Synopsis:
Imagine
if you could travel back in time. Imagine if it was within your power
to change history. History as pivotal as the JFK
assassination...11.22.63...What would you do?
Jake
Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, is
about to go on a journey that will propel him from the fast track techno
era of 2011 back to the more sedate simplicity of 1958.
Here
he will breathe the same air as Elvis and J.F.Kennedy...Lee Harvey
Oswald and Jerry Lee Lewis...and Sadie Dunhill, librarian and love of
his life. Could things get any better?...Jake thinks they could...
Review
I’ll
be honest. I wasn’t overly keen on reading this at first. Not because
the concept didn’t appeal to me...it did, very much so!...but because
I’ve found some of King’s more recent works to be akin to wading through
quicksand in leaden boots...an altogether seriously disappointing drag
towards an equally dreary destination.
However, thank God I did read it!
King
manages to fuse the machinations of the two worlds perfectly whilst
incorporating a flawless transition from one to the other. His imagery
of vintage America in the 50’s is so successfully graphic that you’re
almost dazed by the modernity of your own world, should you look up from
the book for a moment...( if you are able to do so! ).
You
know when you go on holiday and you step from the plane and all the
sights and sensations of a new culture instantly smack you in the
face?..Well that’s what it’s like reading this book! King’s skillful
writing saturates your senses with every nuance of the life and
attitudes of that time. Indeed, it’s difficult to read these pages
without pangs of nostalgia permeating your psyche as you are so cruelly
reminded of how it used to be back when we socialised in person...rather
than via technology.
However,
this is not some flowery time travel log and it’s to King’s credit that
he does not sentimentalise the past through his evocative
descriptions...’he keeps it real’, as it were. There is some serious
stuff going on here!...with powerful possibilities of political
pandemonium within the fractious societies of either world if not both
should Jake dare dabble with changing history! Despite politics being at
the core of the storyline, however, other essential aspects of the book
hold an equally prevalent part. Indeed,the entire experience is an
amalgamation of thriller, chiller, love story and all round time
traveling genius!
Characters
are exceptionally well developed and most believable. They hurt , you
hurt...they laugh, you laugh...they make love you ( well, I’ll leave
that up to you )...but trust me...you’ll feel you’ve known them all of
your life...and wish you had.
This
book is quite a tome at 750 pages but I shall tell you this in
earnest...I wish there had been 750 pages more! Many have said that this
was Stephen King writing as he used to ‘back in the day’...well, whilst
I enjoyed King at that time, I disagree. This book, was for me, Stephen
King reinvented...and quite frankly...I prefer the new him! You make
your own mind up...just brace yourself for an epic ride!
Definitely worth 5 out of 5 stars
By The Grumbling Gargoyle
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