11.22.63

by Stephen King

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2011.

Jake Epping, schoolteacher, is summoned by a marginal friend to embark on an unbelievable mission: to travel back in time to 1958 to prevent the assassination of president Kennedy, which, of course, took place on the date from which the book takes its name. In order to accomplish this, Jake has to relocate from Maine to Texas under the assumed name of George Amberson. There, he has to find a source of income – which he does, as a substitute teacher. It also helps to have foreknowledge of the results of certain sporting events, and to place the occasional lucrative bet.

In the small town of Jodie (where he settles because he doesn’t like Dallas), Jake makes friends at the local high school. Not the least of these is Sadie Dunhill, who turns out to be the love of his life. And so, as Jake approaches his date with destiny, the questions of whether he will ever be able to return to 2011, and whether Sadie will be with him, begin to press forward.

I’m not saying how things turn out for the star-crossed lovers – except that the book has a beautiful, bittersweet, and richly satisfying ending.

Although I’ve read many time travel short stories (for example, Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder”, which is mentioned in a conversation), this is my first time travel novel, and the author handles this evergreen device superbly. It’s fantasy, rather than science fiction, since there’s no real scientific or rational basis for the “rabbit hole” through which Jake slips to leap 53 years into the past. But, unlike many time travel pieces in which the device isn’t really exploited, here the culture shock of suddenly living in the past is thoroughly explored (and quite obviously diligently researched). The very tastes and smells of 1958, and the five years after that, are brought to life with a restrained but indubitable sense of wonder – and nostalgia, too.

The seemingly doomed love affair between Jake and Sadie, and how she gradually discovers his secret, is the best part of the book. Here, truly, are characters the reader should care about, and they are well supported by Deke and Miz Ellie, an endearing couple of senior colleagues.

There is also a richly detailed and totally convincing portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald, the president’s assassin, which may drag a bit for readers who aren’t as fascinated by this episode of history as I am. The book also went down well for me because King gets the history right – he dismisses all the crackpot conspiracy theories and focuses squarely on Oswald as the lone gunman (although Jake does devote rather a lot of time to the surveillance of Oswald to confirm that there was, in fact, no conspiracy).

As far as the possibility of a conspiracy is concerned, Gerald Posner’s book Case Closed removed all doubt – for me, anyway – that Oswald acted alone. And interestingly, this book is the first one mentioned in the Afterword.

I cracked open this book in hopes of reading a tense thriller à la The Day of the Jackal, and although I certainly wasn’t disappointed on that score, it’s the heartbreaking love story that makes this book unforgettable.

[14 – 28 November 2011; advance publicity had the Hodder release date as 14.11.2911.]