11/23/63
11/23/63 the day JFK was assassinated. Stephen King had an interesting premise or concept for a novel.
General Plot and Characters (No Spoilers)
I only really made it about 65% of the way through. So there isn’t much to spoil about it. The main plot of the book is there is an English teacher that is just doing his best to white knuckle his existance on this plane. He has a friend that owns a diner with some random pantry that takes one back in time. And when you return, it’s only 2 minutes later regardless of how long you spent back in time. Is it truly back in time? Is it a seperate dimension? Does going back in time truly affect time linearly? There is a lot to try and wrap your mind around if you are a deep thinker. I did get lost in my head several times.
Favorite Moments, themes, and characters
I didn’t actually have a favorite part of the book. I guess the part I loved most was just the character development. How King made me care about each character. But other than that there was nothing that really stood out like, “Oh wow! King knocked it out of the park here and other authors should take note!”
Problems With the Book
One of my major problems with the book was the descriptions of scenes. I felt like I needed to reread some paragraphs and chapters. I don’t know if I couldn’t just use my imagination at the time or just got lost in how it was written, but there were some scenes where I struggled to “see” what was going on. It really slowed down my consumption of the book. I couldn’t reach that desired flow state like I can with other books. It was more than likely a me thing. Which is fine. The initial part where he first travels back in time, I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Or envision what was going on. As the book progressed the issue wasn’t as prolific.
This book is clearly not for Matt
I don’t think this book is for Matt from what I can tell. This book isn’t for the “good ending crowd.” I’m fine if there is a bad ending or less than desirable. What makes a book that I won’t read again based off ending would be more along the lines of, “What’s the f*#&in’ point?” Like why did I just spend all this time reading this book. I’ve seen some soft spoilers after reading Matt’s responses, but I went out of my way to read them. If you can really envision scenes and use your imagination, then this book is for you. But, if you struggle at times, then it’s not for you but won’t be a bad read.
Rating out of 5 Stars, and Answer the Question: Would You Read it Again?
I’m rating this book a 3.9/5. To me it’s really hard to get a perfect score. It has to be a perfect start, perfect build up, and perfect conclusion. We just weren’t there. There were a few places where I was lost with description or visualization. I bought this book with the full intention of rereading it. This novel for sure screams, “read me numerous times!”