And Now… A Long Book

11/22/63, aka “That JFK assassination book” by Stephen King is very Stephen King. The main character, a recently divorced English teacher, is brought to the storeroom of a diner that leads to another time, specifically 1958. Why is this portal here? Is it dangerous? Will he be able to get back? Never mind those questions, because there’s a president that needs saving!

King is like a magician that lures you in with a cool premise, and then moves fast enough for the reader to not care about those questions that might bog down logic. Even with the yellow-card man, the most explanation King gives is about 2 paragraphs long, and 800 pages in. And you know what? That’s not a bad thing. Time travel isn’t real, I’m not going to worry myself about why it’s happening in Al’s storeroom. Plus, there’s more interesting things happening then the explanation of why it happens. Like what happens if you change something? Or, what happens when the past fights back? Even though it was one of the longest books I’ve ever read, it rarely felt slow. Something was always happening.

And something was almost always being repeated. King uses repetition in order to make sure the reader is on board with certain topics (i.e. The past is obdurate, dancing is life, etc.), but also to show that the past knows what Jake is doing. All of the coincidences, or harmonies, play a larger part in the resolution of the story, elevating them from “cool time travel side effect” to “actually kind of important to the story”.

The most important part of the story, though, was Jake’s relationships to the other characters. The premise of the book is going back in time to stop the JFK assassination, but this is a love story if I’ve ever seen one. Spoiler alert, but the fact that the book pretty much ends with Jake and Sadie dancing proves that. Jake’s relationships with Deke, Mimi, Mike, and basically the whole town of Jodie say the same thing. It’s a story about a person finding his place in the world, but having to give it up for the greater good. Classic.

Other things I liked included the humor, it’s not really a setup-punchline type of humor, but the observations Jake makes about things are funny, the time spent in Jodie, and the aftermath of the mission (in non-spoiler terms).

Some things I didn’t like: the roadtrip to/time spent in Derry went on a little too long. This is my first King book, and I heard he likes to make references to his other books, but this was a little on the nose for me. This is part of a larger issue in that King has about 3 different books here: a historical “what-if” fiction, a love story, and a mystery. And while everything makes sense together, the book moves from one genre to another, but rarely mixes them, save for the climax. I also didn’t like the length in general. Seemed like there was some things that could get cut, but were left in, leaving this monster of a book. Even the best stories can feel long when you’re on page 700 and still have 150 more to go.

Those pages go quickly though. King’s style can best be described as “page turner”. The way he tells a story sucks you in, and makes you want to get to the end and see what happens. The chapter divisions helped with this I think. So even though this is a capital-L Long Book, it’s still a fun read. All of the genres are engaging and interesting, even if they don’t mix that much.

For it to leave such a good impression despite being over 800 pages long nets 11/22/63 a solid 4/5. This is a Lou Will vs. Golden State type book.