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11/22/63

by Stephen King

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
13,422756442 (4.2)1 / 766
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? The author's new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination. In this novel that is a tribute to a simpler era, he sweeps readers back in time to another moment, a real life moment, when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history. Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students, a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night fifty years ago when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. Not much later, Jake's friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane, and insanely possible, mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake's new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, 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.… (more)
  1. 172
    It by Stephen King (watertiger, sturlington)
    watertiger: The characters from IT are referenced in 11/22/63
    sturlington: A section of 11/22/63 is set in Derry and features characters from It.
  2. 90
    Time and Again by Jack Finney (zwelbast, bookworm12)
  3. 80
    Replay by Ken Grimwood (SJaneDoe, dltj, HoudeRat)
    dltj: Shares a similar plot line that covers part of the same time period, and "Replay" even includes a story fragment about November 22, 1963.
  4. 80
    The Dead Zone by Stephen King (StarryNightElf)
  5. 41
    American Tabloid by James Ellroy (glwebb)
    glwebb: If you liked 11/22/63 then American Tabloid should be right up your street. A very snappy, complicated, twisted look at the Kennedy Presidency and assassination. Ellroy dishes up a counterfactual history that seems almost too real to be anything other than the secret truth.… (more)
  6. 30
    Blackout by Connie Willis (Navarone)
    Navarone: Both books are about time travel and how the future is affected due to the actions you make.
  7. 30
    All Clear by Connie Willis (Navarone)
  8. 20
    Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson (stevetempo)
    stevetempo: No change in history here...but a cross time romance is featured...if you saw and enjoyed the movie...read the book.
  9. 10
    Time and Time Again by Ben Elton (aliklein)
  10. 10
    When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Othemts)
  11. 33
    Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (mene)
    mene: Both books are about time travel through a kind of portal. In both books, the time traveller finds love on the other side, but the effects of the time travel and the way it works are different. In King's book, the time traveller also actively tries to change history, while in Gabaldon's book, the time traveller uses her knowledge of future events a lot less actively.… (more)
  12. 33
    American Gods: Author's Preferred Text by Neil Gaiman (krazy4katz)
    krazy4katz: Both novels are epic. They both have elements of time travel and a sense that minor actions can lead to major unintended consequences.
  13. 00
    The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella (Othemts)
  14. 00
    Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Othemts)
1960s (74)
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» See also 766 mentions

English (725)  Dutch (9)  French (6)  Spanish (3)  German (3)  Catalan (3)  Danish (2)  Italian (2)  Swedish (1)  Bulgarian (1)  All languages (755)
Showing 1-5 of 725 (next | show all)
Not your typical Stephen King horror story, but so worthwhile. Hints of suspense and little moments that make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, and a really compelling story. Honestly there were some moments in the middle where the story slowed down but the whole thing came together in the ending that made me realize how invested I had become in the characters and their relationships. One of those books I wish I could go back in time and enjoy again. ( )
  wsampson13 | Mar 2, 2024 |
I'm not the biggest fan of Stephen King, but you can't go wrong with a good time-travel story. In another author's hands, a novel about going back in time to stop JFK being assassinated might be a bit cliché, but King has that storytelling knack and makes the tale fresh. However, I was a bit disappointed that he didn't play even slightly with any of the conspiracy theories, just for the twisty fun of it – in 11.22.63, King plays it pretty much straight, i.e. that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

In fact, the surprising thing about 11.22.63 is that much of it isn't about the Kennedy assassination at all. One of the main drawbacks, in my opinion, about Stephen King is his indulgence; there's scarcely a novel of his that could not readily be cut in half by a ruthless editor, and that's true of the 750-page 11.22.63 also. The first 300 pages or so see the protagonist, Jake Epping, test cause-and-effect by going back and stopping an unrelated murder from happening, and only then addressing Dallas. Jake stalks Oswald (and this sticks close to fact, being very well-researched) and the book remains gripping, even if we do end up – due in no small part to that tangent in the first 300 pages – a bit impatient to get to that all-important date of the book's title. And despite the length and indulgence, we know very little about how the time-travel works (you just walk into a closet and then, boom). I also found the final act a bit hasty, with Jake's foiling of Oswald clumsy in spite of the lengthy planning (and the jeopardy caused by the mob beatdown and subsequent amnesia being a bit hackneyed). King's brief vision of an apocalyptic, earthquake-riddled future (i.e. the present day) in a world where Kennedy was indeed saved, seemed to me very silly and overblown.

King's indulgence, however, is also the book's charm as well as its failing. We are fully immersed in the world of 1958 to 1963 that Jake steps back into; first as the low-hanging fruit of nostalgia but then increasingly just due to the richness of it as presented by King. He doesn't shy away from the dark undercurrent of those years, particularly with the society's treatment of women and minorities, but he doesn't get on his soapbox either. Rather, he shows us Jake living in this world, and falling in love, and pretty soon you're reading the book for that and not for the assassination. Jake's relationship with Sadie is endearing, and the final ending (after that disappointing hastiness and apocalyptic narm) is quite moving. A lean time-travel thriller about stopping the JFK assassination might have been more exciting and crowd-pleasing in the short-term, but it is King's textured early-Sixties world and sweet Jake/Sadie relationship which really pays off in the long-term and makes the book continue to shine. ( )
  MikeFutcher | Feb 28, 2024 |
The story was okay and somewhat exciting, but was not what I expected. I did appreciate the basic notion about the trouble of changing the past, which differed from the usual time-travel talk, but it wasn't profound. ( )
  Huba.Library | Feb 21, 2024 |
So much fun. Really intense, incredibly interesting, and a compelling human story. ( )
  chailatte | Feb 5, 2024 |
Read this years ago when it came out. Did the audiobook this time and it was much better than I recall. Craig Wasson was a revelation as narrator.
I thought the story was well thought out and executed. I like time travel stories and the device was inconsequential to the story. We get a few years of life in the late 50's / early 60's as the protagonist waits for the date of an event he means to stop. The characters and events are interwoven well and the conclusion was satisfying though not what one might call a happy ending. Recommended. ( )
  jldarden | Feb 2, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 725 (next | show all)
It all adds up to one of the best time-travel stories since H. G. Wells. King has captured something wonderful. Could it be the bottomlessness of reality? The closer you get to history, the more mysterious it becomes. He has written a deeply romantic and pessimistic book. It’s romantic about the real possibility of love, and pessimistic about everything else.
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
King, Stephenprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bonomelli, RexCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cassel, BooTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gassie, NadineTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hobbing, ErichDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kuipers, HugoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rekiaro, IlkkaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wasson, CraigReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
It is virtually not assimilable to our reason that a small lonely man felled a giant in the midst of his limousines, his legions, his throng, and his security. If such a nonentity destroyed the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, then a world of disproportion engulfs us, and we live in a universe that is absurd.

- Norman Mailer
If there is love, smallpox scars are as pretty as dimples.

- Japanese proverb
Dancing is life.
Dedication
For Zelda
Hey, honey, welcome to the party
First words
I have never been what you call a crying man.
Quotations
But stupidity is one of two things we see most clearly in retrospect.  The other is missed chances.
Although emotionally delicate and eminently bruisable, teenagers are short on empathy.  That comes later in life, if at all.
Life turns on a dime.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
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Wikipedia in English (3)

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? The author's new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination. In this novel that is a tribute to a simpler era, he sweeps readers back in time to another moment, a real life moment, when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history. Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students, a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night fifty years ago when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. Not much later, Jake's friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane, and insanely possible, mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake's new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, 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.

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Haiku summary
Can we change the past?
Not if it erases life.
Better just to dance. (enemyanniemae)

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