Discussion of 11.22.63

[Scott]

Please use this topic to discuss the April 2012 book of the month, 11.22.63 by Stephen King. Please wait until you have finished the book to read this topic because this topic will contain spoilers.

What do you think of the book? Did you have any favorite parts or characters?

I haven't read many of Stephen King's other work, but I was surprised about the reference to his other work, It, in this book. Does he do that often in his writing? Were other references to other books I missed because I hadn't read them? I also think he was making references to his Shawshank because I don't believe that is real prison even though it was mentioned several times.

Overall, I found the book to not be that scary. It was a little spooky at times and the premise was kind of spooky. What do you think? I remember the book The Shining being scarier, but I read that when I was a lot younger. For those who have read a lot of Stephen King's other books, do you think this one represents the kind of scariness of his other books?

I do think he knows how to keep the suspense going even the littlest hints. It's very talents. Namely, I'm thinking of how early in the story he brought in the Yellow Card Man and even though he is a brief character he is able to make him represent something scary without telling you anything about him, but yet you know there is about that that isn't going to sit well.

Anyway, what do you all have to say about the book?

[katesolomon]

Hello Everybody.

I saw this forum and found it interesting. I like to read and this seems to be ultimate place to know more about reading.

[Narablueeyes]

I've many of his books and I can't recall him mentioning his other works in other books. I just don't remember. I don't think this book was supposed to scary (in the other worldly sense) but in the way it took the Kennedy timeline to show how things could've been so much worse. Not a good explanation but for a Monday morning, it's the best I could do.

It wasn't my favorite but it was still King good. My favorites are Duma Key, Bag of Bones, Under The Dome, and Lisey's Story. I'm among the minority in that aspect among my friends. But I thought this book was a great twist for him.

[Error3]

I think I'll pick it up when I drop the book Im reading off at the library

from the title it doesnt sound like Id like it but hey why not maybe Im wrong

[Limase63]

I've had this in my Audible library for months. Can't seem to bring myself to listen to it. Once I do, I hope it's worth the time.

[lolis]

I loved this book! I'm not a Stephen King fan and I wouldn't have picked thid book to read if it hadn't been the book of the month pick. I kept hoping for a way that he could get the girl at the end. I thought the portrayal of Dallas and the consequenses of saving Kennedy were a little harsh and somewhat political biased. All in all I give it 5 stars! I dont know how to add it to the chart
He mentions that his son came up with the ending, I'm still wondering about the first ending!

-- 22 Apr 2012, 13:51 --

Sorry! I just realized that the highest rating is 4 stars! I give it a 4!

[amandawas]

I finished this book not long ago and I honestly think it is not one of my favorites. I've been waiting for me friend to finish it so I have someone to talk to about it. I have always loved Stephen King but would never suggest anyone read his books, until this one. I was hooked from the first couple of pages and couldn't wait until I could read it everyday. Once he started tracking Oswald I seriously got obsessed. I re-watched JFK and tried to convince my husband to read it, but he wouldn't. Anyway, just wanted to give my opinion. I just joined so I'm looking forward to reading the next book and discussing

[StephenKingman]

^ reall glad you liked it, it also ranks as one of my personal King favorite books, he really shone through with the finale.

[angus]

I have not read 11.22.63 , never intended to. I do know though . The last steven king book i read hot of the press was - IT. , took me ages to read, the last King book i have read since to date until i recently out of chance i picked up a book by King called Hearts in Atlantis. Thats IT , Steven king is back on my readers list.

[RuqeeD]

Just finished it in the early hours of the morning, which wasnt good because I knew I'd have to get up in a few hours for work but I had to finish it!

Let me start off by saying I've never been particularly inclined to read anything by Stephen King, ever since I gave up reading a book of his in high school somewhere between chapter 5 and chapter 8 and frankly never looked back. But I thought I'd give this one a go, mostly because it was the book of the month and I thought why not? I didn't particularly go into it with an open mind because the subject matter covered two things I have little interest or patience for, one being American (especially political American) history and the other being time travel, the latter being something I would like to run over with my car (if I still had my car that is ).

What appealed to me almost from the get go was the fact thatKing didnt attempt to unravel the mystery of time travel or try and apply logic to something that is so illogical, that waythe reader just sort of accepted the fact there was this rip in the world in which you could just happen to go back to 1958. And I apreciated how he sort of eases you in to some of the complexities without hitting you head first so you dont know whats heads or whats tail. Even though you only start to graspthe whole harmonising business towards the end, at least it shows that at least 30% of the book wasnt just a filler. Which is what I thought during that 30% of the book, and was actually thinking if I could just skip it. That whole section after he killed whatshisname and before he met Sadie was a little dragging for me. It was a solid 3/5 for me up til then. Then it really picked up, got a boost of energy and literally raced to the end and I couldn't put it down, which meant I stayed up to the early hours of Monday morning cursing the book, because I had to get up for work

I thought the whole what life would be like if Kennedy had lived was perhaps a little overdone but I appreciated why it might have to be overdone.

I really think the whole Kennedy thing was just secondary to the main aspect of the book, which was Jake and Sadie (I'm a romantic at heart). I knew it wouldnt work out, but it was still heart wrenching right the end, gosh that last line was a tear jerker.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised on how I enjoyed the book, and perhaps might foray into other of King's work here and there and see what I find (although I know I'll be avoiding the Clown one -picked up that reference in th book and even that gave me the heebie jeebies

I would give it 4/5.

[Neet]

I was not inclined to read this book but due to it being the book of the month I thought I'd give it a go, and I am so
Glad I did I really really enjoyed it. I've ready many of King's books in the past and must say I find a lot of the hit or miss,
This would definitely be one of his best.

I think compared to his earlier work King has matured and evolved some what if you go into reading this book expecting it to be like the shining, pet semetary etc you will be sorely disappointed. The whole concept of the novel was brilliantly worked and and as previously said in another post the topic of American political history and time travel previously held no
Interest for me, but I found my self hooked. I found this book not to be scary and If I dare say it felt that it wasn't intended to be written that way if anything parts could be a bit eerie and left you with that weird déjà vu feeling. But not in a scared check the closet before you go to bed feeling. It was like shawshank redemption and the green mile not necessarily scary but just enough to be a bit upsetting in places.

[Fran]

Great that The Book of the Month succeeds in getting us reading books we might not dream of picking up normally.

[Scott]

I think this book convinced me that Stephen King is indeed an amazing writer. However, there still several things that just didn't jive with me about this book especially when taking overall. I say overall because you could take from the point right before Jake met Sadie up until she is shot and have that be its own shorter book and it would still be a great, emotional read. The same goes for just the part with janitor's family. A long kind of epic book like this feels like it is made up of several shorter stories and like I say Stephen King is a great writer.

I felt a little cheated that the history with Sadie was apparently undone and for that matter the janitor's family. This is always a risk with time-travel stories, but it feels like a 'it was just a dream' ending which I don't like. However, I love the dance at the end with Sadie where she almost has a feeling of remembering; it's emotional and reminds me of the ending of the Time Traveler's Wife even though in that one the old lady remembers the man. It's something the oldness and the fact that at least one of the people has been waiting a long time to see the person they love for just a single glorious watied-for moment that represents that nature of love, life and their fleetingness. '

Also, I did not like the sort of of plot device that makes saving JFK not a viable option. It was too supernatural for my likes. It caused earth quakes almost immediately? If the reason he has to go back and restore time and not meet Sadie in the real time line is because of the unintended consequences of his presence in the past, I'd rather those unintended consequences be explainable as the butterfly effect rather than that there's too many strings of time and so forth so that it will cause some sort of supernatural apocalypse. It sort of seems to undo the entire book.

I also am not completely certain why Jake feels he cannot go back in time and re-meet Sadie and maybe save the Janitor's family but just choose not to save JFK and maybe take Sadie to the future. Those smaller things didn't seem to have some terrible effect. I guess he had to reset time back to close to normal before the portal was destroyed in the future so that timelines would match or whatever; I'm still not clear on all that. But I don't see why after resetting it once again he cannot go back once again and get Sadie before resetting it one last time. Maybe it's that the seemingly universal instability is still there until he himself goes back and let's the future play out. Did anybody understand better than I the rules of time travel given by King summed up near the end by the card-holding guard of the portal?

I suppose King didn't mean for it to be the most thoroughly thought out and analyzable sci-fi universe in terms of time-traveling rules. He just wanted an admittedly illogical way to give us story about a man from the future living in the past, stalking Oswald and saving JFK. That's fair enough, but I wasn't alive for JFK and a lot of the well-researched facts such as Oswald's personal habits and living situation did not interest me as much as it might many others. In any case, if someone wants to read historical fiction set near the times of the JFK-assassination, then this is the book to go for.

[jayceeme2010]

Quite interesting.

[Asherat by the Sea]

Review of "11/22/63" by Stephen King
May26th 2012


Let me start by first stating that the only other Stephen King book I’ve read is “The Shining”. I have never found my tastes to roam towards the horror genre, which was why I was apprehensive about this book. I consulted with some friends who had read it and asked their opinion—most said that it was quite a departure from his typical work.

After the first few chapters I was, indeed, hooked! I would not classify this story as a ‘horror’ but there were some definitely creepy parts! What shocked me the most was the depth of writing and the stylized vocabulary from the 50’s era, the Texans, and the New Englanders. It was very enjoyable to be immersed in a different time/place for a spell.

The first third of the book flew by! The ‘bubble in time’, the thrilling Clayton-Family-Murder sequence and the romance between George a.k.a. Jake and Sadie were immersive. The second third in which George spends most of this time spying on Oswald was a little long for me. I lost interest and began to long for some action and a conclusion to the endless eaves-dropping. The final third was very interesting—the harmonies and the repetitions that kept occurring in the past were chilling at times. And of course, the ‘altered’ present when George/Jake returned to 2011 was obviously a shock.

At the conclusion, I found myself wondering what really would have happened had Kennedy been saved. I'm not American, but I found the idea very interesting none-the-less. Also, not being American, I learned a lot about the history surrounding the event of Kennedy's assassination. The 'Book Depository' was unknown to me and though I knew the name of Lee Harvey Oswald (I live in Canada, not under a rock!) I really didn't know anyhting about him or who he was. I liked the peripheral information that King gave about this incredibly important moment in time. I especially enjoyed the make-believe "thank-you" that George/Jake received from both JFK and his wife, Jackie after saving their lives. I can only imagine how surreal that would have felt from George/Jake's point of view.

Overall, I found the book very well written, the story engaging, and the characters rich and rounded. I would recommend the book to others. Happy reading all.

~Asher