The past is obdurate...

...but it CAN be changed.  At least if you're Stephen King.  I just finished 11/22/63 and all I can say about it is WOW.  I am a huge SK fan.  I haven't read everything he's written but I've read most.  And for forever and a day, my favorite book by him has been Lisey's Story.  I think that has changed now.

11/22/63 is about a time traveler who goes back to try to save the life of President John F. Kennedy.  I've always wanted to do that!  I have always said that if I was ever able to time travel, I would first go back to 1975 and save Larry from that life he was living and then together, we would go back and save President Kennedy.  No lie.  I'm a big Kennedy fan, too, and have always been super interested in his assassination and all the conspiracy theories that go along with it.  I don't believe Oswald was the only one there shootin' that day.  Just sayin'.  Besides, I am also a huge X-Files fan and every good X-Filian knows that it was the bullet fired from the grassy knoll by the Cigarette Smoking Man that actually killed President Kennedy.  :)

So, when my favorite author writes a book about one of my favorite topics, what's a girl to do?

I read it.  It took a month.  It's a huge book, quite the commitment but well worth the time.  It's 842 pages plus a seven-page Afterword by Mr. King himself PLUS nine more pages of songs and recipes from the book.  Waaaaay cool, SK.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!  I am so very impressed with the phenomenal amount of research that had to go into it to provide us with that kind of detailed storytelling.  He really outdid himself this time.  Larry read it first and we both agree that this is the best book Stephen King has ever written.  It's amazing.  Not your typical SK book although there is an element or three of horror there.  After all, that's what he do.

I don't want to spoil it for you in case you want to read it (and I suggest you do!) but I will say that I wasn't exactly thrilled with the ending.  I told Larry I was going to send SK a note, a tweet, something, telling him I was gonna pull a Misery on him, kidnap him and hold up with him in an old farmhouse and make him rewrite that ending or I was gonna break his ankles (although she cut his foot off in the book...ouch!).  :)

I'm a little sad that I'm done with it.  I invested a lot of time, mostly on my breaks at work, reading this story and getting attached to the characters that I feel like I've lost some old friends now.  Weird.   

My favorite line? 

“Life turns on a dime. Sometimes towards us, but more often it spins away, flirting and flashing as it goes.  So long, honey, it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it?” 

Well played, SK, well played.