A high school English teacher discovers a portal in the back of a Maine diner that leads to September 1958, and sets off on a mission to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Settling into small-town Texas under a new identity to wait out the years until November 1963, he falls in love and slowly learns that the past is obdurate: it resists being changed, and every attempt to alter it exacts a price. Stephen King blends time-travel suspense with a meditation on fate, memory, and whether a better world is worth what must be sacrificed to build it.
Books mentioned in 11/22/63 (22)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: “Also known as Lennie Small in George Amberson’s okay-for- high-school adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.”
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose: “I picked Twelve Angry Men for the fall play, accidentally on purpose neglecting to inform the Samuel French Company that I intended to retitle our version The Jury, so I could cast some girls.”
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: “My best day as a sub came at West Sarasota High, after I’d told an American Lit class the basic story of The Catcher in the Rye (a book which was not, of course, allowed in the school library and would have been confiscated if brought into those sacred halls by a student) and then encouraged them to talk a”
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick: “I’d read a book called A Reliable Wife not too long before leaving on the world’s strangest trip, and as I climbed into bed, a line from the novel crossed my mind: “He had lost the habit of romance.””
Bleak House by Charles Dickens: “I spent my days there, cooking her meals, working in her little garden (which would sicken but not quite die in another hot central Texas summer), and reading Bleak House to her.”
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller: “I got a part in Death of a Salesman, Mr.”
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.: “Beat you with a broomhandle?” There was another way a broomhandle could be used—I’d read Last Exit to Brooklyn—but apparently he hadn’t done that.”
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: “Found myself listening to Sadie as she read to me, first Jude the Obscure, then Tess of the D’Urbervilles.”
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy: “Found myself listening to Sadie as she read to me, first Jude the Obscure, then Tess of the D’Urbervilles.”
The Group by Mary McCarthy: “We read books sitting side by side on her couch, with her fan blowing back our hair—The Group for her, Jude the Obscure for me.”
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: “Sounds like Oliver Twist, or something.” “No, they were good to him.”
The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming: “I was reading (or pretending to read) the latest James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me.”
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury: ““There’s a Ray Bradbury story about it.” “Really?” “It’s called ‘A Sound of Thunder.’ It’s very beautiful and very disturbing.”
The Open Window by Saki: “The story is called ‘The Open Window.’ Look it up.”
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: ““Atlas Shrugged?” Speaking just to Lee.”
The Lincoln Hunters by Wilson Tucker: “A Stone for Danny Fisher; westerns by the score; and one science-fiction novel called The Lincoln Hunters, which concerned time-travelers trying to record a “forgotten” speech by Abraham Lincoln.”
A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins: “A Stone for Danny Fisher; westerns by the score; and one science-fiction novel called The Lincoln Hunters, which concerned time-travelers trying to record a “forgotten” speech by Abraham Lincoln.”
The Condition of the Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels: “It says The Condition of the Working Class, by Fried-rik . (garbled OCR of "Friedrich"; title and context match Engels's book, kept at medium confidence.)”
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Who wrote “The House of 7 Tables”? (appears twice in the text; kept as a low-confidence judgment call as a likely mangled reference to Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, not a match to any other real work.)”
Little Red Riding Hood by Brothers Grimm: “a drunk uncle told me the story of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Not the one in the standard fairy-tale books, but the R-rated version”
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring: “He’s talking about Arsenic and Old Lace.”
Time and Again by Jack Finney: “Besides The Body Snatchers, he wrote Time and Again, which is, in this writer’s humble opinion, the great time-travel story.”