11/22/63

Once upon a time, I read everything that Stephen King wrote and eagerly anticipated each new book. But that changed over time. I greatly admire Mr. King and laud his accomplishments, but not every book is gold. Still when I heard about the plot of this book, I had to read it. I put it in my library hold queue and waited. When it finally arrived, I was in the middle of another book and I did not get to it before the due date. So I returned it and placed it back in the queue. After another wait, I picked it up and again failed to start it before the due date. But third time is the charm and I was determined to read it. And I did.

The science fiction element is not the main draw of the book. Our hero can travel through time via an Aluminaire diner closet. But the story is more about his life and how he lives it in the past, particularly as he prepares to save President Kennedy from Lee Harvey Oswald. The best part of the conceit is how the past conspires to prevent you from changing it. The bigger the change, the more difficult it is to get there.

Mr. King is always an entertaining writer and you can see the amount of research it took to create this doorstop of a book. However once I started, it flowed very smoothly. I thought it would take forever to read and this assumption was wrong. I think it took me longer to reread THE STAND, a book I was familiar with.

11/22/63 is a good read and not at all involved in the horror genre that Mr. King normally writes. I hope that those who are usually scared off by his work (pun intended) can pick this up and enjoy life in time before ours, but not necessarily simpler.