The h2g2 Book Review: Double Vision
Created | Updated May 29, 2016
11/22/63
by Stephen King
New York: Pocket Books, 2011
Double Vision
According to his Afterword, Stephen King started to write a time travel book about the Kennedy assassination in 1972, but realised how much research it would require, and put it off until the next century. Personally, this reader is glad he waited. The current blockbuster tome – 1080 pages in the paperback edition – is a very satisfying work of art. And if you don't think the historical and social reflections, plus the usual edge-of-the-chair tension you expect from the US's premier horror writer, are enough to keep you interested, hungry people take note: this edition has recipes in the book club kit in the back. You can learn to make food from 1963.
The title 11/22/63 may confuse at first, but that's the way the US writes the date of the incident in question: the day John F Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas, Texas. Like the author, I was alive then, though a bit younger, and so I know what everyone in our generation knows – the assassination was one of those watershed events. Like the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was a date that not only lived in infamy, but in personal memory. You may not remember what you did on the day before or after, but you will remember what you were doing when you heard this news. (I was in school, and they sent us home for the day, so I watched the coverage on television.) In this novel, King sends a high school teacher back in time in an attempt to erase that watershed event.
But going back in time is never really merely about the 'important event' itself. It's about the times, the culture – mental and material – and most of all, about the people. What is wonderful about this book is how thoroughly and enjoyably King hitchhikes through the space/time on his way to Dallas. The Oswalds don't even show up for at least 400 pages. Instead, you get a rich exploration of life between 1958 and 1963: the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you weren't there, you may find it an eye-opener. This is where your parents (or grandparents) came from, immigrants from this other country where they do things differently. If you were there, you may experience déjà vu a time or two. You may even feel sure you've met George Amberson or his double. (I could swear I had some of his colleagues as teachers in Memphis.)
The main character: Jake, or George as he calls himself back then, is a man with double vision. He sees the future, while the past is in front of him. He also sees what might be, and what he can change. Basically, this is the desire many of us have when we make decisions: should I take that job? Should I move? Should I support this candidate, or that one? We know our choices have consequences, and we wish we knew what they were. But would knowing help the decision-making process, or render it even more painful?
In his Afterword, King also pays tribute to that master of time travel writing, Jack Finney, whose 1970 illustrated novel Time and Again sets the gold standard in chrononaut description. King uses different means to get to the Past. His metadiscussion takes a different turn. But in the end, the author confronts (squarely) the central issues of any time travel experiment: the tangled web of causation and the ethical responsibility to act for the greater good. King walks you through it beautifully, and I think you'll be pleased with where it goes.
11/22/63 is a good read, and well worth your time, if for no other reason than that by the end of it you, like the protagonist, will have developed the time traveller's double vision about past and present. It's a useful thing to have in your mental toolbox. Besides, you'll enjoy the thrill ride: it's an exciting story. And if you get the munchies, there are always the recipes, courtesy of the book club people. (After this book, you'll never look at poundcake the same way again.)
