Skip to main content

11/22/63: Would you risk it all to save JFK?

 


The assassination of JFK was always fascinating to me as a kid. I felt the same about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln or the sinking of the Titanic. Those seem to be turning points in history. I always wondered what would happen if I could go back in time and change just one of those events. 11/22/63 lets you travel back in the past to see if the assassination can be stopped. 

Synopsis

Jake Epping is a typical high school teacher wrapping up his grading at the end of another school year. He is just about to leave when he gets a call from Al Templeton, the local burger joint owner, to stop by his place before heading home. Al tells Jake about a secret that he has been keeping. Al has found a portal that allows him to go back to the late 1950s. Al has been using this to get cheap hamburgers for his diner but last time he decided to try to save Kennedy from the assassination on 11/22/63. Al has lung cancer and asks Jake to step into the portal to save JFK and make all things right in the world. Jake is reluctant but eventually accepts the challenge and steps through the portal, shortly after Al passes away. To test if the portal can change history, Jake stops a tragedy that has impacted a co-worker. The only catch to the portal is that whenever he enters it, it resets history as it was originally. Convinced that the portal can change history, he sets out on the adventure of his life to live in the late 50s and early 60s as he waits for that fateful day, 11/22/63.

My Thoughts

This is an engaging book from the beginning. Stephen King is a great writer that constantly keeps you on edge. Compared to some of his other books, this one is not horror-filled. It has been one of the most enjoyable books I have listened to/ read. The story is broken into a couple of smaller stories so that you always have something going on while you wait for the climax of the book. I don't want to say much more about the story because I do not want to spoil the story.

One of the more compelling themes is the idea of the obdurate past. Al presents this idea of a force that keeps the past from changing. It is almost as if the past itself is trying to preserve the events that occur. it can do this in several ways. Al blames the obdurate past for his contraction of cancer thus preventing him from saving JFK. He tells Jake to watch out for it. Jake confronts this force multiple times in his adventure and struggles to overcome it. Sometimes I wonder if we face similar things in our lives. It is as if something, angels or demons, guides actions so that certain things occur. An example is when we have an important event but on the way to it multiple things go wrong. We have a dead battery when we try to start the car. Then we hit every red light on the way to the event. Finally, we make it there with very little time and a line is in our way. It is a relatable element to the story and something that makes us ponder the supernatural world. 

This book is a great adventure and a fun journey into the 1950s/60s. However, some parts would make it unsuitable for younger readers. The first is that Jake has an intimate relationship with a married woman. She is working on getting a divorce and does get it, but she is married when they meet. There is also a fair amount of violence that breaks your heart. It is devastating to read/listen to and would be a lot for a younger reader to endure. I cannot recommend this book to anyone below 14 and would highly suggest a parent reads through it for a teenager. I also would suggest reading the book and not listening to it due to the profanity present. It is a grand adventure but I do not think it is a required read before you die. 

If you would like to support the blog, please consider purchasing the book through this link

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Truly Catholic Biology Textbook

Textbooks are not normally a book that gets discussed in a blog. However, my education background demands that I discuss textbooks. I started my professional career as a biology teacher. I love the subject but never felt that the textbooks properly conveyed biology. They tried to reduce life to atoms, molecules, and cellular processes. I eventually taught math and religion. This change allowed my frustration with biology to be shelved. That is until I came across Christ the King Books  and discovered a real biology textbook.  Christ the King vs All others Most textbooks I taught with used the approach of small to large. They began teaching atoms and molecules, then cells and their processes. Eventually, you move to organ systems and finally organisms. Teaching this way challenged my students. They had little exposure to chemistry. To compensate for that, they would receive a crash course at the beginning of biology. As a student, I hated these chapters and just wanted to learn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Harry Potter and the Great Controversy

Harry Potter is a lightning rod book series. Some say it is harmless fun with an epic good vs evil tale. Others claim it is demonically inspired fiction that is sure to lead your child to hell. Growing up, Harry Potter was a book series I read and watched all the movies, the sixth was the worst. I will present my thoughts on the series and if I would recommend it for your library.  Synopsis Harry Potter is an unlucky boy. We meet him after he has lost his parents and is forced to live with his unpleasant uncle, aunt, and cousin. We are told that he will be famous in the wizarding world but he will have no clue since he is living with his nonmagical family. He grows up with his aunt and uncle being treated like a second-class citizen while his cousin is spoiled rotten. Eventually, he gets a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry. His aunt and uncle refuse to let him see the letters until a half-giant called Hagrid, delivers the letter himself. Harry is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dolorous Passion: What Love our Lord Shows Us

  A week ago I was on a business trip in the south California valleys. When you are in the valleys, in every direction you look are mountains. They are majestic and beautiful so you pull out your camera to capture that sense of awe. I tried to capture the beauty so I could show it to my kids. After looking at the pictures, I knew that they would not do the landscape justice. Still, I did the best I could to convey it to them when I returned home. That is how speaking of this book is. There is a beauty that cannot be captured by explaining the book, you have to read it yourself.  Synopsis The book starts at the celebration of the Passover among Jesus and His apostles. It explains Christ commanding His apostles to prepare for the Passover meal It gives the events of the Passover and the secret movements of Judas. After completing the Passover, Jesus and His 11 apostles leave for the Mount of Olives. Christ then goes through His agony and you get a glimpse of the temptations and ...
Post a Comment
Read more