Stephen King in my favorite author so it goes without saying that if he has written something new, I’m going to be one of the first to read it. My daughter bought me this book as an early Christmas present and I have to say I was a little hesitant to read it. As much as I love Stephen King, his last few books have not really excited me, they felt wordy and overlong.
I’m happy to say 11/22/63 changed all that. This book is an incredible piece of storytelling. It actually made me believe in time travel and not in a space alien going to the future way, but in a random it could happen way. The book was well thought out and researched, the detail was incredible.
The book is about a teacher, Jake Epping, who has the unique chance to go back and change the past. Thanks to his friend Al, who owns a diner which just happens to have a portal to the past. Al has been going back in time and he wanted to stop the Kennedy assassination but he developed cancer and was unable to complete the task so he passed this job onto Jake.
The detail from the time Jake returned to is amazing, the schools, the kids, the factories, the cigarette smoke everywhere. Jake starts by saving the family of a man he had in an adult education class, just to see if this really worked. When he came back to the present he found that he had saved the family so he returned to save our president.
I won’t tell you anymore because you really need to read it yourself. The theme that runs through this entire tale is how much impact one person has on the future, just by living their lives. Even if you are not trying to save anyone, everything you do impacts not only you but your family, your community, your planet. The simple decisions you make may have lasting impact that you can’t see or don’t realize at the time.
We may be little fish in a big pond but the ripples from our actions touch many people.
Get this book, you won’t be sorry. It’s not science fiction, it’s just a story about a man trying to do the right thing.