I don’t care that much about JFK either—he was before my time—but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the book. Preventing the JFK assassination is almost like a MacGuffin; it’s the destination, but the book is more about the journey.
I enjoyed it. I agree that it could have used some serious editing. It’s also quite clear that it was something he mostly wrote in the 80s and then reworked recently. Which doesn’t make it bad, just slightly disjointed.
It had never occurred to me before, but I think this criticism is spot on. It’s definitely a lot of nostalgia for a time that wasn’t half as good as Boomers like to pretend it was.
That said, I really enjoyed the book. It’s pretty light on the fantasy/horror elements and reads a lot more like a mystery/thriller. I haven’t as many of King’s books as others, but I think that you could pretty broadly categorize his books that way. Based on the OP’s likes and dislikes I’d guess this book will trend more into the “like” camp because of that.
The main criticism of the book is that it’s overlong. But that can pretty much be stamped on King’s tombstone so you probably will be prepared for that coming in. His writing is fun to read so who’s to quibble over a couple hundred pages of fluff? I think the ending is actually one of his more satisfying ones, which is the other big King criticism. The book takes kind of a long time to actually get into the actual Oswald stuff which I think plays into the over-long point.
One of my favourite Stephen King books. Didn’t bother me at all the story had all sorts of detours. I enjoyed the variety. The Stand had a similar meandering narrative but the crucial difference (for me) is 11/22/63 had a great ending while The Stand just suddenly finished.
I would suggest reading the book It first although since some dislike that book maybe, as a compromise, watch the film first?
TCMF-2L
Liked the book, didn’t like the series, as it strayed from the book too much.
This. Also, my edition has “Killeen” constantly misspelled.
Fun book, but absolutely wretched final 10 pages. Absolutely hated how the protagonist had to go back in order to save existence. King could have just as easily set up a scenario where a living John F. Kennedy was such a wretched president, that the protagonist is faced with the moral decision to go back and kill the man in 1963 as to save the world from the damage that he did. But, no, there were ripping sounds and etc, so that was that for hard decisions.