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Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

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Old 11-22-11, 03:44 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I just finished the book about 20 seconds ago... wow, it was pretty great and I am so happy Steve-O ended a book well (he misses more than half the time) because this one had a great ending. In fact I don't think it could have ended any other way and been "right".
Old 11-22-11, 06:44 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Apparently Joe Hill re-wrote the ending for him. I agree, it was awesome. I finished up over a week ago, waiting for some discussion .
Old 11-23-11, 06:30 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Joe Hill, his son, came up with the ending? Apparently you're kidding, I'm sure.

Apparently I'm the 1% who likes many of King's endings/conclusions.

Now I know who "No Suspenders" is - apparently I had to read further instead of backtracking to see who or what he was/is.

I like it, I'm all into it. For Kennedy fans, don't think you're going to get a lot of Kennedy stuff in the first half of this book, because there's nothing to do with him.

I'm at the part now where
Spoiler:
Mr. Dunning killed only one son - Tugger - and maimed his wife. Jake said something to the effect where he'd do better "the next time," meaning he's apparently going to return to 2011. He's going to meet Harry Dunning in 2011......and I'm wondering how that traumatic experience of his father killing his brother is going to "change" him. Gotta find out. Maybe Dunning is a serial killer now. lol. Frankly, Jake has to go back and kill the father days, weeks, months before the fateful Halloween night. The way he handled it, it was too close. Jake didn't leave himself enough wiggle room.
Old 11-23-11, 07:20 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by Quake1028
Apparently Joe Hill re-wrote the ending for him. I agree, it was awesome. I finished up over a week ago, waiting for some discussion .
I don't have the book yet, but from what I heard, Joe didn't actually write the ending. He came up with the idea for it, though.

I heard that in the afterword, Stephen thanks Joe for coming up with the idea for an ending that was much better than his original idea.
Old 11-25-11, 08:35 AM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by Bob_Bobbson
I don't have the book yet, but from what I heard, Joe didn't actually write the ending. He came up with the idea for it, though.

I heard that in the afterword, Stephen thanks Joe for coming up with the idea for an ending that was much better than his original idea.
You are 100% correct and that is what I should have written.
Old 11-28-11, 10:07 AM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I'm a little taken aback here with this story. He's got five years until 11/22/63, SO WHAT DOES THIS GUY DO?? He gets himself
Spoiler:
a teaching job at the school, just like in his old life. Apparently he's getting himself a girlfriend. He should be like a superhero of history!! Save Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens in 1959!
Old 11-28-11, 07:11 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I can't believe I've missed this thread for months. Well, I kind of stopped clicking on Book Talk.

Anyway, I thought it was one of King's very best books and his best in a long time.

BTW, Ash Ketchum is wrong, just like all the other JFK conspiracy nuts. Bugliosi was right. Gerald Posner was right. Donald Bellisario was right.

Spoiler:
And so is King.

Last edited by movielib; 11-28-11 at 07:23 PM.
Old 12-23-11, 12:51 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Hate to say it, but I quit reading this book in the middle of it. King lost his magic. He drained the reserves with great books for three decades...how much can the man possibly do now after all that?
Old 12-24-11, 08:34 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

It dragged in the middle for a little, but I thought the start and end were good enough to enjoy it overall. I'd have to read it again to really place it but I'd say middle of the pack compared to his other books.
Old 12-28-11, 09:06 AM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I'll pick it up again, based on people's reviews on how good the end is. But King really screwed the pooch on that middle section - he had a tremendously great opportunity to explore other historical aspects between 1959 and 1963, but he decided to place his protagonist in a school with a romance deal besides.
Old 01-11-12, 04:18 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I just recently finished it after almost 2 months and feel that it was pretty much a waste of my time.

People can criticize me all they want but it was just incredibly boring to me.

Spoiler:
I liked the premise and loved the set-up and the first two trips, especially the visit to Derry.

However, once he fell in love & settled in and there were the however many hundreds of pages of a boring middle-aged man falling in love and dating a plucky, younger, "tough only when I have to be" woman, I really had trouble wading through it. King's characters have gone from being determined, strange, or interesting to being boring, unmotivated, and sorely in need of some viagra. Characters in their 30s or even 40s seem a lot closer to King's real age (and attitude) and seem only thinly veiled as being younger. Oh, and I'm really tired of him throwing in the unnecessarily descriptive sex scenes. They read like a early college-age writer trying to shock readers. I chalked it up to a young writer feeling like you have to have a sex scene in every book you write when he was younger, but it's just creepy to me now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not puritanical or a prude or something, but somebody needs to tell him that you don't have to have a sex scene in every book you write.

I also thought that going from the sappy Peggy Sue Got Married romance into Back to the Future, Part II only to end the book with something closer to Cocoon really irked me.


Maybe I'm just not a hopeless romantic. However, it really seems like his books are steadily marching towards the point where the only people who are going to want to adapt them anymore are Lifetime and the Hallmark channel.

I've been enjoying his recent short stories, but novels like Lisey's Story, Under the Dome and now 11/22/63 really make me wish he had retired when he said he was going to years ago.

And for the record, I'm not saying that people who enjoyed it are stupid or lying. I just feel that people who dislike the recent King novels often get unfairly shot down as just being wrong or unintelligent readers.

And before somebody tells me the plot's not what was important, that it's about the characters, his characters have steadily become caricatures in the last decade. People in J.D. Salinger's short stories feel more real and fleshed out than anyone in this 800+ page book.

I'm seriously considering just stopping reading anything he writes that's over 200 pages long at this point.
Old 01-11-12, 05:33 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I kind of agree that I would have enjoyed this book much more as a novella. He could have easily just chopped out the Oswald part entirely and I probably would have enjoyed the book a bit more. I did dig the ending of this one though, but the middle could really have been shortened down quite a bit or went in a different direction.
Old 01-29-12, 12:37 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Just finished this. Great book, put it on the shelf with the best of King. Surprised to see complaints about the middle section -- without it, the ending wouldn't have had any emotional resonance. But what do I know...I thought the "Millennium" stuff was the best part of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Old 02-22-12, 02:58 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by Sean O'Hara
There's also the issue that
Spoiler:
Richie was a talk-show host famous for his vocal impersonations. Now maybe he's retired by 2011, but Jake isn't so young that he wouldn't've heard of him.
Well,
Spoiler:
Richie was famous, but only in the Bay Area (or was it Los Angeles?) - he wasn't nationally known. So it's not inconceivable that Jake wouldn't have made the connection.
Old 04-25-12, 12:59 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by Keith6601
It dragged in the middle for a little, but I thought the start and end were good enough to enjoy it overall. I'd have to read it again to really place it but I'd say middle of the pack compared to his other books.
I just finished this up the other day, and that's how I felt too. I know the middle gives us the emotional resonance of the ending, but I thought it dragged on a bit too long. That said, I agree that it's one of the best endings he's done in quite a while. Overall, I enjoyed the book.
Old 04-26-12, 04:01 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by Xander
I just finished this up the other day, and that's how I felt too. I know the middle gives us the emotional resonance of the ending, but I thought it dragged on a bit too long. That said, I agree that it's one of the best endings he's done in quite a while. Overall, I enjoyed the book.
I'm currently having a really tough time trudging through the middle of this one.
Glad to hear that it'll be worth it in the end.
Old 04-29-12, 01:12 AM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

My bday is on 11/22. I just wanted everyone here to know that.
Old 05-17-12, 08:36 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I loved this book.

Let me say that I have read pretty extensively about the assassination, both pro-conspiracy and against. I believed it was a conspiracy for a while, but most of the theories are just too much over the map and none of them hold up to scrutiny. For example, most of the other shooting locations have been tried and weren't feasible. A Grassy Knoll shooter would have hit the side of JFK's head, not the front. All of the things people say Oswald couldn't have done (Shoot Kennedy; Make to the second floor 90 sec later, Make it to where Tippet was shot), he could have done easily.

Posner and Bugliosi's version of events is internally logical and consistent with the facts. Oliver Stone's is not.
Old 06-08-12, 07:00 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I got it on audio cd.
It starts off real good and I guessed what the story was going to be about and that's what got me in to it. But there is way too stuff that could have been taken out of this long book.
If this book was to be made on film it would make a great 30 minute TWILIGHT ZONE episode.
Old 06-08-12, 08:16 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by Groucho
Just finished this. Great book, put it on the shelf with the best of King. Surprised to see complaints about the middle section -- without it, the ending wouldn't have had any emotional resonance. But what do I know...I thought the "Millennium" stuff was the best part of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
I finished it a little while ago, and I agree. I usually think King writes good stories, but terrible endings. This had a great story and a great ending. Right up there with It and The Stand for me.
Old 06-09-12, 04:30 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by wahlers
I just recently finished it after almost 2 months and feel that it was pretty much a waste of my time.

People can criticize me all they want but it was just incredibly boring to me.

Spoiler:
I liked the premise and loved the set-up and the first two trips, especially the visit to Derry.

However, once he fell in love & settled in and there were the however many hundreds of pages of a boring middle-aged man falling in love and dating a plucky, younger, "tough only when I have to be" woman, I really had trouble wading through it. King's characters have gone from being determined, strange, or interesting to being boring, unmotivated, and sorely in need of some viagra. Characters in their 30s or even 40s seem a lot closer to King's real age (and attitude) and seem only thinly veiled as being younger. Oh, and I'm really tired of him throwing in the unnecessarily descriptive sex scenes. They read like a early college-age writer trying to shock readers. I chalked it up to a young writer feeling like you have to have a sex scene in every book you write when he was younger, but it's just creepy to me now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not puritanical or a prude or something, but somebody needs to tell him that you don't have to have a sex scene in every book you write.

I also thought that going from the sappy Peggy Sue Got Married romance into Back to the Future, Part II only to end the book with something closer to Cocoon really irked me.


Maybe I'm just not a hopeless romantic. However, it really seems like his books are steadily marching towards the point where the only people who are going to want to adapt them anymore are Lifetime and the Hallmark channel.

I've been enjoying his recent short stories, but novels like Lisey's Story, Under the Dome and now 11/22/63 really make me wish he had retired when he said he was going to years ago.

And for the record, I'm not saying that people who enjoyed it are stupid or lying. I just feel that people who dislike the recent King novels often get unfairly shot down as just being wrong or unintelligent readers.

And before somebody tells me the plot's not what was important, that it's about the characters, his characters have steadily become caricatures in the last decade. People in J.D. Salinger's short stories feel more real and fleshed out than anyone in this 800+ page book.

I'm seriously considering just stopping reading anything he writes that's over 200 pages long at this point.
The middle of the book is what is boring. It's like King was trying to make a mini-series out of a good half-hour show.
Old 08-12-12, 11:59 AM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I didn't see this mentioned yet:

Running Against Time
History professor David Rhodes never has got over the death of his older brother, 1966 in Vietnam. When he hears the rumor that a famous professor is working on a time machine, he immediately contacts him and persuades him to allow him to travel back in time and correct history. If he could save President Kennedy's life, Vietnam war might never have happened!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100529/
Old 08-30-12, 11:13 AM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Just finished the book last night and I thought it was great. I kinda enjoyed the middle of the book. Sure George could have done a lot more than just settle down for a few years but he had one goal while he was there. Plus he would have taken more risk of getting caught if he changed the past more than he did.

I think It is going to be my next read. So far every King book I’ve read has been excellent. Though I’ve only read a few, salems lot, the stand, Dark tower series, Under the Dome and now this.
Old 09-07-12, 08:35 AM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

Originally Posted by Dash
Just finished the book last night and I thought it was great. I kinda enjoyed the middle of the book. Sure George could have done a lot more than just settle down for a few years but he had one goal while he was there. Plus he would have taken more risk of getting caught if he changed the past more than he did.

I think It is going to be my next read. So far every King book I’ve read has been excellent. Though I’ve only read a few, salems lot, the stand, Dark tower series, Under the Dome and now this.
And don't forget, "The past is obdurate." Had he tried to do anything significantly different it probably would have had disasterous results. Low key was his best option.
Old 09-09-12, 03:12 PM
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Re: Stephen King: "11/22/63" (releases on 11/8/11)

I finished reading this a while back and found it quite entertaining, though a bit slow in the middle. I thought the ending was the correct one for a true sci-fi story.
Spoiler:
You can't change the past without something else occurring to replace the horrific event you prevent.


I am not an avid King reader but, have partaken of some of his past effort. What were all of the actual connections to other novels this time? Obvious was:
Spoiler:
It with Jake encountering the characters. Was the part where he thinks he hears something in a grate supposed to be him encountering the creature? Also, I seem to remember him thinking he heard someone beating an animal or a dog in the distance, so I am wondering if that was another allusion.


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