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

one of my favorites

I often feel like anything he has written after 96 dosnt have that same feel to it. but this was refreshing. I loved it. story and character development was amazing, and the performance was outstanding. all around great book and worth every penny.

One Of The Best i've read this year

I'm so glad my grand daughter recommended the book to me...I think its one of S. King's best works.
give it a try and see if you can put it down.....

So much better than I expected!

I laughed. I cried. I couldn’t stop listening. I was never a Stephen King fan…until now. Highly recommended!!

This came highly recommended

I'm not sure why. It was good, but some descriptions seemed annoyingly repetitive. Or is it because I've read this novel in the past? Can't say for sure.

Oh, and I hated the ending,

The King is Back

I've been a loyal fan having read every book of Stephen King since I was in high school in the late 1970's. His genious for writing epic novels populated with clearly defined, well rounded characters is astounding. Craig Wasson does a great job bringing the book to life.

This production does not disappoint. It is the audio equivalent to a page turner.

Too Much of Nothing

What did you love best about 11-22-63?

Stephen King's attention to detail is incredible. I loved all the little references he threw in to the past when he could have glazed over things.

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

Time travel! What is cooler than that? I felt drawn into the story early on and wanted to know more so I kept listening and listening. But, as I've heard with other King books, I hit a spot where I was just bored. I felt like 30% of the book was just "filler". The main character steps back into the past in 1958, 5 years before JKF's assassination. So we have to listen to King fill those 5 years. Most of it was good and interesting. The 30% I mentioned above was not.

What does Craig Wasson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

MASTERFUL. He handled so many voices for this book. It was incredible.

Texas of the 1960's

The narrator brought the book to life. Remembering living in Texas during this time, the horror of the assignation of JFK. The fear of a nuclear war, the bay of pigs all we very scary things then. The book brought back many memories of how the world of Texas was.

That Magnificent Mr. King

This long and enthralling story focuses on the late fifties/early sixties period which King has such a great feel for. Once you get past the basic time travel premise (which is both silly and completely believable at the same time) you are taken on a fabulous ride on a roller coaster of plot and detail building up to and surrounding the JFK Assassination. That event is actually one of my earliest memories, I was three at the time…and in the UK…so I had almost no recollection of feeling for the time. King does a wonderful job of taking you back with the hero and recreating that period. It’s not hokey, there are no rose tinted glasses involved, he simply evokes the period and draws multiple plot threads together to produce what has to be his best work in a good while.

Even since his brush with death and long recovery from a horrific car crash a few years ago, where he was run down whilst walking along a road, he has had a recurring theme of pain and recovery from trauma in his books. That’s true in this case and can that is pretty painful stuff. There is the usual dark side of evil (human and maybe supernatural) but it's implied rather than laid on heavy with a large scary brush. If I have any complaint it would be that the end of the story feels a bit rushed, having been so exquisitely paced and detailed earlier in the book. He brings in a deus ex machina basis god like time cops much like the aliens in Under The Dome, and it works well enough, but the beauty of this book is really in the detail and the characters. It’s very well read by the same fellow that did such a good job with Full Dark No Stars (Kings Previous and very good short story collection). It’s a long listen and thus a substantial commitment, but well worth every minute.

A nostalgic trip

Stephen King’s 11.22.63 is a technicolor romp to the past where the root beer tastes better, cars have more class, and listeners are warned to beware the yellow card man. I was not alive in 1963, but after spending 30+ hours listening to narrator Craig Wasson bring these fictional (and real) characters brilliantly to life, I feel like while I didn’t live there, I’ve at least visited for a long weekend. Blending time travel, history, a little romance, and political intrigue, this is an oddly feel-good tale—odd because it's about assassination and comes from the king of horror. The thing is that King also just happens to be a masterful storyteller whose best work of the decade will warm your heart more than scare the hell out of you.

Classic Stephen King, maybe even his BEST

Amazing character creation, you get to know these people and miss them when the book is finished. Special thanks to Joe, the ending was great.

Craig Wasson was good but some of his character voices got a bit on my nerves, especially when he sounds like he's trying to do a Jimmy Stewart imitation.