11/22/63 by Stephen King Part I

Friends of a certain age easily recall where they were were upon hearing about JFK's assassination.  Yet, when we think about the events that changed the course of history, we think in huge terms - we think about wars; we think about the Holocaust; we think about 9/11.  But a single moment - a single bullet - 

This is a partial blog post since I haven't yet conquered the 849 pages of this Stephen King thinker.  I am not normally a Stephen King reader, nor do I take to portal stories, but this is not normal King and the portal business is serious, not silly.  No creepy kids in corn fields, no bloody proms, or child-of -the-devil dogs.  This book is an invitation to consider the long range and far reaching repercussions of JFK's death - in other words, the Butterfly Effect. 

Clearly, we can only speculate about the world we would be living if certain political actions had been directed differently. 

OK...so the story...Jake Epping, living in 2011, is given the opportunity to slip back in time, connect with Lee Harvey Oswald, and stop him before he pulls the trigger on that fateful day in Dallas.  First, he must be sure that all the conspiracy theories that have arisen over the event are just that - hypotheses contrary to fact. Stopping Oswald may mean that Epping has to kill him, and so he needs to make sure.  

So far so good.  I am enjoying this mind-bending novel and have filled my book discussion notebook pages with more questions than notes. Mysterious characters pop up, and then disappear. I wonder about their significance.  Perhaps they will return as the plot moves forward.  I figure some of them, like the man with the yellow card, are symbolic. I find a lot of Greek structure here as well...the greeter to the portal world, children acting as a sort of Greek chorus, and Jake spinning the wheel of fate with every move.  Are his moves calculated or have they been predetermined?  

I know, I know, this all sounds like a lot of gobbeldy-gook right now. Perhaps I will clear things up next Monday in 11/22/63 Part II.  For now, I will simply say that this book surprises me on every page.  Strong style.  Complex plot.  Defined and differentiated characters.  Don't get me wrong, the girth of this book is daunting,. I struggle with whether King is a genius or a jerk..  Just when I am about to put a tick mark in the jerk column, he gives me a story within a story.  The love story pallet cleanser provides a solid bridge to the final 300 pages leading to the novel's turning point.   That bonus plot came at exactly the point I believe many people would abandon the book.  King thought of everything.  Tick mark in the genius column.

Thanks for stopping by.