Tuesday, March 08, 2016

The 11 22 63 Book and Series






Have you read the book 11-22-63 by Stephen King?  I read  it a couple years ago.  As you can tell by the number, it is the date John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

The story is about a school teacher in present times in New England.  He is a friend of a small diner owner.   The diner owner is sickly and  coughs a lot.  He is dying.  Knowing he is living on borrowed time he wants the school teacher to do a big favor for him:  Save President Kennedy from being assassinated.  some 50 years ago.

Wait!  It may not be as hard as it sounds.  The diner owner shows the teacher a freak of nature.  In his diner if you walk go into a certain broom closet you will find yourself on a certain spot of ground in 1960.  You always come out on the exact minute and date, I think in 1960, every time you step out.  The same milk man drops and breaks the same bottle of milk, regardless how many times you go back. 

It was a good read.  You get to sharpen your trivia skills.   One time the teacher said to his new girlfriend  something like, "Just call me the fifth Beatle!"  One of who?  She replied.   The Beatles would become famous via the Ed Sullivan Show a couple of years later;   He applied for a school teacher's job and his references could not be checked  because he gave them a phony name.  When the principal's secretary confronted him he told them he was under the FBI Witness Protection Program and he gave her a quick run-down of the murders he witnessed the Mafia did and it was a quick summary of THE GODFATHER II.

Does he or does he not save President Kennedy from being assassinated -  and if so, does he let it stay that way?... remember, each time he enters the magic time-warp door anything he changed on his previous trip is undone, or deleted.

A  series of it has been made by HULU TV on 11-22-63.  I read one place on Google that it is an eight part series and a week or so ago I read it has 18 parts.  We will just have to wait it out to see which it really is.

The protagonist  (the school teacher) is played by James Franco.   I think comparing the book to the series there is one major change,  if  I remember correctly, and  some minor quips that they might have exercised their  literary license, but overall it sticks with the story line, or at least the first four installments did.  It is keeping us on the edge of our seats.  They come out with a new installment every Monday.  It took just about a week to catch up with the current one.


I watched a video of  Stephen King talking about the making of it.  He said they did put in some "Easter Eggs" here and there.  Be on the lookout for them!

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