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| Herbert George Wells, Father Of Time Travel |
Anyone who reads science fiction, or watches movies and television shows has seen probably dozens, or even hundreds, of time travel stories. There have been entire TV shows devoted to the concept, such as Voyagers, Time Tunnel, and Quantum Leap. The good Doctor has been travelling through time and space in his T.A.R.D.I.S for most of the last 50 years on Doctor Who. Ironically, it premiered on November 22, 1963, only to have the premiered overshadowed by the events of this novel. Some of these stories, movies, and series are great, some are good, and others are easily forgotten. But, there will be many more to come, and we can hope that they are all as good as the novel I am reviewing here.
In his newest novel, 11/22/63, Stephen King tackles time travel by positing that a man named Jake Epping is told he can travel back through a bubble in time to the year 1958 and right wrongs. The only problem is, every time someone travels through the bubble, any changes made on a previous trip disappear and the traveler always goes back to the exact same day and time in 1958. The man who introduces Jake to the bubble, Al Templeton, who is dying of cancer, convinces Jake that he must go back, and live in this past world until 1963 to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating John F. Kennedy. Armed with Al's research, Jake undertakes the task, and his journey takes him to Dallas to decide if Oswald worked alone, and what to do if he did. Does Jake succeed? If so, what effect does this have on the future he comes from?
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| Stephen King |
I've been a fan of Stephen King since I first read Carrie back in 1978. I picked the novel up in a flea market, with a corner showing the original price cut off of the cover, for twenty-five cents. after reading it, I was enthralled with the power of his writing and the way he made me care so quickly about his characters. I quickly read everything he had already published, and have waited impatiently for every new novel for almost thirty-five years now. I admit with pride that he is my favorite author, and hope to someday get a chance to meet him, or maybe even have a quote from him in a blurb on the cover of my novel someday. Even so, I do have to say, all of his novels aren't masterpieces. Oh, they are always decent stories, with wonderful characters. I always reach the end of one of his stories with a feeling of satisfaction. But, some just don't connect with the reader as well as others, in my opinion. The Stand, It, and Salem's Lot are better novels by a wide margin than, say, From A Buick 8 or The Tommyknockers, for instance.
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| The cover for 11/22/63 |
11/22/63 is what Stephen King seems to excel at: an epic story with world changing events told through the eyes of a very ordinary person who has extraordinary adventures. Of course, as in many of his stories, the protagonist is the storyteller, who also happens to be an author or English teacher. Obviously, when King decides to tell a story in first person, he puts himself into the mind of his protagonist. I think that is what makes these stories work so well, because who would know himself better than King? He puts his fears, desires, hopes, and dreams into these characters, and makes them come alive for the reader in a way that few authors can seem to approach. I also feel this is what helps to bring the other characters in these stories to life so vividly. In the case of 11/22/63, King not only brings to life his own characters, but also the historical characters in the story., especially Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife Marina.
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| Lee Harvey Oswald with wife Marina and daughter June |
With so many stories published, so may TV shows, and so many movies made about Oswald and J.F.K., most of the world feels they know Oswald pretty well. However; Stephen King has shone his unique spotlight deep into the psyche of this man through what had to be many hours of research, and gives us more insight into the man than I have ever had before. We see a portrait of a man who never was able to rise above being a small and petty man, with obvious self-esteem issues, who becomes one of the world's most reviled human beings. Through King, we learn that Oswald was a man who wanted nothing more than to be in control of everything in his life, and wanted to be "somebody", as Marlon Brando said in On The Waterfront. we also learn that he was the son of an emotionally abusive and controlling mother, who passes that abuse onto his wife. Yet, we also get glimpses of the man that tell us he also loved his wife and children very much, albeit in his own flawed way. He wanted a better world for his family, and fell prey to blaming the world for his own lacks, as so many do. King gives us an Oswald we very much both despise and feel sorry for in almost equal measures, in some of the best storytelling I have read from King in years. Obviously, other historical personages come in and out of the story, but none impact the story as much as Oswald himself.
As in other Stephen King novels, places also become character, and we revisit some characters and places from other novels. Richie and Beverly both appear in the story when Jake, now known as George Amberson, visits Derry right after the events of It. Amberson feels the evil that clouds Derry while there, and recognizes the same evil hanging over Dallas when he arrives there. He finds that the Texas School Book Depository has the same menace surrounding it that the Barrens do in Derry. Both Derry and Dallas are just places that are wrong, to George/Jake. Places that encourage acts of murder and other acts of violence just by their wrongness.
Of course, as Jake/George arrives several years before the assassination, he has a life to live until that time, and we are brought into that life, meeting characters both wonderful and vile. As Jake repeatedly tells us, the past harmonizes, and the past fights against being changed. Many obstacles are put in Jake's way as he tries to live a life as George Amberson, while trying to discover if Oswald worked alone, and what to do to stop him. As is most common in King's novels, a large chunk of the story takes place in a small town, albeit in Texas instead of Maine. While George tries to make as few changes as possible in the past, he does find himself caught up in events he never expected to, including falling in love. Once again, we are treated to amazingly realized characters that we quickly learn to love. There actually places in the novel that brought tears to my eyes because I had so deeply invested in these characters.
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| John F. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally just moments before the shooting on November 22, 1963 in Dallas. |
As I stated previously, although not as long as The Stand or It, 11/22/63 has the same epic feel as those novels. This is a story that, while it is basically the story of two men, affects the entire world, in both the past and future. I have always said that Stephen King is not really a writer, but a storyteller. While he writes great novels, you can also imagine these stories being told to you verbally, and being just as vivid. As King himself put it, good stories basically create a movie in the mind's eye, and this one accomplishes it powerfully. The novel may connect to the reader more than any other he has written, because it deals with subject matter that is history, and history many of his readers lived through. There are supernatural and science fiction elements to the story, but they are minimal compared to the historical events that unfold. Events that every adult and school age child knows about. Even those of us who were either not old enough to remember Kennedy's death, or not born yet, still feel the power of the images captured on that day, and after. No one who ever sees the image of Jackie Kennedy covering John's body in the car after he is shot, or the image of John Jr. saluting his fathers body as it passes during his funeral can ever forget them. Only a handful of events in history have that kind of power, especially in the last fifty years.
This is not the first piece of fiction I have read revolving around the J.F.K. assassination, and I doubt it will be the last. It isn't even the first dealing with time travel. However; 11/22/63 is something different, something special. There is a kind of magic here that will hold the reader spellbound in its grip from the very first page, and even through the author's afterword. I highly recommend this to fans of great fiction, fans of Stephen King, and fans of historical novels. As the saying goes, King has captured lightning in a bottle here, and proves that he has lost none of his voice as a storyteller.
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