The Ups and Downs of Time Travel
Love, death, sacrifice; the big touchstones that give life meaning. These are the sort of themes that hit home for most of us, creating some sense of shared experience with our fellow humans. It is this central core focus that gives Stephen King’s door-stopper novel, 11/22/63, its sense of tension, relatability and bittersweet catharsis that elevates it beyond the sum of its parts. Perpetually late to the party as I am, I only recently tackled the Master of Horror’s widely praised novel. Despite the novels critical acclaim and the its near universal praise for illustrating King’s authorial prowess, not just a horror writer, but a genuine master of the craft, I found many reasons to put off reading this one. I could blame a lot of contributing factors for this, but ultimately it comes down to my own proclivity to let me short attention span get the best of me. Like the proverbial squirrel, I am ever distracted by new, shiny things. So, while this particular book has sat on my TBR for years, I let it get pushed to the back burner over and over again in favor of some new, exciting release. Recently, I got the notification from Libby (not for the first time) that 11/22/63 was available from my local library and I decided it was finally time to tackle the looming giant that I had time and time again ignored. Now, I gratefully thank whatever literary gods I finally made the commitment because, as it turns out, the master of horror can spin a genre blending tale of historical fiction, thriller and romance that keeps you glued to the page as well as any of his more spine tingling fare when he the mood strikes him.
In short, 11/22/63 is about a normal man who goes back in time to try and stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. For story specific reasons, he can only go back to one particular date, five years prior to that fateful day in Dallas and every time he travels back and forth he resets the timeline, meaning he must live continuously in the past in order to wait out the day when his chance to save the President arrives. As a result, our protagonist, Jake Epping, or George Amberson, as he’s known throughout his unusual journey, attempts to track Lee Harvey Oswald and his budding family throughout the past while also living out a not insignificant portion of his own life. As an average person thrust into an extraordinary situation, Jake does his best but can’t help but form relationships and build a life for himself, entwining himself deeper and deeper into the bygone era of the 1950’s and 60’s, becoming a man entrenched in a time where he does not belong. The degree to which he is effecting the timeline is always in question and there is a continuously running undercurrent of uncertainty to our protagonists mission. He is constantly working against the current of time and is never able to be totally confident in his actions. This creates a sort of dual story, one where Jake is living a relatively average life and another where he is on a history altering mission to change fate. Despite his attempts to keep these two realities apart, they eventually collide and he finds himself facing impossible decisions with potentially earth shattering consequences.
Time travel isn’t a new concept in our modern media landscape. We have had everything from Sci-Fi television shows to Hollywood Blockbusters to other bestselling novels that use the basic set up of time travel as their central plot device. Most very wildly in their interpretation of the mechanics of time travel, being more or less concerned with particulars and rules. King opts to focus less on the specifics of how time travel works in this world, never getting too bogged down by the inherent pitfalls or science ready to hamper a time travel story. Instead, he chooses to make this a deeply personal piece which invests us wholly into the experience of Jake Epping. It is told in a sort of quasi-memoir style, first person perspective told in consideration of the narrator having lived through the events which he is relating, that lives wholly in the protagonists head. Given the novel’s overtly unnatural premise, the focus on Jake and his experience, such as his struggles with this new reality, the internal debate over his own responsibilities, his complicated and often ill-advised relationships and interference with the past, are all factors that add a strong foundation from which the reader is able to take in the more esoteric aspects of the story. Even as King glosses over certain pieces of information or leaves certain details intentionally murky, it ends up adding to the story rather than detracting from it. Jake Epping is a classic every man protagonist, a la Marty McFly in Back to The Future, trying to do his best in a situation with rules he never quite fully understands. To have him become a time travel guru would take away a great deal of what makes this novel so investing, so King letting the broader universe at play here stay undefined helps relate the sense that Jake must feel to the reader, that of being a tiny cog trying to upset the unknowable and uncaring machine of the universe.
With this novel, King accomplishes something truly worthy of note; he forces the reader into the position of being unsure if they want the hero to succeed or not, and he holds that tension right up until the very end. It is a brutal trick that King plays on his reader, forcing them to walk the line right along with Jake, living with the uncertainty and self-doubt and guilt of knowing that every decision will likely have unintended repercussions. I would like to think everyone can identify with the struggle of Jake to some degree, if not in practice than in concept. He is just a guy who wants to do the right thing. He is presented with the opportunity to change things, but he is neither a movie hero nor is he blessed with any special knowledge of how his actions will effect the future. The book take great pains to show that he is well intentioned, that he is capable of doing good. As a teacher, he is shown to be both caring and effective, invested in the success of his students and uniquely talented at drawing out their potential. But King is no writer of children’s fairy tales and he knows better than to let good intentions shield his characters from consequence. Ultimately, 11/22/63 works because it is a character driven story first, allowing the science fiction aspects of the story to take a back seat as it thrusts the reader into the impossible conflict of its central protagonist. The conclusion, both satisfying and gutting in equal measure, is one that will leave you wondering why anyone would suggest that King is just a writer of cheap horror shlock. For a book that lived on my shelf unread for years, it certainly shot to the top of my personal best list without much hesitation. My only regret is I wish I could only go back in time and force myself to pick it up sooner.
Highly recommended for fans and non-fans alike – 10/10
