Novel Review: 11/22/63

You can read my review of the novel here.









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Word broke recently that best selling author, Stephen King will be releasing a new novel later this year. It's called 11/22/63, and it involves an attempt to go back in time in order to prevent the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy. While the title would seemingly tell you when the book is coming out, it will actually be released on November 8th. I guess they figured that releasing it on the 22nd would be tacky.

The book is said to be about 1,000 pages, which is not surprising considering many of the author's works are doorstoppers. The length, as well as the general premise, means that there are tons of directions that the story could go in to.

For example, the story could go into a 12 Monkeys-esque plot, where the efforts of the heroes repeatedly fail due to various circumstances, forcing them to try and try again until they get the desired result. It could also have the heroes succeed, only to return to a future where things are much worse as a result of some unforeseen chain reaction.

There is also a strong possibility that one of the many varous conspiracy theories will come into play in the story. I find it hard to believe that King would come up with this premise and completely ignore them.

The book may also possibly combine these ideas into one narrative. Have the conspiracy somehow become aware of the dark future that lies ahead and use that as their motivation for shooting him. It would be a nice way to merge narratives while also making for some interesting anti-heroes.

On the other hand, going that route may make it seem like a rehash of The Dead Zone. I know he got some flack after writing For a Buick 8 by people who thought it was just a Christine redux (though those who read the book would realize that it wasn't). He may want to try and avoid going down that road again, giving us a premise that he hasn't touched on in previous works; a rather daunting task considering how much he's written over the years.

Of course, this is all just wild mass guessing on my part. Then again, that's part of the fun of being a pop culture junkie. Whether it be books or film, it's quite enjoyable to throw out possible ideas for what's to come next. If we really want to find out what happens, we readers are going to have to simply wait until the book comes out so that we can read it ourselves and let the narrative unfold as the author intended.

While a part of me is sad that I have to wait until November for this to be released, considering the size of my to-read pile of books, I could definitely use the next few months to try and chip away at it so that I have time to get to this book when it does come out.