Jason's Reviews > 11/22/63

Your review makes this book sound like the movie Source Code, which was terrible.

I liked source code!

Wow- and you have it 3 stars?!?

Jason wrote: "I liked source code!"

Really? I liked seeing Chicago on film and some of it was okay but could have been better. Did you watch Drive yet?

Haven't seen Drive yet.
Danielle: I knew somebody was going to say that! I kind of actually enjoyed the book in spite of its absurdity. But of course, how could I pass up a chance to make fun of it in my review? =)

perfect review.

Congratulations on failing your comprehension test:

*The reasons for going back to save Kennedy are fully explained.
* His second attempts are fully explained (trying to fully understand the nature of time-travel and its consequences before dedicating 5 years to it).
*He falls in love with Sadie when she's 27, not when she's 80. She's 80 when he returns to the present.
*The book, like any fantasy, has a self-contained logic which accounts for the earthquakes (i.e. fabric of time itself being disrupted by the massive changes to history which he has affected by preventing the assassination, which in turn affects the stability of reality itself). If you read a book which is very obviously a fantasy, you should treat it as such.

Disliking a book is one thing, but being willfully misleading in your depiction is just idiotic.

Thanks, Brittany and Mallory!

I agree with most of what you wrote EXCEPT that I really got sucked into it anyway! I wouldn't have been able to slog through all those pages if I hadn't. I came to care about the characters and, as much as I complained about the length, I was sorry to see it end. Strange! But I guess that's what makes King unique. Anyway, I enjoyed reading your review,too (and it was a lot shorter) !

Man I think you hurt Franks feelings.. Good review...

Funny review!

Liked the book, although it did drag a little until the last 150 pages or so.

@Gary. Very good comment

I get that you were a little annoyed by the first part of this novel, it did seem a little weird that he's just taking Al's word for everything, even though he doesn't know him very well, and yes, i get that a reader could find it annoying that he doesn't just get into it at first, that he has to try a "trial" run. However, I disagree. I feel like King did an exellent job of making this novel seem plausible. I think that Jake, or 'George', acted as any real person would given the situation. Could you not say that you would let the opportunity to do something great pass?

Mostly I was being tongue-in-cheek, Kim. Yes, I agree that the premise was a bit silly but once you suspend that, it was rather enjoyable, which is why I gave it 3 stars. Glad you liked it. :)

Just finished this book, and found your review to be very funny. Thanks for the laugh.

Hop-Toad Harry

Frank wrote: "Congratulations on failing your comprehension test:

*The reasons for going back to save Kennedy are fully explained.
* His second attempts are fully explained (trying to fully understand the natur..."

Thanks Frank, I guess some people have nothing better to do than try and make themselves feel, superior, witty, for the other kid's in class? I'm new to buying eBooks for my girlfriends KOBO, usually I buy physical books. I can see that I will be yearning for those days again. There are so many folks who have a monumentally high opinion of themselves, and feel the NEED to deride the creations of other people, instead of actually being helpful.

My bad, lesson learned. Don't judge a book by its cover, or, as it is in the 21st century, don't judge a book by the reviews.

Probably King's worst book. JFK was the sub plot to this "romance" novel. Very disappointing book.

I could not agree more...with all of your comments. The premise just wasn't believable to me at all. And I loved your point re: Quantum Leap—ha! But fine, I think if you want to suspend all that, you could probably get some enjoyment out of it, as King is definitely not a bad writer. But for me, it just didn't cut it. Also, I wasn't completely thrilled with Under the Dome, either.

Jeremy wrote: "Also, for an English teacher, he really overused the word "obdurate". You would think he would have a larger vocabulary. I'll tell you what's obdurate, his Use of the word obdurate."

WORD!

"It’s like that scene in Ghost where Sam uses Oda Mae’s body to put the moves on Molly. We get that it’s Patrick Swayze in spirit, but somehow we can’t let go of the knowledge that it’s actually Whoopi Goldberg who’s feeling up Demi Moore." Totally LOL'd at this :)

This is exactly how I felt when I was slogging through the last half of the book. I'm amazed that you gave the book 3stars.

He went back in time because of Harry, to stop Harry's father from ruining Harry's life. Jake didn't care about Kennedy. He never did. The only reason he went through with Al's plan was because he discovered that stopping Harry's father wasn't enough to save Harry's life; he had to stop Vietnam from happening. Which meant saving Kennedy. King spent like 200 pages explaining that.

Jenn wrote: "King spent like 200 pages explaining that."

Hogwash. Dude risks life and limb and the whole state of the unknown all in an effort to fix Harry's gimp? That's even more nonsensical than what I posited in my review (which was actually meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but somehow people miss that).

I think the premise is absurd, but I'm glad you found it acceptable. I still liked the novel.

Are you saying that it's hogwash that King spent the first quarter of 11/22/63 developing the reasons why Jake cared about Harry enough to want to change his life, or are you saying that it's hogwash that Harry's crippled life would be reason enough for Jake to want to change history? Because your quote implies the former, but your comment implies the latter. Both?

And how is saying that there's no reason for Jake to want to stop Kennedy, when there totally is and it's a thoroughly explained one, tongue-in-cheek?

Sorry, I should be more clear...

It's hogwash that Harry's motivations for changing the entire course of human history were to alleviate the gimp of a janitor who worked at his school. And yes, King spent 200 pages doing a lot of things, but one thing he didn't do was convince me of Jake's reasons. His reasons for helping Harry were initially stated as a sort of test of the butterfly effect. Plus, he's a swell guy, so why not help a brother out, right? When Al died, he seemed to combine two motivating factors in convincing himself to continue with the preemptive strike on Oswald: 1) to "keep his word" to Al out of some unfounded sense of loyalty to him, even though their friendship was platonic at best; and 2) to "fix" the butterfly effect of Harry dying in the war. This sure was convenient on King's part, but ultimately neither (or both!) factors felt solid enough for me to feel convinced. In fact, I think it's bogus because he did not have enough of a relationship with either man to warrant his actions, at least none that I can identify with.

That said...in defense of King, there really isn't going to be a perfect way to ease into the whole business of time traveling. So I think if one were to suspend quite a bit—a lot, actually—one can still find enjoyment in this novel. I did. That's why I gave it a 3. And my review was tongue-in-cheek in the sense that I am essentially making fun of it while still thinking it was pretty decent. I thought the whole "dancing with the old lady bit" would have been humorous enough to demonstrate that, but apparently I have failed. =(

God, I feel like Keely here...

Bird Brian wrote: "Earthquakes? Really? The same plot twist could have been achieved by evoking nuclear war... something where a plausible cause-and-effect might be imagined, given that JFK was a Head of State."

The earthquakes...pretty far-fetched, right? But they were explained as more of a side effect of "disturbing the equilibrium of history" rather than as a sequence of events resulting from JFK not being killed.

I've never read The Dead Zone, although I do want to go back and read some older King novels eventually.

Agreed. I was not very impressed.

Thanks for explaining, Jason.

When you say it like that, Jake's reasons for going back in time sound flimsy. I thought it was better developed than that. Jake was lonely, disenchanted with teaching, and his life in 2011 seemed meaningless. One older student comes along who, effort-wise, is any teacher's dream. He's a nice, humble guy who had a horrible thing happen to him once, and who, because of it, is daily humiliated by the youth of 2011--who, you can tell, Jake hates like a Sax Fifth Avenue employee hates customers. The first thing Jake does in the book is gives this guy's paper an A, despite knowing that he shouldn't. Jake is a guy who imposes his own morals and personal feelings on things that he's supposed to be impartial about. At one point in the book, he says something like, "The crazy dickbags of the world shouldn't get to win, and it's up to us to make sure they don't." So, actually, it's not even really "gimp" Harry who provides the motivation for Jake to change history; it's Jake's hatred of unfairness. Harry just happened to become Jake's banner in Jake's effort to impose his ideals on the world. I thought that all provided believable motivation.

I can see the Whoopi Goldberg thing being tongue-in-cheek. That was pretty funny.

Who is Keely?

Jenn wrote: "So, actually, it's not even really "gimp" Harry who provides the motivation for Jake to change history; it's Jake's hatred of unfairness."

This is an interesting way to look at it. And you're probably right. It's just that if Jake's motivations were really to correct unfairness, I feel like he'd be overwhelmed at where to start. It seems sort of random to be pulled to these specific events when it doesn't seem like there was enough to get him there. Why not try to fix other unfair situations he's seen happen to people he cares about? I'm sure he's encountered—and even more than that, was deeply affected by—many other unfair circumstances in his lifetime. Why not pursue that? My guess is that it would have taken another few hundred pages for King to establish a more solid reason behind this, and this book was already destined to be a doorstop. But that's just my guess.

Jenn wrote: "Who is Keely?"

Keely is this guy on Goodreads that looooves to argue. About everything. All the time. He's actually gotten exceptionally good at it...

By the way, I saw and read your review on 11/22/63. It's well written.

Aw, thanks!

Why not try to fix other unfair situations he's seen happen to people he cares about?

I got the impression that Jake didn't really care about anyone in 2011, except for Harry. He begins the story without any family or close friends, and he feels apathetic about most of his students. I think Harry is probably the person he feels closest to at that point, and so it makes sense, to me, that that would be the person he'd do something major for.

What seemed overly coincidental to me was that Jake--by his own definition, not a "crying man"--cries after reading Harry's paper, and, then, only a short time later, is presented with this opporutnity to make Harry's life better.

But, like you say, if King had explained every little thing, it would've taken forever, and I probably wouldn't have liked it as much--sci-fi that's totally explained loses a lot of its awesomeness.

Jenn wrote: "sci-fi that's totally explained loses a lot of its awesomeness."

agreed!

I agree with most of your review but I have to ask you - why do you feel such revulsion for a person who is 80? Have you never seen an old woman or old man who is beautiful to behold and wonderful to know? If someone you loved suddenly got a disease that made them age fast, would you suddenly no longer love them? Someone who is 80 is just as human as you are. Do you feel like vomiting when you think of yourself?

The revulsion is for Jake, not for the old lady. That Jake wanting to dance with an 80 year-old version of someone he used to screw is very, very disturbing to me. I mean, by all means, no judgments from me if you're into that sort of thing, but it's just not for me. Personally, I love 80 year-olds. I just don't want to have ever slept with one. Because I'm 32.

And yes, I do often want to vomit when I think of myself but I'm working slowly on self-acceptance. One day at a time.

I do have to agree with your review of the earthquakes. Now that was weird. (Not that the rest of it wasn't weird but that truly was WEIRD.)

Sorry, I wasn't ignoring you. Sometimes I just don't get notifications from Goodreads. Yes, that part was very weird!

See, you had like 800+ pages to stop...

Stop what? Reading it? No, no...once I start a book I am usually in it for the long haul. I was just talking about that with someone yesterday, in fact.

I just started reading it yesterday, and now I don't feel like I have to continue. I know what happens.

Oda Mae gives a check for four million dollars to a bunch of nuns, and karma is restored.

Haha, Rhianna, I can't wait for your review on this.

*milk coming out of my nose*
"...a-fucking-GAIN" ----> LOVE IT!

Oh, to piggy-back on message 42: I too suffer from CBCI - Compulsive Book Completion Illness. Which extends itself to series as well, which sucks when you really don't like a series, but can't sleep unless you go ahead and read that one more book... (think Sookie Stackhouse and the... I don't know... what? TWELVE or so books in the series? Or, uh, Stephanie Plum. God, I need a cure for this disease.)

Oh God, the dread you must feel when you learn the next book is being released...

Oh man, I am SO glad I don't feel compelled to continue reading all of a series. I've read the first book only of many.

Uh-huh. I just keep thinking "Please let this be the last one. PLEASE let the main character die or get married or kill the last bad guy or SOMETHING to signal the freaking END!"

What ruined it for you, Brandon, the lifetime supply of beer or the dance with Oda Mae? I can guarantee you that my ½ page review did not ruin this 800 page book. Your suggestion that it does gives me way too much credit.

You mean the plot that he goes back in time to prevent JFK's assassination? Did you read the title, Brandon?

And I have to say, if you call me another name on my own thread, I'm blocking you. I don't need to be called names in order to have a conversation.

Hahaha. Jesus, man, I love comments like this. Lets give King a little more credit that the experience of reading a 800 page novel can't be spoiled by a couple of paragraphs. Guess what? (view spoiler)[THE BOAT SINKS. (hide spoiler)]

Ceridwen wrote: "Hahaha. Jesus, man, I love comments like this. Lets give King a little more credit that the experience of reading a 800 page novel can't be spoiled by a couple of paragraphs. Guess what? [spoilers ..."

(view spoiler)[DUMBLEDORE DIES! (hide spoiler)]

Wait, what the fuck? First JFK and now DUMBLEDORE???? Where is King's humanity in this book?!?!?!

(view spoiler)[IT WAS EARTH ALL ALONG. DAMN YOU. DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL. (hide spoiler)]

Spoilers, Rhianna!