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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. 

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