11-22-63

A Novel

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Craig Wasson

Length: 30 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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 listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a 35-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 50 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.

©2011 Stephen King. All Rights Reserved. (P)2011 Simon & Schuster, Inc

Don’t let the bad reviews stop you.

This book is very long, very descriptive, and all around a unique experience for me.

Many of the reviews I read before purchasing this book made me consider dismissing it from my list, but I decided to give it a shot anyways. I finished the entire thing in less than a week, listening almost all day, every day.

It was so different from other books I’ve read mostly because of how deeply into detail the author goes about incredibly mundane things in the book, but I don’t think it would have been very appealing without the excessive descriptions. Sometimes the author spends 5-10 minutes on scenery alone, but when it comes to time travel, this level of description makes you feel like you’re right there, sitting with the main character, walking through it all with him while he narrates. I was sure as heck not alive in the late 50’s, but King made me feel like I was there for just a few moments at a time.

If you are not patient and you don’t absolutely adore detail, this is not the book for you. It is perfect to spend hours driving or walking or perhaps doing some sort of craft while you listen and truly just absorb it all, even if it’s very very long and slow, but if you’re looking for a fast paced novel with incredibly unique and heroic characters with twists left and right, you won’t get it. This book will give you sci fi, plot twists, philosophical quotes, and just a bit of “horror”, but most of all it truly just puts you in the main characters shoes very, very effectively, with a very “realistic” twist on time travel.

I adore this book, but it is most definitely not for everyone. I’d say give it a shot, get through the first few chapters. You may fall in love with it how I did.

Excellent story and story telling

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to 11.22.63. The book set a good pace from beginning to end and I didn't it lose interest at any point of the story. Beautifully written and performed. Highly recommend.

great story

This was my first SK novel. Needless to say, I'm a fan!
Great story, lovable characters, suspenseful and dark.

Amazing

Quite possibly the best book ever! Have been hooked on Stephen King ever since. Brilliant story and well written.

Highly recommended

The narrator brought the story to life in an amazing way. His character accents and the emotion with which he read had me feeling most the story rather than listening to it. The amount of research done for this book was thorough and very well incorporated (unlike the main character, I WAS an American History major). The book was also well segmented and each part of the story was very in-depth, almost like it's own novella.

Awesome

it was really good, it seemed to drag in the middle though. glad I listened to it

Despite a sagging middle, still a good read.

I found the concepts of time travel as explained by Stephen King fascinating and likely. I truly enjoyed the narrator's performance, although his Sadie voice wasn't as strong. I did find the interminable descriptions of the Oswald's comings and goings to be unnecessary and felt they bogged down the pace of the book in the middle, but the rousing ending made up for it.

Great story and great listening!

Great story. Living in Dallas at the time of the Kennedy assassin brought back many memories! Loved it!

Worth it every time!

Read this book 2 or 3 times and listened to it a couple of times. Just a great story! Wish there was a way to find out what life could have been like for Jake and Sadie had they both made it back to 2011!

Engaging story, performed well

I found myself wanting to come back to hear the next segment - exactly what I look for in a good book. This is definitely a thought piece, along the lines of The Body or Shawshank, and I was glad there was no mystic turn, appearance of the devil, or gratuitous spiders.

Can’t wait for someone to make this into a movie. (Don’t hate me for that!)