Sometimes I hang out for an upcoming title, put my hold on weeks in advance and wait patiently (or not) for it to arrive. Sometimes it lives up to expectations, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes you just get the feeling that it is really really great but you are just not in the mood.
Such was the case with 11.22.63 by Stephen King. On the face value, it should have been everything I wanted in a book. I have a fascination with the assassinations of Kennedy and Lincoln (and the coincidences between them... which is a whole other blog post). Stephen King is a fantastic writer. I love the concept of time travel in my fiction reading. And it had the year of my birth in the title (that gives it away...lol).
The publisher's summary reads 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 and you can read some great reviews of the book on through the links on our website (you can access these through our classic catalogue simply by clicking on the cover of any book when you search for it). It is already an award winner and it has movie written all over it (the rights have already been picked up).
But as much as I tried to get into the story and I could appreciate the writing and the plot and the character development and taste the cool refreshing 1958 root beer (as opposed to the sugary soft drinks of the 21st century), I really just couldn't do it. I ended up skipping randomly through to read odd passages and chapters and then the last few chapters in more detail. Which indicates that I was involved in the story, because if I hadn't been I wouldn't have cared to find out how it all turned out.
11.22.63 is definitely a book that I will return to and have another go. After all it took me Numerous attempts to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy before I finally persevered and loved it. Maybe, this is similar and I just need to wait for the movie to pick it up again and appreciate the skill of a master storyteller. It's just an example of a good book being picked up at the wrong time for me. I will be back.
Note - the cover image is an alternate one supplied by Publishers. There is a different cover on the majority of editions sold or available in New Zealand.
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