11/22/63

By Stephen King

11/22/63 - Stephen King
  • Release Date: 2011-11-08
  • Genre: Fiction & Literature
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 8,465 Ratings

Description

One of the Ten Best Books of The New York Times Book Review
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize


ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN DALLAS, PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED, AND THE WORLD CHANGED. WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BACK?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer—takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away—a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life—like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963—turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

Reviews

  • I had a Sunday planned…

    5
    By Inked Beastie
    75° on a Sunday, and the county fair is on its last day… less than a block away. I had an entire day planned, until the last paragraph of chapter 3. Now I’m stuck in grubby sweats, and reading a book on my phone. Stephen King really threw me on this one, and I’m so excited to finish this book. RIP to the corn dogs, and fair. Perhaps I’ll come up for air around 8, when the fair lights come on.
  • My favorite King novel

    5
    By Kevin Hoctor
    I’ve enjoyed many of Mr. King’s works, but some are a slog to get through. This one was hard to put down, but I also didn’t want to rush through it. The timing (no pun intended) and pace of this book are nearly flawless. I highly recommend this novel.
  • Super Fun

    5
    By VagusDoc
    Super fun book to read for all the family to enjoy.
  • Great book but… my paid copy is gone?

    3
    By JimmyD
    This was the first book I bought through Apple Books, for my iPad. I no longer have it. I wonder how many other books I’ve bought are gone or will vanish.
  • 11/22/63

    5
    By #Dungda8
    Fantastic novel! Spectacular ending, and great references to It and Derry. With a pure sc-fi vibe, fell in love with the amazing characters definitely recommend
  • Meh

    3
    By MJW6506
    It was okay. I liked the shining better
  • King at his best.

    4
    By Jasperjetson
    Loaded with the usual King hooks, “ a band from Austin was playing and they were laying it down”. The red Christine Plymouth, the IT clown, always a mention of Shawshank. Back to Derry. Very good read.
  • History buff

    5
    By Tyler H from Charlotte
    If you’re a history buff plus a Stephen King fan like me…then this is the book for you, especially if you have conspiracy theory thoughts and concerns. This was my first novel by the legend that I read and I only bought it because I had just read “Killing Kennedy” and all of that knowledge was fresh on my brain and it DID NOT disappoint.
  • Wow

    5
    By JTW4E
    Absolutely amazing! This is Stephen King at his best!
  • Fantastic Read

    5
    By bangtan_bun
    This book is brilliant, one of the best I have ever read. It’s fascinating from beginning to end and nearly impossible to put down. A wondercully excellent non-horror book from Stephen King.