22/11/63

My WORD, but this book is long! It's good, don't get me wrong, but it's long. It took me exactly a month to read it, and I'm not exactly a slow reader.

I watched the TV series a few years ago when it came out, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. But then, I remember thinking that THAT was a bit long too--only six episodes, sure, but each one was about 58 minutes. That's long for an episode of a TV series.

The book is way longer. There's so much more depth than on TV (which is no surprise), and I particularly enjoyed the references to [b:It|830502|It|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1334416842s/830502.jpg|150259] in 1958 Derry. All that extra depth, though, while enjoyable and flavourful, weren't really necessary to tell the story, in my opinion.

Yoh, this book is long. I guess it wouldn't have bothered me so much if there were more (but shorter) chapters. What got to me was getting to the end of a particularly long chapter, and having this feeling of achievement because it took two full days of reading sessions to finish, and then starting the next one and having Kindle tell me something like "1 hr and 10 mins left in chapter".

I mean, really?!

I don't remember whose recommendation convinced me to pick up this book; just that it was along the lines of “this isn’t the Stephen King you read in your teens”. And it sure isn't. 11/22/63 was unexpectedly good: powerful, moving, with deeply human characters facing extraordinary challenges.

Tome-length jokes aside, King’s writing is crisp and riveting. It was hard to put this book down. The story is a good one and the protagonist/narrator exquisitely self-aware; we feel his conflicts. King has matured tremendously. (Or is it me? If I reread his 1980’s work will I find this level of compassion and intelligence?)

Unfortunately for me he still feels the need to infuse some mumbo-jumbo: the past “harmonizing” with itself, two aura-of-evil presences, and a sort of sense of a Grand Scheme Of Things. Not much, just very light occasional sprinklings, but enough to drop to four stars. I guess I'm sensitive to those.

L’inévitable Stephen King revient avec un pavé de 1 kilo d’arbre mort de papier, mais si vous êtes adepte du confort en toute circonstance vous aurez sans doute profité de sa version numérique qui ne pèse rien. King nous revient donc avec un superbe roman mêlant histoire américaine et voyage dans le temps. Il prend le temps nécessaire pour présenter les personnages, Jake Epping, prof d’anglais tout ce qu’il y a de plus commun, et Al, vieux cuistot mourant qui lui lègue un bien curieux héritage. Nous sommes immédiatement immergé dans le monde de Jake, l’actuel, qu’il quitte assez vite, et le passé qu’il découvre en même temps que nous, devant faire face un certain décalage linguistique, culturel, social et moral. Jake devient alors George, et va devoir passer quatre ans dans le passé avant d’arriver au moment de l’Histoire où Lee Harvey Oswald assassine Kennedy. Ce laps de temps permet à Jake/George de prendre ses marques dans les années soixante, mais aussi de s’assurer que Lee Harvey Oswald était bien le seul impliqué dans l’assassinat du Président, avant de l’empêcher de tirer le coup de feu fatal.

King prend pour trame un moment fort de l’Histoire et expose clairement son parti pris, toutefois, si l’on se remet en mémoire beaucoup d’élément de « l’affaire », il ne s’agit pas d’un roman historique, ni d’un exposé décortiquant la théorie du complot ou du tueur isolé. N’oublions pas que George a quatre ans à tirer avant d’intervenir, quatre ans pendant lesquels il travaille, vit, avant de pouvoir commencer à espionner les faits et gestes d’Oswald. Inévitablement, des rencontres se font, et son implication dans la communauté aura des conséquences sur le futur, un effet papillon plus ou moins notable, jusqu’à ce que l’amour surgisse ! Ah ! Voilà donc l’élément qui ne va pas faciliter la vie de George ! Ce dernier devra mener une vie normale de prof et œuvrer dans l’ombre pour empêcher l’assassinat de Kennedy, le tout en gardant bien sûr le secret sur ses activités. Le roman est tout autant un roman de SF, qu’une peinture de l’Amérique des années 60. On est immergé avec Jake dans ce passé pas si lointain mais si différent. Les personnages sont tous très attachants et formidablement mis en valeur, les relations qui se nouent sont touchantes, la double vie de George nous fait craindre pour sa mission, et sa vie amoureuse. Fatalement tout se complique et comme le dit souvent George, prévenu par Al, le passé est tenace, et plus on approche du moment fatidique, plus la mission semble impossible et vouée à l’échec.

Je n’en dirai pas plus, car l’intrigue est riche, les péripéties des personnages nombreuses. L’issue de la mission de Jake/George, si elle est attendue, ne perd rien en émotion. Les derniers chapitres sont particulièrement intenses, tandis que le dernier paragraphe vous fera vider la boîte de kleenex si comme moi vous avez un petit cœur tout mou. Parce que bon, c’est quand même drôlement beau et émotionnant comme final.

J’ai failli faire la liste des bourdes et autres coquilles de l’édition française, mais entre les étranges et anachroniques choix de traduction, et les puzzles grammaticaux, ça commençait à faire beaucoup. On sait que le métier de correcteur est sous-payé ET en voie de disparition, mais tout de même si Albin Michel fait l’impasse sur les corrections où allons-nous ? Réponse : se faire plumer pour un torchon bourré de coquilles !

Heureusement il s’agit d’un excellent cru de Stephen King, ceci sauvant cela.

Jake is a recently divorced high school teacher who finds himself time traveling to 1958. Fascinated by the chance to live his life in what feels like a much simpler time without mobile phones and the internet, Jake decides to live a life that transgresses all the normal rules. He makes his home in 1958, gets a job he enjoys, falls in love with the beautiful librarian and tries to live the ultimate American dream. But he is also obsessed with making the world right, most importantly trying to stop a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. But does Jake know just how much the world would change if he stops the Kennedy assassination?

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve not read much by Stephen King before, two books in fact (one of those was On Writing). I went into this book expecting a novel about time travel and the effects of changing the past would have. I also expected some weird plot with supernatural or horror elements but that’s just what I expect from King. What I got was something a lot different; this was more of a “what if?” novel. King explores his own thoughts of alternate history and time travel but he doesn’t really stop with that.

Possibly the most unexpected part of this novel was the character building and living life in the late fifties and sixties. King does an interesting job at telling a story of living in the era but in his own unique way by making the protagonist feel out of his element. The whole idea of living life in a time you are not from and finding someone in that time that could possibly be your soul mate. That was not what I thought King would write about but he did a great job building a memorable story around what he wanted to talk about.

Sure, some people are going to want him to skip all the normal life stuff and get to the time travel and alternate history aspects but I found it enjoyable leading up to it. It’s no Mad Men with the characters and life in the sixties but I did enjoy reading it. It’s a huge book and it could have been trimmed but if I was the one to take out elements I probably would have taken out the time travel. Then the book wouldn’t have worked as well.

I’m very interested in that time period, but I would have either preferred a more Mad Men style novel or more noir style with the war on organised crime and those dodgy back door deals made by the FBI. It did end out being a very interesting novel; it definitely surpassed my expectations and turned into a good read. Stephen King is a good story teller but there was not much to love about the prose and style but overall it was worth the read.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2012/11/21/book-review-112263/

Given a chance to go back in time to before president Kennedy was shot, would you go back and try and save him?

That’s the predicament faced by mild mannered school teacher Jake Epping in 11.22.63 , who discovers that the local diner contains a portal back into 1958 America.

Nostalgia

King has done a wonderful job here in invoking a sense of nostalgia in me for a simpler time. Which is quite a feat given that he has me pining for a time before I was born. Perhaps he is aided by the cultural baggage associated with the Kennedy era that Hollywood is fond of exploiting and exporting.

A consummate weaver

The strength of this book lies in King’s complex layering of character and plot. On reflection, the consequences of meddling with time should be blatantly obvious to both the reader and the character but it’s King’s skill and experience that shores up what would probably have fallen apart in the hands of another.

Neither Jake nor the reader are given the time to reflect on what meddling with time might do. King applies pressure from the outset - Al the owner of the diner where the portal is located, is dying and the lease can’t be renewed. So from the outset there’s time pressure.

The portal always links to 1958 and while returning through the portal to 1958 effectively erases all changes of previous visits, there’s a pressure to get things right first time as the time traveller still ages.

Initially this isn’t a problem, Jake runs a few “test missions”, altering the lives of people he knows who have had unfortunate life events. This is done to convince himself that it’s possible and to understand the forces he’s up against in a past that doesn’t want to be changed.

But preventing the Kennedy assassination is a five year mission, if he stuffs up Jake can have a “do over’ but he’s a 5 years older, with another 5 years to fight against an obdurate past.

Intricate plot details aside it’s the characters that really made this novel for me. So good was King’s portrayal of 60’s small Town Texas and the characters within, that I didn't care about Kennedy by about half way through the novel.

Herein lies another pressure - Jake falls in love with a woman and a town. Jake and the reader are torn between wanting the life he is living in small town Texas protected and completing his mission to save Kennedy.

A tireless romantic

This book rammed home to me how much of a romantic I am. I didn’t like the ending, but it’s true to the story. At a hefty 700+ pages this is a book to pace yourself on, to enjoy the alternate reality that King has created.

Not a fan of the Kennedy era? It really doesn’t matter, the lives and characters King creates are enough to sustain interest.

This book was provided to me by the publisher at no cost.