11/22/63 by Stephen King
My rating: 4 out of 5
I know life is hard, I think everyone knows that in their hearts, but why dos it have to be cruel, as well? Why does it have to bite?
This is very much not a normal Stephen King book, but at the same time it is. It’s both mysterious and familiar. It’s full of little things to make you stop and think about your days and how they impact the future.
What would you do if you could travel back in time and actually change things? Well as it turns out our hero-to-be is pushed to save JFK from being shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. But the past pushes back and does not want to be changed and throws things at him. Not to mention butterfly effect being in full swing.
It’s not just about JFK assassination, it paints a beautiful picture of the past - post-war America full of hope, sexism, racism, cigarettes and milk in glass bottles. Not all good, not all bad - but as past tends to be - somewhat twisted. Imagine throwing a person from 2011 into this past. Seeing him deal with all of that was the fun part.
I have mixed feelings about the ending (hence 4/5). Or perhaps not the ending itself which I liked, but the mysterious and unexplained butterfly effects on the scale that are hard to explain. But then again, time travel is not something that’s meant to be easy to explain so perhaps that’s OK.