11/22/63 – Stephen King

Summary: Jake Epping has an opportunity to undo one of the defining moments of a generation. Don’t forget about The Butterfly Effect, though.

Setting: Late 1950’s / early 1960’s & present day

Plot: Jake is a high school teacher in (where else?) Maine. In addition to his normal classes, he teaches GED night school to adults as well. The high school janitor is in his adult class, and when the janitor relates (in a writing assignment) the story of how his abusive (and estranged) father killed all the other members of the family, Jake is moved almost to tears.

 

The dying owner of a diner (an acquaintance named Al) calls Jake, and over a late meeting at the diner, shows Jake a specific spot in the back pantry of the diner, and tells Jake that this particular spot is inexplicably linked with a different time, telling him that if he walks into this specific spot, he will be transported back to the late 1950’s. Jake is understandably skeptical until Al talks him into taking a journey back in time, as a test.

 

Jake makes the test journey (and returns unharmed), and is convinced. He makes another journey to the 1950’s to save the other members of the janitor’s family, so he can see for himself what consequences changes in the past can have on the present, and learns that due to The Butterfly Effect, small changes can have wide-reaching effects.

 

Al gives him a mission: Travel back to the late 50’s, and make his way to Dallas in time to stop Oswald from shooting Kennedy in 1963. Al sets him up with some money, and some research that he’s done to make the job a bit easier (sports results, research into Oswald’s life and movements leading up to the shooting).

 

Jake decides to stop Oswald, but first he has to live through 5+ years in the 1950’s and 60’s, waiting for the right time to act. He fits an entire lifetime into that 5 years.

Criticisms:  No technical criticisms. A little jumpy at the end, but it’s by design. A lot of King’s books do that, and while this book’s got a few of those trademark “end a paragraph in the middle of a sentence, then continue the sentence in the next paragraph but change the topic of the sentence in the middle” changes, there are remarkably few of them. It’s King’s style, and you’ll see hundreds of those “transitions” in a book like “The Stand”. This book has only 3 or 4 of them.

Wrap-up: King is unfairly classified as a horror writer, and there are two kinds of readers:

1. Those who have read a lot of Stephen King and know that the characterization of him as strictly “Horror” is not accurate;

2. Those who have read a couple of King’s horror novels and have decided that they don’t like him because his books are too scary, or won’t read his books in the first place because they don’t like horror.

This novel has no horror in it. None.

 

There are parts that can be a little bit gory, but there’s absolutely no horror.

 

While this book is ostensibly about going back in time and preventing the assassination of JFK, I’m not certain that that’s a fair characterization of it; I think the book is more about the journey that Jake takes (both in terms of distance, and over 5 years) while waiting for his chance to act. He has time during his journey to get in trouble with the mob (in two different locations), make a difference to an entire class of high schoolers (in one case, one of the stars of a high school football team decides to focus on drama and acting instead), and to fall in love; all while trying to reconcile the false identity (from the 1950’s and 1960’s) that he’s had to create with his true identity from the 2000’s.

 

Regardless of genre, King is a master of his craft, and if you haven’t read any of his “non-horror” work because you don’t like scary stuff, you’re missing out on some wonderful writing and doing yourself quite a disservice. All of his books (with the exception of a couple of NF’s and some of his earliest work) are quite solid, and I can’t think of many writers who are even in the same class as King in regards to verisimilitude.

 

If you want some suggestions of other Stephen King books to take a look at (that aren’t horror), let me know. I can suggest a few for you.

 

As far as this book - there is no “pat” ending to it; it’s not all wrapped up with a pretty bow on top of it. This book doesn’t end with “happily ever after”. Stories in real life rarely end like that either. If that’s what you’re looking for, this may not be the book for you. If you want a realistic book where the hero has to make some tough choices and live with the consequences of his decisions, give it a try. 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book an A-.

Stone Barrington Series – Stuart Woods

Note: I’m going to change it up a bit and review an entire series. I haven’t completed the whole series yet (there are 20 books thus far, and counting), but I think I can give a pretty solid review at this point.

Summary: Stone Barrington starts out as a beat cop, and this series follows the end of his police career and his retirement due to disability, followed by his next career as a lawyer and private investigator.

Setting: Late 1990’s through present day

Plot: Stone and his partner Dino are beat cops and Stone is shot in the knee, ending his career with the NYPD. Dino continues progressing in the NYPD, and makes his way up to Detective and beyond, while Stone passes the bar, having graduated from law school prior to becoming a cop. Stone is recruited to work with (but not at) a prestigious local firm, taking cases that their firm can’t be associated with for whatever reason. His practice ends up being quite successful, from 3 (thus far in the series) major sources:

1. One of his ex-girlfriends ends up marrying a famous actor, and Stone is asked to help when things go wrong for them or their friends.
2. The law firm that he’s associated with drops cases from extremely high profile clients into his lap, but these are the kinds of cases that the firm can’t be connected to – a CEO’s son is accused of date rape, etc.
3. Stone’s ex-partner (and current best friend) Dino is married to the daughter of a very successful Italian businessman, and Eduardo (Dino’s father-in-law) asks Stone for assistance with legal and investigative matters.

All of Stone’s clients are very well off and as a result, Stone makes quite a bit of money, and has gotten quite affluent over the course of the series, flying on private jets, staying in villas and the best hotels, and  driving dream cars.

Criticisms: Some of the language is quite profane, and some of the situations that Stone finds himself thrown into can seem a bit contrived, but as a whole, the books are fairly solid and tie the series together quite competently.

Wrap-up: It’s a pleasure to be able to follow a character’s career from the very beginning. There’s enough meat to the stories that none of the books seem to be “disposable”, but I can tell you from experience that if you read one of the stories from anywhere in the series, it’s quite capable of standing alone. As a result, you can take small bites from this story without having to read the entire series start to finish, or you can take a deep breath and dive right in at the beginning.

Woods has a couple of other series that he writes as well, and to be honest, I’m not certain if this series is his main series or not, but he’s quite prolific. The series seems to be quite consistent in writing style from the start to where I’m at in the series (in book 7), so I get the feeling that he’s been doing this for a while; this probably ain’t his first rodeo. Pretty solid series.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this series (and all the books I’ve read in it thus far) a solid B+.

Digital Fortress - Dan Brown

Summary: The NSA’s multi-billion dollar code breaking computer encounters the first code it’s never been able to break. The head of the Crypto division calls in his best troubleshooter to help him figure out what’s going on, while simultaneously sending her boyfriend over to Europe to chase down the personal effects of the code’s designer. It’s a race against time when the code transforms and starts breaking down the machine’s defenses, threatening to open the country’s most secret databases to the entire world.

Setting: Present day U.S. and Europe

Plot: In this case, the summary pretty much says it all.

Criticisms: Can get a bit geeky at times, but not a bad read.

Wrap-up: Dan Brown is pretty good at his craft, and this one’s no exception. He’s not the greatest dialog writer around, but there are some decent action sequences. Not a ‘must read’, but a fun book if you’re looking for something to keep your mind busy.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid B.

Up Country – Nelson Demille

Summary: Evidence of a 30 year old murder has recently come to light. There are a few catches, though: There was only one witness to that crime, and that witness may have died in the intervening years. The murder happened in the aftermath of a significant battle in Vietnam. The witness was a combatant for North Vietnam. How do you find the witness, if he lived through the rest of the war? How do you pick the investigator to assign? 

Paul Brenner, recovering from the aftermath of “The General’s Daughter” ; in truth he retired after that debacle. He’s called back to active duty and coerced to go back to Vietnam (for a third time), only this time during peacetime. Why can’t diplomatic requests be put through to talk with the witness? Is his government lying to him? What’s so important about the dead man, or the murderer?

Is there any way that Paul can make it back from Vietnam a third time, especially with the information he discovers while investigating this murder?

Setting: Vietnam, 1990’s – flashbacks to 1968 and 1972

Plot: Paul Brenner (last seen in “The General’s Daughter”) is contacted by his old boss and asked to take one last assignment. Next thing he knows, he’s on a plane to Nam, for the third time in his career. He’s got contacts he’s supposed to meet up with, who will give him information and assistance, as required. Before he even leaves the airport though, he catches the eye of Colonel Mang, a fairly powerful member of the Vietnam National Police Force, and in the course of the story, brazenly pisses Mang off and starts getting in trouble before his assignment even truly begins.

Once free, he has to find his way from the very bottom of the country to the very top, avoiding detection and questioning (by Mang’s men) the whole way. He’s “aided” in his journey by his first contact, an ex-pat who speaks Vietnamese, and a few additional people he meets along the way. What happens when he finds the witness? Will the witness even be alive? Based on the information the witness has, will Paul be able to tell what’s really going on?

Criticisms: This was a hard book for me to read, as I have a great deal of empathy for Vietnam vets. This book gives a glimpse into some of the experiences of a Army infantryman, surviving jungle warfare any way he can. The book can feel a bit ragged, but Demille was an established writer when this book came out, and I believe that the narrative style used in this book was chosen on purpose. Some readers might find the emotions that this book dredges up to be a bit strong. My next read will be much lighter, possibly a comic book, with pretty pitchures.

Wrap-up: Nelson Demille is one of my favorite writers. He’s a Vietnam Veteran, and this is one of only a couple of his books that touches on his experiences in the war. I would give this book an A++++++++, if such a grade existed in my arbitrary scale. I did, however, mark the final grade down a bit for subject matter. His work in technically perfect, no runs, no hits, no errors. I have read this book at least 10 times, and this last time through, I caught one single outright mistake. One. In this entire book. He should have caught it, his editors should have caught it, his proofers should have caught it, I’ve never caught a single bald-faced, point-blank mistake by Demille before, in any book, in any form or any fashion. That’s how good he is. As far as the attributes of the book itself? This is a book about a tortured soul, and his journey to peace and redemption. It’s set in a war zone; if you’re staunchly anti-war, this book will reinforce your beliefs, based on the accounts of some of the atrocities committed by both sides. If you support the troops no matter what, this book will make you weep for the pain that the characters go through almost reliving these times with them. I cannot recommend a book any higher than this one, if you can stomach a true fiction war novel.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid A.  I’ll save the elusive A+ for a book with more universal appeal.