In the United States, one of the most obsessed-upon pivot points of our recent past — the moment when people felt the country took a hard turn down a fraught and unpleasant path — was the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas. The date is etched forever upon the American psyche: 11/22/63.
Which is exactly the minimalist title of Stephen King's new book. The behemoth "11/22/63" postulates what might have happened if an English teacher named Jake Epping slipped back in time from now to 1958, then lived out five years of his life waiting for Kennedy's appointment with Lee Harvey Oswald's bullet 48 years ago Tuesday — and possibly preventing it.
This is a wrenching and subtle book, but that's not what we're here to discuss. More important is this: The 849 pages of "11/22/63" channel the angst and longing that so many Boomers feel about a past that, perhaps, didn't go in the direction they had hoped — and possibly even about lives that didn't turn out quite as planned.
AP Essay: Stephen King, JFK and lost Boomer dreams (AP)
Which is exactly the minimalist title of Stephen King's new book. The behemoth "11/22/63" postulates what might have happened if an English teacher named Jake Epping slipped back in time from now to 1958, then lived out five years of his life waiting for Kennedy's appointment with Lee Harvey Oswald's bullet 48 years ago Tuesday — and possibly preventing it.
This is a wrenching and subtle book, but that's not what we're here to discuss. More important is this: The 849 pages of "11/22/63" channel the angst and longing that so many Boomers feel about a past that, perhaps, didn't go in the direction they had hoped — and possibly even about lives that didn't turn out quite as planned.
AP Essay: Stephen King, JFK and lost Boomer dreams (AP)
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