At first glance, this looks like King is back up to his old trick of replacing quantity with quality. Writing, as one reviewer put it in his review of "Under the Dome", publishing his work by the pound instead of by the word. But, with "11/22/63", that is a false impression.
For those who don't know right off the top of their heads, 11/22/63 is the day that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy in Dallas, TX.
This book is about a man who discovers a time "rabbit hole" in the storage room in his diner in Lisbon Falls, Maine. Every time that he goes through the hole, it takes him to the exact same time and place: a little before noon on a September day in Lisbon Falls. He also discovers that, no matter how long he stays in the past, only two minutes pass in our time, and no matter what he does there everything with the exception of one hobo is exactly the same as it had been before, what he thought of as a "complete reset". After a few jaunts to the past just as a novelty, he starts thinking that maybe he can do something that makes a difference. In this case, he decides to save President Kennedy. Unfortunately, as he's progressing on this endeavor, he is diagnosed with lung cancer, and has to return to the present. So he engages a young friend of his, our main character, to save the president. I won't say anything further about the story. I don't want to be accused of spoiling it.
THE GOOD: Pretty much everything. This is probably the best book that King has written in decades, at least since "Bag of Bones" and possibly "The Stand". It is well-written and well-paced, with some good shocks and characters that you actually come to care for. By the time 11/22/63 actually comes, you find yourself so drawn in to the world that King has created that you don't want to put the book down.
THE BAD: This book is BIG. Almost 900 pages. Don't get me wrong, they are, for the most part, 900 very enjoyable pages, but still... almost 900 pages. When you read this book (and i cannot recommend strongly enough that you do), you will find it a very rewarding experience.
THE UGLY: King's perpetual self-reference. He can't seem to avoid popping little "Easter Eggs" into his books that link them together. There are two that come immediately to mind here. The first, fairly innocuous and enjoyable, is an occasional sighting of a white over red 1958 Plymouth Fury ("Christine"). The second, much more annoying to me, is a side-trip that our main character takes to Derry, Maine where he encounters Beverly Marsh and Richie Tozier from one of my least-favorite King novels, "It". There is absolutely no reason for these characters to be here, and the side-trip could have really been placed in any small town. Heck, why not give us a look at a much earlier Castle Rock than we've ever seen? I like Castle Rock much more than i do Derry and would love to see what it looked like in 1958.
All in all, well worth a read. If you buy books, buy it. If you're a library patron, check it out of the library, but be prepared to renew it unless you give yourself much more time to read than i do.
Enjoy!
Peace.
Randal
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