Stephen King has woven his spell over time in his latest novel 11/22/63 (M). For those not familiar with this infamous date in American history, it is the date on which John F. Kennedy was assassinated. King writes a page turner in which a time traveler goes back to the 50’s and early 60’s to try to prevent this assault.
As the Globe and Mail states: “You don’t have to be a King fan to be delighted by 11/22/63…you don’t have to be a horror fan, even. The novel is narratively thrilling, thoughtful, character-centered journey into the heart of the American dream….it will make you stay up long past bedtime, and will make you cry. What more can you ask for in a book?”
If you are interested in reading another book about the “what if” of JFK, try The Memoirs of John F. Kennedy (M) by Donald James Lawn.
The Time Traveler’s Wife (M) by Audrey Niffenegger is a heartwarming book that switches between future and past. This lovely novel will sweep you away into the world of Henry De Tamble and his wife Clare Anne Abshire. Henry has a rare medical disease called Chrono-Displacement disease. He begins his time traveling at the age of five. Where and when he time travels is beyond his control, yet he mostly travels to places and times within his own life. It is during one of these trips that he first meets Clare. Interestingly, this meeting is at a point in time when she is still a child but he is an adult. I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to romance, but even I shed a tear or two reading this novel. Perhaps you will too.
So what would be your choice for time travel? Would you to go back or forth in time, or both? I am quite content to be where I am at the moment, in this time period. I guess if I had to make a choice to time travel, it would to be to travel to many different time dimensions, assuming that all my alternate selves are living happy lives.