"11/22/1963" by Stephen King--a Review

Despite his success as a novelist, most serious people do not like Stephen King; it's sort of a requirement once you get your "serious person" card. Academic and serious writers hate him, especially after he had the gall to write a book on writing. This book is a bit longer than necessary, is a bit self-indulgent and unedited, but it will change some minds.

Al Tempelton, the dying owner of a failing diner, comes to Jake Epping, an unhappy teacher and ex-husband of a scandelous alcoholic, with an enticing proposition: He has discovered in the back of his store a portal to 1958. 11:58a.m., September 9, 1958, exactly. Tempelton regularly takes a trip back through the portal to buy meat for his diner at 1958 prices. He has learned that you can go back and forth as often as you like--and presumably could stay there--but every time you go it is exactly the same time so the past resets every time you go back and any changes you have made are erased. More, when you return, regardless of the amount of time you have spent in the past, only two minutes have elapsed in the present. Tempelton explains that he is too sick for the job; he wants Epping to go back to 1958 and kill Lee Harvey Oswald and save President Kennedy. Vietnam. Civil Rights. The Great Society. Tempelton is offering Epping a chance to change the world.

Epping jumps at it. But first he does a trial run--which becomes several trial runs--as he tries to help a friend in the past and learn how this all works. The reader learns too. By the time he heads for Texas he, and the reader, are quite comfortable with these new rules.

Epping has no intention of just killing Oswald. He has learned from his practice at history changing that things do not always work out as planned, that history/time has a certain resilience. "The past is obdurate for the same reason a turtle's shell is obdurate: because the living flesh inside is tender and defenseless." And he wants to be right. He wants to be sure Oswald is the killer.

In his search he moves to a small Texas town, falls in love with teaching again, becomes involved with student life and directs the school play, falls in love with another teacher, Sadie Dunhill, and, in between evaluating Oswald, begins to live a normal life. King is a meticulous chronicler of the everyday. If this sounds mundane and uninspired, be assured it is not. He makes it rich and full; the 1960's glow and reflect off the pages. Maria Oswald is especially well done. Eventually Epping decides who is responsible for Kennedy's death and he stops the assassination. Time responds with earthquakes and eventual chaos. Epping must interfere again.

There have been many books on time travel, one of the best Asimov's "End of Eternity" about man, freedom, and the governance of men. This book is simpler but has bigger aims. This book is about men and women, life and the everyday, and a "universe of horror and love surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark." Asimov should be so good.