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

loved it

if you like history and time travel it's amazing and highly recommend will definitely watch the series now

The Perfect Combination of History and Stephen King Thrills

This is my 5th or 6th book by King and is easily my favorite. I’m a huge history fan so to see King base a story around a significant point in American history is thrilling. It’s a perfect blend of the main story and Jake’s personal life in the past.

Fan - fucking _ tastic

was absolutely amazing. Not a huge Stephen King fan, but this one redeems him in my eyes.

(not his work, just his genre.)

Great book overall but hard to listen to.

The book and story are wonderful but this may be much better to read than listen to. This may be petty, but I could not get over the way the male narrator did women’s voices. It sounded cartoonish to me. I had to skip any s*x scenes because listening to him try to act out feminine moans was way too much cringe.

my first audiobook

I really enjoyed this book, I had been wanting to read it for awhile and had never read an audio book so figured I'd try it, with this book being so long listening to it seemed to fit better onto my daily life.
The narrator took some getting used to, but once I did I really liked him. He did a good job at making the different characters identifiable.
I see from the reviews a lot of people didn't like all the twists in the storyline, personally that's one thing I love about King and I didn't feel lost at all. I think the story was good, and very vivid.

So so good

I enjoyed the story telling. I enjoyed the back story on Lee. I enjoyed the dancing. Loved the love story. Great book.

One of Stephen Kings very best!

I really loved this book. The love story between Jake and Sadie was the thing that made this book so stirring and sad and beautiful. I was quite young when JFK was assassinated but was a big fan!! Even though his sex life was wrong I still loved him and I’m sure Jackie did too. I think he would have made a good many other great things happen if he had lived but we will never know! That will always be sad to me.

Hang in there! It’s just a slow beginning

This book at first impression was loosing me quickly. I continued listening to it on an off because I had already purchased it. It finally got me about a third of the way into it. From then on I was hooked!

Not Bad

If you could sum up 11-22-63 in three words, what would they be?

Enjoyable, Non-Scary, King.

What other book might you compare 11-22-63 to and why?

Good Question........;)

Which scene was your favorite?

The first time the murder was stopped was crazy.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was moved by the scene I disliked the most I think, when he gets his rear handed to him. I wanted more from my action hero, who was not.

fantastic book

very well written and narrated, really puts the whole story into my mind, better than the TV series