Scan barcode
A review by pran
11/22/63 by Stephen King
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
The positives were what persuaded me to continue with the book.
The narration was excellent. The book was very well-researched. The plot was sufficiently interesting and suspenseful that it made me want to find out what happened.
But the negatives: I think King did so much research into the details of Oswald and Dallas in the early 60s that he included in the book that he forgot to write about one of the most important things (which is also relevant to the book)- the racism and racial segregation of the time. AllGeorge seems to talk about aside from the relevant historical details is how good the food tasted, how good the music was... ok, but the reason you are able to enjoy this freely is because you are a white man...
But then in the afterword King does mention what a hateful place Dallas was in the 60s, particularly when Kennedy came to visit.
I had issues with the white saviour complex Jake has.What makes you think that someone with an intellectual disability (whether acquired from physical trauma or otherwise) needs that disability reversing? Did you ask him? No, you just assume that because he has an intellectual disability, of course he would wish that he didn't have it. You don't know the details of someone's life and family and it is not fair to just travel in time and "fix" it.
I am of course aware that the ending proves to Jake that this is not such an easy fix and every action has a knock-on effect but I have issues that the character is portrayed as the "hero" but I think most of the things he does in the book are actually really fucked-up.
Secondly, why are there two separate female characters who suffer from physical disfigurement? What is your obsession with scarring the faces of your young, attractive female characters? And when it happens to Sadie, Jake is like, "well she's still beautiful to me". Oh you're such a good person for finding your fiance attractive even though she has a scar...
Sadie is made into a total martyr which I disliked, and he mentions her virginity far too much for my liking. I wasn't really invested in their love story at all because there is something that makes me feel uncomfortable about a white man travelling back in time to be with a white southern woman who's just so impressed by how much he knows about the future.
Also the book makes so many assumptions about how much the rest of the world is influenced by the United States. Do you think all other countries in the world are so stupid that they would explode into nuclear war just because the US is politically unstable? Give me a break.
There is another big thing I take issue with- I am sorry but there is NO WAY that if JFK had stayed alive that he would have DIVERTED MONEY from THE KOREAN WAR to improving race relations within the US. The military industrial complex is so separate from the ruling government in that they do not have much influence over it at all. So the whole plot of how bad things were when JFK stayed alive is completely unbelievable to me. And it is quite important that that is believable because that is the main reason why Jake resets everything so it underpins the ending.
The narration was excellent. The book was very well-researched. The plot was sufficiently interesting and suspenseful that it made me want to find out what happened.
But the negatives: I think King did so much research into the details of Oswald and Dallas in the early 60s that he included in the book that he forgot to write about one of the most important things (which is also relevant to the book)- the racism and racial segregation of the time. All
But then in the afterword King does mention what a hateful place Dallas was in the 60s, particularly when Kennedy came to visit.
I had issues with the white saviour complex Jake has.
I am of course aware that the ending proves to Jake that this is not such an easy fix and every action has a knock-on effect but I have issues that the character is portrayed as the "hero" but I think most of the things he does in the book are actually really fucked-up.
Secondly, why are there two separate female characters who suffer from physical disfigurement? What is your obsession with scarring the faces of your young, attractive female characters? And when it happens to Sadie, Jake is like, "well she's still beautiful to me". Oh you're such a good person for finding your fiance attractive even though she has a scar...
Sadie is made into a total martyr which I disliked, and he mentions her virginity far too much for my liking. I wasn't really invested in their love story at all because there is something that makes me feel uncomfortable about a white man travelling back in time to be with a white southern woman who's just so impressed by how much he knows about the future.
Also the book makes so many assumptions about how much the rest of the world is influenced by the United States. Do you think all other countries in the world are so stupid that they would explode into nuclear war just because the US is politically unstable? Give me a break.
There is another big thing I take issue with- I am sorry but there is NO WAY that if JFK had stayed alive that he would have DIVERTED MONEY from THE KOREAN WAR to improving race relations within the US. The military industrial complex is so separate from the ruling government in that they do not have much influence over it at all. So the whole plot of how bad things were when JFK stayed alive is completely unbelievable to me. And it is quite important that that is believable because that is the main reason why Jake resets everything so it underpins the ending.