I think inherently we have all thought about a do over button from time to time, or even wished for one when we have done something stupid. Nevertheless, Steven King has put to rest the idea of my ever wanting one for myself. It seems like it would be too much responsibility after reading his latest novel "11/22/63" by Stephen King. This book takes you back to the "good old days" of innocence before the world got ugly and yes before the Kennedy assassination. How would life be for us if Kennedy had lived? Would the civil rights movement have gone forward sooner with less bloodshed? Would Martin Luther King JR still be alive and teaching us how to live a better life through non violence? Alternatively, would things go terribly wrong? No spoiler alerts here as this book was so amazing everyone should read it, especially other authors or aspiring authors like myself. Let's just say that everything we do from breath to swatting flies has a butterfly effect on the future and the thread of time we travel is affected, be it good or bad.
I am left in a reflective state about a time that happened before my birth of August 26, 1969 (the time I lovingly call the best time in history), but it is a time none the less that has had an effect on my life. The effect on my life has been deep, not just because I am a mixed-race person (too many to count) but also because I believe our world is much more cynical and less trusting than it was in the 1950s and 1960's. I do not believe we have less crime, rather I believe that we hear more about it and the age of innocence died the day Camelot crumbled.
To Stephen King if you ever read this BRAVO!!! I agree with your waiting to write this book from the 1970s until 2011. Who knows what the butterfly effect would have been back in the 1970s had you released the book back then. We may never know. What I do know is that I would have never read it. I have never been a fan of your writing, more because my mother read "Stephen King" novels not me. They were for old hippies in my mind. Until that is, I found this latest book on Audible and the synopsis peaked my interest. I have to say I have read "The Green Mile" and "Shawshank Redemption" and loved them but forgot that You Mr. King wrote them. I always thought of you as the writer of "Pet Cemetery" and that book and movie Horrified me, so I steered clear of my fellow New Englander, who wrote creepy stuff in my mind. I probably will stay away from your darker and sinister novels, but now that I know there is more to Stephen King than Horror. I am HOOKED!
To The reader of this blog and possibly a new reader to Stephen King, give this new book a try, you will NOT be disappointed. I was ultimately so glued to it that despite the fact that the book in Audible form is over 30 hours long, I had it on every waking hour completing it in just over two days. Jake Epping tells a tale in this book that is as the synopsis says, " Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying." The synopsis puts it as terrifying but for a Stephen King novel I would call it plausibly possible. This book could be called a time-travel book, but I have to say it made me think more about my choices for the future than what has happened in the past. I can see how our world could end up the way it turns in what I'll call World 2.0 because there is a world 3.0 that tie the whole book together.
Enough about the book, just read it for yourself, it is a can't miss, and I would like to see it as a movie, but I know just as with Shawshank and Green Mile, the book can never be translated into a movie and keep its character, the book is always better than the movie.
So my Book recommendation for December is 11/22/63 by Stephen King It is a book that will definitely cause you to forget how cold and dreary it is outside :)
