11.22.63

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Craig Wasson

Length: 30 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

What if you could go back in time and change the course of history? What if the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless....

King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life - a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

With extraordinary imaginative power, King weaves the social, political and popular culture of his baby-boom American generation into a devastating exercise in escalating suspense.

©2011 Stephen King (P)2011 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

“This new epic from Stephen King rates among the best he’s written – no small praise for the man who wrote Carrie, It, The Stand and Under the Dome.” ( Trucking News)

Worth Every Second

This is the first Stephen Hill novel that I have completely read. And my God. He can write. I know that's no surprise to anybody, ever, but it was my first experience with it. 11.22.63 made me cry, laugh, and had me so thoroughly engrossed that the 30 hrs. flew by. I loved his explanation of time travel, I loved the harmonies. And Jake (George) was an amazing character. Craig Wasson did a phenomenal job with the narration. Maine and Texan accents, impersonations of Kennedy, different ages, and female characters were all covered and covered well. The whole experience gave me absolute chills.

Ok

Overall, I really enjoyed this but it got a bit tedious at times. Worth it in the end.

Loved the narrator, really captured the story

My first Steven King novel and I loved it. Story was great, I wouldn’t say lots of twists but definitely a ride and a great story, one I’ll hold onto forever. I just also feel I need to say that it was narrated absolutely beautifully. I’ve often not gone past the first chapter in some audiobooks because the narration doesn’t work. I’m actually going to look at more stories narrated by the same person I enjoyed his reading so much. I grew up with an elderly teacher who would read novels for hours and put on all the accents and voices, get right into it- even jump up and stomp on the ground yelling and this narrator took me back to lying on the carpet at primary school and listening to those stories, the main reason I enjoyed books so much growing up was how they were read to me. Thank you Mr King for writing a beautiful book and thank you Mr Wasson for your amazing reading of this story.

the best!

I am now going to have to review all my previous book reviews and down grade them all to a 4 because none reaches the standard of this book by Stephen King. This is his best so far. The plot is well researched, interesting and very entertaining. The overriding theme is love, care for mother earth, and the world that is our reality. King has described with great thought about the world and how it might have turned out somewhat differently if changes to historical facts had occurred. I found this book immensely satisfying and thoroughly recommend it. I was a bit hesitant about the reader for for about the first minute but was quickly absorbed into the story and the storytelling by the narrator who is a true artist. Much better than The Dome. I will think about this book for a long time to come.

Simply the best audio book I have listened too

I haven't been much of a Stephen King fan but when I saw this book I was interested in the premise so I decided to give it a listen. There are so many things that I enjoyed about this audio book that the review I could write would be longer than the book itself! The narration was done in such a good way that I felt I was sitting down at the kitchen table while the main character was just telling me his story. I found myself being sucked in the story so much that the only thing that was missing was my ability to stop and ask questions,

Now...being someone that belives that there is no way Oswald operated alone, or fired the fatal shot for that matter, that aspect of the story challenged me, but hey.. isn't that what good chats around the kitchen table are suppose to do!??

A++++ from me..

Brilliant--what more can anyone ask for?

Where does 11.22.63 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I now have two favourites: 11 22 63 and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I thought nothing would ever equal Fry, but it has. This.

What other book might you compare 11.22.63 to and why?

I have no idea. I don't normally read King, but am so pleased I read this. It truly was brilliant. Probably better as an audio book as the narrator truly performed the characters and I felt like I was listening to a play with dozens of actors, not one actor alone.

Which character – as performed by Craig Wasson – was your favorite?

All of them, but I'd have to say Jake, obviously. Also loved the bookies, Mimi, JFK himself, Sadie, Deek, the school kids in the play.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The past is belligerent.

Any additional comments?

King fan or not, this is a brilliant story, wonderfully researched and constructed. It seems like one of those novels a writer waits their whole life to write--and everyone, author and readers are like, are truly rewarded for the wait. A bit like Kingslover with the Poisonwood Bible.

Stephen King at his best

Would you consider the audio edition of 11.22.63 to be better than the print version?

Walk into a room down a stair and come out in 1958.....
Only Stepen king kan make this the most natural ting to do..

Superb

If you could sum up 11.22.63 in three words, what would they be?

Thoroughly enjoyable read

Have you listened to any of Craig Wasson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to many of his performances an this one definitely compares with his better ones

Excellent, Engaging, and Moving

Would you consider the audio edition of 11.22.63 to be better than the print version?

I've never read the print version, but the audio version came alive with Wasson's narration

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The enigmatic "Green/Ochre Card Man" was the most interesting. In that part of the story, we finally get a glimpse into how the time tunnel works and the enormous repercussions that occur when changing the past. I found this even more intriguing because not everything is explained. Some details are left to the reader to interpret, thus adding to the mysterious nature of the phenomenon.

The least interesting part was Part 4: Jake's detailed story of living with Sadie and watching Oswald. I just found that this part dragged on for far longer than it had to and subtracted from the initially great pace of the first three parts. The review lost one star because of this.

Have you listened to any of Craig Wasson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. But he is very talented and I found myself listening to "Jake", not Wasson. The performances are outstanding.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

When you have the power to alter history, even the best intentions can have monstrous consequences...

Any additional comments?

This novel engaged me right from the start. The mystery of Al's sudden aging and the revelation of the Rabbit Hole all the way through to Jake's first wondrous adventure to 1958 were all so thrilling and wonderful to experience. There were a number of scenes that moved me, but by far the best was Jake's final scene with Sadie and his final line of the story, which is said in response to Sadie feeling he is a familiar person in her life and asking who he is: "You knew me once, in another life...." This line is beautiful because Sadie shouldn't know who he is, but the past harmonizes and in the alternate timeline, they shared something so deep and powerful that even the course of history changing couldn't erase it completely.

Loved this book. Highly recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. Well written and read. The story uses factual accounts to drive a interesting fictional story of what could happen, if.