven't read any for years...mostly for the reason you mentioned (I felt like he had lost 'it').
ReplyDeleteI'll give this one a go though, definitely!