return to home  
Join   |  Gift   |  Member Login   |  Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile
Follow Us: 
    11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63: Book summary and reviews of 11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63

11/22/63
A Novel
by Stephen King
Published in USA Nov 2011,
960 pages.

Publication information


Critics' Opinion: 
Readers' Rating: 
About BookBrowse Rankings
Share: 
Buy This Book

11/22/63 Summary

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King's heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination - a thousand page tour de force.

Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment - a real life moment - when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students - a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake's friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane - and insanely possible - mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake's new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life - a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best.

11/22/63 Reviews

"Starred Review. Though his scenarios aren't always plausible in strictest terms, King's imagination, as always, yields a most satisfying yarn." - Kirkus Reviews

"The pages of 11/22/63 fly by, filled with immediacy, pathos and suspense. It takes great brazenness to go anywhere near this subject matter. But it takes great skill to make this story even remotely credible. Mr. King makes it all look easy, which is surely his book's fanciest trick." - The New York Times

"...King smoothly blends... romance into the main story line, setting up the bittersweet ending that's as apt as it is surprising." - Publishers Weekly

"For all its historical heft, 11/22/63 bears many of Mr. King's trademarks. It's ultra-violent and suspenseful, with supernatural overtones." - Wall Street Journal

"The combination of King's love of the '50s and his deeper search into the Kennedy assassination make this novel a terrifically entertaining work of fiction." - NPR

"In [this book], the reader feels the benefit of 40 years of narrative craftsmanship and reflection on his nation's history." - The Guardian (UK)

The information about 11/22/63 shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's online-magazine that keeps our members abreast of notable and high-profile books publishing in the coming weeks. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.

11/22/63 Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Suzanne G.
KING
The story is a time-travel epic that at times is long-winded. It is a different plot than King’s usual narratives. I was so engrossed with what would happen next, that I read it almost nonstop. It is romantic, dramatic and a great storyline. The ending was abrupt but since I’m not a writer, I have no idea how it might have been better. . . .

Stephen King Author Biography

© Tabitha King

Stephen King has written more than forty novels and two hundred short stories. He has won the World Fantasy Award, several Bram Stoker Awards, the O. Henry Award, and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

From the author's website

Link to Stephen King's Website

Other books by Stephen King at BookBrowse

Wolves of the Calla jacket

Under the Dome jacket

The Wind Through the Keyhole jacket

The Green Mile jacket

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon jacket

On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft jacket

more...

Recently Published Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Alternate History

more...


Become a Member
Click Here
Editor's Choice
  •  Jun 19 
  •  Jun 17 
  •  Jun 15 
If You Find Me
Emily Murdoch

If You Find Me Jacket

There are some things you can't leave behind…
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah Jacket

Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Jacket

The story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
The Expats by Chris Pavone
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Top Ten Guidelines For How to Behave in a Book Club
Movies Based on Books: Summer 2013 (May - August)
Jewish Themed Young Adult Books, Not About The Holocaust
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
Recent Reader Reviews
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
First time novelist Vaddey Ratner captured my heart and senses in this novel based on her childhood in Cambodia. Her story transcends any news story... read more
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
From the first page, I was drawn in by the lyrical writing of the author and mesmerized as the narrator, eight year old Raami, remembered the years... read more
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
Trite but true, all good things must come to an end. I so wanted to keep reading the wonderful prose, the settings that let one think they are part... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Coraline
Neil Gaiman
2. Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden
3. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
5. Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
More...
Book Club Recommendations
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
by Maria Semple
Paperback (Apr/13)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
Paperback (Mar/13)
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards
by Kristopher Jansma
Hardback (Mar/13)
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
by Mohsin Hamid
Hardback (Mar/13)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
Crime of Privilege
by Walter Walker
Four Stars            (Jun/13)
Children of the Jacaranda Tree
by Sahar Delijani
4.5 Stars            (Jun/13)
Her Last Breath
by Linda Castillo
4.5 Stars            (Jun/13)
More...
  Latest BookBrowse News
Amazon cuts off 5200 affiliates in Minnesota (Jun 19 2013)
With Minnesota's online sales tax law due to take effect July 1, Amazon has played a familiar card by cutting ties with 5,200 members of its Associates... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
 
BookBrowse Poll
Q: We've been discussing guidelines for book club etiquette. Which of these do you think are important?
Read the book
Listen thoughtfully to all members
Take notes while you're reading
Stay on topic when you're speaking
Enjoy yourself
Don’t get drunk
Bring chocolate, everyone likes chocolate!
Eat before you come so you don’t devour the snacks
Compliment others sincerely
Have a good sense of humor
Don’t fret the small stuff
Select Any That Apply
Search: Title or Author
Free Newsletters

Online Book Club
More about
The Execution of Noa P. Singleton
Join the discussion!


Win This Book!
You Only Get Letters From Jail


one of the finest and truest collections of 'American' short stories I have ever read

Enter To Win Now!

wordplay
Solve this clue:
"T M T C, T M T Stay T S"

and be entered
to win....
frame top
New Author
Interviews
Lawrence Osborne
Carol Rifka Brunt
Kent Wascom
Jennifer McVeigh
frame bottom
HOME Book Submissions | Advertising | Library Subscriptions | Reviewing for BookBrowse | Contact Us