Boy do I love myself some Stephen King! Although his latest mind-bending saga comes in at 849 pages (including the afterword) it flies by. Local high school teacher Jake Epping is just an average dude, typical of many of Stephen King’s characters. After a meal at his favorite greasy spoon Jake returns the next day to find the owner/proprietor, Al, in astonishingly deteriorated condition. Al begins to tell Jake of what is really happening in his diner. Apparently there is a “rabbit-hole” in his store room. This rabbit hole allows Al to transport back in time to 11:58am, September 9, 1958. No matter how long Al stays in the past, upon returning through the rabbit hole, only two minutes has passed. He however has aged chronologically for the total amount of time. Al has supplemented his business by buying 1958 priced meat and bringing it back to present to sell. He also has made himself a handy cheat sheet for betting purposes on major sporting events.
Al has decided Jake Epping is the man to finish his life’s work. After much though and a little experimentation Al decided he would go to the past and stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He figures if this event did not occur the course of history would change for the better. This event is also a biggest thing happen in and around the time he is taken back to, since he continues to age it has to be something within a man’s life. However when he is diagnosed with lung cancer, he knows he cannot complete the mission. Jake however, is young, divorced with no children. Al has done the leg work and knows the whereabouts of Kennedy’s killer Lee Harvey Oswald leading up the the assassination, but wants to be 100% positive the Oswald was the killer. If he kills him and Oswald was not the shooter or had a partner the assassination could still happen and all of the time spend in the past would be for naught.
One important law of the time travelling Al discovered is going back in the past does indeed change the future, but each time he goes back into the past, all is reset. For example there is a little girl who was crippled by a wayward bullet from a hunter. Al went back and stopped this from happening. However each time he we back to 1958 to buy his meat he had to redo this act of kindness or history was reset to its default of crippling the girl.
Naturally Jake accepts this mission to stop Oswald after a test trip to the past. He has a score of his own he wants to settle, a drunk man who kills his own family, except one son who he scars and maims. Jake wants to stop this, which takes him to Derry for a short time. (with regards to Pennywise) Then he figures he should probably save the girl from the hunting accident before setting about to make sure Oswald acted alone and then stop him. Since Kennedy’s assassination is in 1963, Jake has four years to pass. In present day he is a teacher, so he becomes one in the past too. In fact he creates a whole life for himself…possibly one he doesn’t want to leave. He also struggles with what the future will look like if the past does get changed so dramatically… will it be for the better for worse?
King’s word spill from the page and I couldn’t read them fast enough. Part science fiction (and I am by no means a scifi kinda girl) part revisionist history…the tone is set perfectly by calm Jake and his decidedly unflowery though process. There’s even a bit of a love story…1960s-style.
I’ll leave out references to the ending for those who will read this and just say that I agree with Mr. King, the past is obdurate.
Princess of the Library 