In my review of Stephen King’s Under the Dome, I wrote:
It might be interesting if King–a very good writer when he challenges himself—tried to write a Michael Crichton style novel, like State of Fear, which—to be fair—showed about the same nuance and subtlety in it’s characterizations of environmentalists that King does in Under the Dome regarding conservative Christians.
In 11/22/63, he hasn’t precisely done that, but he’s come a lot closer than he has in a while. King’s Crazy Christians™are nowhere to be seen, and the typical Evil Right Winger© that also makes frequent appearances in King’s work, is barely heard from. A segregationist billboard in 1962 Texas is attributed to The Tea Party Society (when, in fact, it would have more likely been the John Birch Society; I can’t find any indication that anybody referred to themselves as Tea Party anything in the early 60s) in a throw away, but that’s it. The central bad guy is Lee Harvey Oswald and a few of those who egged him on, and they’re rabid left-wingers and Marxists.
It may seem that I’m praising King with faint damns, but this was a really good book. I still think his best book is probably The Stand, but when he challenges himself he tends to produce some of his best work, and I think 11/22/63 falls squarely in that category (Eyes of the Dragon, King’s only real foray into a traditional fantasy, is another example for King challenging himself and creating a great little book).
The book deals with what might happen if someone found a tunnel in time in the back pantry of a greasy spoon, one that always leads out to exact same moment in 1958. History can be changed, but every time you go back, time is reset, and any changes you made the last time are wiped out. This leads to Jake Epping, a recently divorced high school teacher, attempting to interfere with history for personal reasons, and then attempting to prevent the assassination of JFK in order the save the world. While doing so, he gets a job, falls in love, and ends up making a mess of things in very interesting ways.
I found the ending very, very satisfying, especially after the anemic conclusion to Under the Dome. I was not surprised to read that King’s son, novelist Joe Hill, actually came up with the ending, one that largely replaced whatever King’s original ending was.
If you’ve read a lot of Stephen King, you’ve met all these characters before. Some of them literally–there are, as is typical in most of King’s books, cameos from previous novels, notably It, and a Plymouth Fury (probably not Christine, but maybe) makes more than one appearance. However, Jake Epping is reliably King’s ass-kicing alter-ego, Sadie Clayton has appeared numerous times as the True Love™who both too aware of what makes the hero special, and too easily convinced that the protagonist is magic, has experienced the impossible, has telepathic powers, or is from the future. Most of the other characters are now very familiar, although with different names, but I imagine any writer who produces as much as King does would fall back repetition. In an interesting turn, he acknowledges this in a way, by intentionally echoing character names, vocal tics, and events. The narrator refers to this repetition as harmonization, suggesting that his existence out of time causes frequent echos around him, and in the lives of those he touches.
Stephen King did more historical research on this novel than on any previous novel, and it shows. The one truly new character, for King, is the setting. From his own creations, such as Derry, to Lisbon, Maine to Dallas, Texas, he works hard to craft a sense of time and space. He’s clearly got a strong sense of what his imaginary town of Derry was like in the late 50s (more clear, I think, when he covered the same basic stretch of time, in the same imaginary down, in It). His depiction of the real Dallas and Fort Worth to his fictional Jodie, Texas enjoy a tremendous depth and clarity. It helps makes what could have been another typical King novel into an exception King novel—one that I plan to read again in a year or so, or at least listen to on audiobook. Two thumbs up from me. I highly recommend.
Finally, King mentions that, like Under the Dome, he originally had the idea for this book years ago (in this case, 1971; in the case of Under the Dome, it was the late 70s and early 80s). I find this an interesting approach. Stephen King retired from writing in 2002 (part of this may have been ongoing pain from his accident, which he may have found better ways to manage, since then), but has been almost as prolific since his retirement as he was before. Lately, he’s been mining the ideas of his youth to see what he can come up with, and he’s come up with some interesting things. As much as I disliked Under the Dome (and, to be fair, many loved it, I just thought it was a mess), the idea of going back to old ideas and tackling them anew seems to work, by and large, for Mr. King. It certainly works here.
For an opposing viewpoint, check out Rachel Cooke’s negative review in The Guardian. I think she misses the point, but then, of course I would think that.
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