11/22/63

I just finished 11/22/63 today having got a free review copy from Simon & Schuster. I won't say anything about the plot details since the book is so new, and stick with with my general impression instead. Suffice it to say that this is a time travel story where main character travels back in time to stop the assassination of JFK, and right a few other wrongs along the way.

I really enjoyed this Stephen King novel, the first I've read in many, many years, although I was a bit disappointed in the conclusion. It owes a lot to Jack Finney's Time and Again, which King acknowledges as an influence in the afterword, and that probably explains my distaste for the ending. I didn't care as much as most people for Time and Again either. I also didn't care for King's ascribing of intentionality to Derry and Dallas. It almost rises to the level of anthropomorphization, if one can even apply that word to locales. This is something of a hallmark of King's writing though, and you just kind of have to take it in stride. On the whole, 11/22/63 is just fun and King's description of life in the late 1950s-early 1960s is vivid and quite accurate to my mind. Definitely recommended.

SK got a few things badly wrong about gun laws in Texas, and it kept getting on my nerves.

I imagine it's like being a nuclear engineer watching an action flick about a nuclear bomb and getting hung up on the details.

I thought the ending kind of.. odd. At least for a time travel book, but probably not for SK.

Even in New York State, I remember how easy it was to buy guns back then. I don't know about concealed carry permits, or if you even needed one, since even my gun loving father never saw the need for that. I do remember he had to get a permit from the Sheriff for his hand gun though -- something he never had to do for any other gun he owned.