November 22, 1963 is a date many of us remember or recognize, the date that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In 2011, Stephen wrote a book entitled 11/22/63, a time travel novel where the protagonist goes back to that time. I only recently read the book, spurred on by a friend now immersed in the new Hulu series based on the novel, but I’m glad I did.

In the book, Jake Epping, at the urging of his friend Al Templeton, goes to the past to try to prevent the assassination. An interesting thing about Al’s time portal is that if someone goes to the past, changes something, then later returns to the past, everything resets and is the same as it was before. That gives the time traveler a way out if he makes a mistake.

Jake starts out on September 9, 1958 because that is where Al’s time portal leads, which means he will have to live five years in the past before he can take action. After a couple of experiments, he’s in for the long haul. But as Al explains, the past doesn’t want to be changed, so whenever he goes to change something, he hits one roadblock after another. But he persists. Of course, a lot can happen in five years. What Jake doesn’t count on is falling in love with a school librarian in Texas in the 1960’s.

One fun thing about this book is that King, like in many of his novels, makes references to one of his others, in this case, It. When he first goes back, he is in the town of Derry, Maine shortly after the events of the first part of the book and actually meets two of the kids who have moved on from their adventures. It has little to do with the story, but is fun for a fan like me, especially in light of the new It movie having recently come out.

This book really engaged me and may be in my top 10 King novels. It has everything — love, suspense, pathos — plus, of course, time travel, which King does extraordinarily well. If you like King, if you like time travel, you will enjoy this book.