Review: Stephen King's "11/22/63"

Stephen King's “11/22/63” This book was long, and took me longer to read than most of his long books, even. It came out on the 8^th, and I had initially wanted to finish it on time for the actual anniversary (hard to believe that it has been 48 years since the assassination of JFK, which took place slightly less than 11 years before I was born!). Yet, the devil fools with the best laid plans, right? I actually misplaced this book for an entire week, only to finally find it at my weekend job, tucked away in a desk drawer. I immediately got back to work on it, although my hopes of finishing it by the 22^nd were obviously gone by then.

Having long been anticipating this one, because it sounded intriguing, I was counting down the days until it was finally released like few books that have come before it. The idea is this: a man gets the opportunity to go back in time, and he has a very specific mission: to save John F. Kennedy from the assassin's bullet on that fateful November day in Dallas. Only, of course, he is a human being, and so he gets wrapped up in very human concerns. Understandable. He meets a girl, falls in love. He makes mistakes, and then has to cope with these, even pays quite a price for them. Still, he feels himself to be on a mission. But then he is torn between his commitment to saving JFK (and thus altering world history for what he assumes to be for the better), and his desire to be with her throughout his preparations for this epic event.

I have never read a bad Stephen King book, and this one was not disappointing, either. He, like Erik Larson, is able to make the past come alive, and he was convincing this time, as well. The fifties and sixties felt real, and the most convincing aspects of this are in the details. He pays attention, and being such a seasoned author, he makes this look easy. Of course, the premise of time travel may sound absurd and unrealistic, yet he makes it seem, and feel, very realistic and close. He puts you in the shoes of the main character.

There are questions left, of course. The main question seems to be one that applies in our present day lives, ironically. Can we, as human beings, possibly understand the full ramifications of our actions? Even if we mean well, there are some things, some realities, that we cannot change. In creating a character and situation where the past can be changed, a well intentioned man is forced to ask himself if having the power to change the past necessarily means that he should, even if he initially thinks that by so doing, the world would be a better place. It shows us, ultimately, that although perhaps we see that our efforts will be with a design to eliminate evil or create a better world, we ultimately cannot know the full ramifications of our actions. It is a story about acceptance, ultimately. Of coming to terms with our own smallness, our inability to alter the past, or indeed even the present, and make it exactly what we would want it to be, ideally. Ours in not an ideal world, and we just have to cope with it the best that we can. Things can be worse, even when we perhaps lose sight of this fact.

This book was a departure for Stephen King, because it has a lot to do with an actual historical event, and has virtually nothing to do with much of his other works. Yet, he has one interesting diversion, when the main character visits the world of Derry in 1958, and meets a couple of the characters from an earlier work of his, “IT”. That was quite entertaining and enjoyable, and showed cleverness on King's part. Yet, the book remains unique among his works. Of course, I personally have always felt that he was too quickly labeled as writer of “horror”, when some of his most memorable works, such as “Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile”, in fact have nothing to do wit horror. Much like those, this is an enjoyable read that brings the past to life, so that you almost feel like you yourself were in Dallas on that fateful day that changed the world, nd serves also as a reminder that we cannot change the past and make it what we wanted it to be. We simply have to adapt and go on with our lives.