Many attribute Stephen King to being the father of modern American horror literature, and inspiring an entire genre in books and movies. His book “11.22.63” is refreshingly different. This is not another horror novel, but his first foray into mainstream sci-fi: a book about time-travel.
If you know your history, you’d know what 11.22.63 stands for. It is a date that has changed the course of American history; on November twenty-two 1963 US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
King was just a teenager when it happened, but the memory of that time is indelibly etched in his mind, and his writing brilliantly describes his memories with poignant detail. You can smell the sweat, feel the depression, the prevalent racism, and the working-classmen’s hardships – as well as King’s eloquent pathos.
The book 11.22.63 starts in 2011, with Jake Epping, an English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, who has just come out from a bitter divorce and who is chosen for a dangerous mission: catch Lee Harvey Oswald and prevent the Kennedy assassination. And don’t mess up.
Jake leaves behind the information era and his identity to go back to the times of soaring American industrialism, the Cold War, Elvis and the marriage ideal of the 1950s. This is where he meets Sadie, a high school librarian with a troubled past. But this is no romance novel, I assure you; Jake is on a quest and although his feelings for Sadie often make him reconsider his purpose, he never wavers.
I devoured this book greedily, and (I confess) I abandoned chores and scholarly commitments. There are very rare books that hook you from the first sentence, but Stephen King is an expert in that. If you like big books (and I do mean big), and you like a good story then please embrace the genius of Stephen King and get his latest novel 11.22.63 now because King proves, yet again, to be one of the best storytellers of our generation!
By Azza El Masri
