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A Time to Remember
Living in present-day Dallas with the woman he loves, David Russell is still unreconciled to the death of his older brother. Christopher, the hero of David's childhood, had been killed in the Vietnam War—a war David is certain John F. Kennedy would never have fought.
When David meets Dr. Hendrick Koopman, a genius who has created a time machine, he insists on becoming Dr. Koopman's first human subject. Convinced that he can change history and bring back Christopher, David meticulously plans every move he will make—and steps into the past. Destination: the roof of the Texas School Depository, November 22, 1963.
It works. David arrives at the roof minutes before Lee Harvey Oswald pulls the trigger. But in a tragedy of errors, it is David who is arrested as an assassin.
And that is only the beginning. As David's ordeal becomes unexpectedly transformed again and again, a man confronts the ceremony of his own funeral; Lee Harvey Oswald is hailed as a hero; President Lyndon B. Johnson views a film that will change the course of history; and in a small town, good friends sit down to dinner. . . in the simple—and moving—finale to an absorbing story.
With compelling characters and poignant flashes of history, A Time to Remember journeys back—via time machine—to that fateful day in Dallas when Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
When David meets Dr. Hendrick Koopman, a genius who has created a time machine, he insists on becoming Dr. Koopman's first human subject. Convinced that he can change history and bring back Christopher, David meticulously plans every move he will make—and steps into the past. Destination: the roof of the Texas School Depository, November 22, 1963.
It works. David arrives at the roof minutes before Lee Harvey Oswald pulls the trigger. But in a tragedy of errors, it is David who is arrested as an assassin.
And that is only the beginning. As David's ordeal becomes unexpectedly transformed again and again, a man confronts the ceremony of his own funeral; Lee Harvey Oswald is hailed as a hero; President Lyndon B. Johnson views a film that will change the course of history; and in a small town, good friends sit down to dinner. . . in the simple—and moving—finale to an absorbing story.
With compelling characters and poignant flashes of history, A Time to Remember journeys back—via time machine—to that fateful day in Dallas when Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
274 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1986
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About the author
Stanley Shapiro
16 books2 followersStanley Shapiro was an American screenwriter and producer.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 8, 2025
Of the many factors that drive the alternate history genre, among the most persistent is that of wish fulfillment: the belief that, but for a single, alterable event, history would have turned out for the better. Around such premises as eliminating Hitler, or the Roman Empire surviving to the modern day, authors have spun tales imagining what the world would have looked like had things turned out differently, usually with the implication that it would have been an improvement on the one in which we live today. And over the past half century, there has been perhaps no more persistent premise of such stories than that of what might have happened had John F. Kennedy lived. The idea that sparing the 35th president of the United States from an assassin’s bullets is one that has long gripped the imagination of a generation of authors who grew up in an America that seemed worse for his absence.
Stanley Shapiro’s novel is a prime example of the type. In it, David Russell, a high school teacher living in 1985 Dallas, learns of a famous scientist’s research into the possibilities of time travel. Discovering that the (conveniently) locally-based Nobel laureate, Hendrik Koopman, has indeed developed a device that can transport people through time, David convinces the good doctor to help him to use it to go back to November 22, 1963 so that he can stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating Kennedy and, in the process, save David’s beloved elder brother, Christopher, from being killed two years later in Vietnam. It’s a scenario that underscores nicely how personal such sentiments were for so many of that generation, and the belief that so many of them had that, had Kennedy lived, he would have saved the nation from such a disastrous involvement.
Yet what is meant to be a high-stakes tragedy-tinged thriller ends up instead being a shallow and logically inconsistent story devoid of any tension. Things start to go wrong the moment David arrives in 1963, largely because of easily-avoidable problems that serve only to drag out the adventure. In an attempt to rescue him, David’s girlfriend, Laura Watkins – a two-dimensional character who exists only to aid David in his quest – joins him in the past, only for her efforts to be disrupted by unforeseen complications. All of these complications seem primed for a potentially interesting metaphysical exploration by the characters of whether the past is somehow resisting their efforts to be changed. Yet the intriguing possibilities of such a complication are swiftly passed as the characters embark upon their next poorly-thought-out plan to alter events.
All of this temporal bumbling culminates in a fairy-tale ending which is more a reflection of Shapiro’s conviction that Lyndon Johnson was the reason for America’s failure in Vietnam than anything else. While this rests on an optimistic, if not over-idealized, image of Kennedy, it does nevertheless explain the persistent appeal of such tales, most of which are far superior to Shapiro’s contribution to the type. Those who want to read a time-travel tale about saving Kennedy that’s better written and much more thrilling are much better served picking up a copy of Stephen King’s 11/22/63 which in every respect is a far superior realization of the possibilities with such stories than Shapiro’s dull and uninspired effort to rewrite events to suit his wishes.
Stanley Shapiro’s novel is a prime example of the type. In it, David Russell, a high school teacher living in 1985 Dallas, learns of a famous scientist’s research into the possibilities of time travel. Discovering that the (conveniently) locally-based Nobel laureate, Hendrik Koopman, has indeed developed a device that can transport people through time, David convinces the good doctor to help him to use it to go back to November 22, 1963 so that he can stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating Kennedy and, in the process, save David’s beloved elder brother, Christopher, from being killed two years later in Vietnam. It’s a scenario that underscores nicely how personal such sentiments were for so many of that generation, and the belief that so many of them had that, had Kennedy lived, he would have saved the nation from such a disastrous involvement.
Yet what is meant to be a high-stakes tragedy-tinged thriller ends up instead being a shallow and logically inconsistent story devoid of any tension. Things start to go wrong the moment David arrives in 1963, largely because of easily-avoidable problems that serve only to drag out the adventure. In an attempt to rescue him, David’s girlfriend, Laura Watkins – a two-dimensional character who exists only to aid David in his quest – joins him in the past, only for her efforts to be disrupted by unforeseen complications. All of these complications seem primed for a potentially interesting metaphysical exploration by the characters of whether the past is somehow resisting their efforts to be changed. Yet the intriguing possibilities of such a complication are swiftly passed as the characters embark upon their next poorly-thought-out plan to alter events.
All of this temporal bumbling culminates in a fairy-tale ending which is more a reflection of Shapiro’s conviction that Lyndon Johnson was the reason for America’s failure in Vietnam than anything else. While this rests on an optimistic, if not over-idealized, image of Kennedy, it does nevertheless explain the persistent appeal of such tales, most of which are far superior to Shapiro’s contribution to the type. Those who want to read a time-travel tale about saving Kennedy that’s better written and much more thrilling are much better served picking up a copy of Stephen King’s 11/22/63 which in every respect is a far superior realization of the possibilities with such stories than Shapiro’s dull and uninspired effort to rewrite events to suit his wishes.
November 8, 2010
This is a what if? time travel story.
A young man, who has never adjusted to the death of his brother in Vietnam, teams up with an eccentric scientist.
His mission: Prevent the Kennedy assasination in Dallas in 1963. David firmly believes if Kennedy does not die, Vietnam would not claim his older brothers' life.
The premise is interesting, but the actual story is only so-so. Not unreadable, just not very exciting either. Some of the authors conclusions on how history would have changed are also a bit debatable.
Still, a short, easy read that the average person can read in just a few hours. For SF fans who like time paradox/time travel stories. Also, of passing interest to those interested in the Kennedy shooting.
A young man, who has never adjusted to the death of his brother in Vietnam, teams up with an eccentric scientist.
His mission: Prevent the Kennedy assasination in Dallas in 1963. David firmly believes if Kennedy does not die, Vietnam would not claim his older brothers' life.
The premise is interesting, but the actual story is only so-so. Not unreadable, just not very exciting either. Some of the authors conclusions on how history would have changed are also a bit debatable.
Still, a short, easy read that the average person can read in just a few hours. For SF fans who like time paradox/time travel stories. Also, of passing interest to those interested in the Kennedy shooting.
August 22, 2023
I read the paperback edition of this novel back in 1988 (and reviewed it for my school newspaper), when I was in the 8th grade, and I was a big admirer of JFK at the time (I now have more mixed feelings about his presidency, but that's a separate discussion). The plot twists and turns, and the alternate history timeline, made for solid entertainment.
UPDATE AS OF 22 AUGUST 2023:
So then, re-reading this novel 35 years later — this time the original hardcover edition, and with an adult’s perspective — I still found it engrossing, enjoyable, and entertaining…but also, with all due respect to the memory of Stanley Shapiro (R.I.P.), find the author’s liberal politics in general and simple-minded assessments of the Vietnam War to be quite annoying.
NOTEWORTHY PASSAGES (and my reactions):
“If a man looks at a woman for the first time and cannot picture himself having sex with her, nothing good can come of that relationship. Looks come before character, desire before dialogue, sex before companionship.”
—p. 3
True enough!
“…because it pleased a group of round-eyed old men to keep a slant-eyed old man from unifying his country.”
—p. 7
How, incredibly simple-minded! How conveniently that the author and protagonist overlook that “Uncle Ho” wanted to “unify his country” under a thieving, mass-murdering totalitarian regime!
https://victimsofcommunism.org
“…he [JFK, that is] wanted *all* American personnel out of South Vietnam by 1965. Two weeks later, just eight days before he died, he announced that the first one thousand men there were packing and would be on their way home by Christmas.” (author’s original emphasis)
—p. 6
Again, how overly simplistic.
First of all, how many times in history have political leaders promised to “have the troops home by Christmas” and not delivered?
Second of all, Jack Kennedy was *not* the ultra-pacifist that so many present-day liberals make him out to be. He was an anticommunist and Cold Warrior at heart, and moreover, he *created* the very same Green Berets and Navy SEALs that were the core of the “advisers” he sent to Vietnam in the first place! Indeed, Roy Henry Boehm (LCDR, USN, Ret; R.I.P,
gone but not forgotten), in his autobiography “First SEAL,” credits JFK for fighting the Vietnam War correctly, i.e. as a guerrilla war via special operations forces, and discredits LBJ for turning it into a conventional forces war!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
“I remember the thrill of riding the swift, sleep, luxurious 707 as a boy—but it no longer looks or feels like that, not after a 747. Its narrow, cigar-shaped body produces a confined, almost claustrophobic feeling. It has become a lumbering, vibrating, flying fossil. Old airplanes, like old lovers, are better remembered, not revisited.”
—p. 152
Well, lessee, my experiences with: (1) riding the the WWII-era B-17 and B-25/PBJ courtesy of Commemorative Air Force (CAF); and (2) the quality time I’ve spent with my current girlfriend show that the author ain’t 100% correct here!
“Dr. Koopman enters the gun store, walking into a world where sudden death is the ultimate object of each customer.”
—p. 175
Oh, horse-hockey!! Armed private citizens acting in legitimate self-defense shoot to *stop* the threat,
NOT to kill! And others own guns strictly for target shooting (whether clay pigeons, paper, or steel), with absolutely zero intent of using them on living things (human or animal)!
UPDATE AS OF 22 AUGUST 2023:
So then, re-reading this novel 35 years later — this time the original hardcover edition, and with an adult’s perspective — I still found it engrossing, enjoyable, and entertaining…but also, with all due respect to the memory of Stanley Shapiro (R.I.P.), find the author’s liberal politics in general and simple-minded assessments of the Vietnam War to be quite annoying.
NOTEWORTHY PASSAGES (and my reactions):
“If a man looks at a woman for the first time and cannot picture himself having sex with her, nothing good can come of that relationship. Looks come before character, desire before dialogue, sex before companionship.”
—p. 3
True enough!
“…because it pleased a group of round-eyed old men to keep a slant-eyed old man from unifying his country.”
—p. 7
How, incredibly simple-minded! How conveniently that the author and protagonist overlook that “Uncle Ho” wanted to “unify his country” under a thieving, mass-murdering totalitarian regime!
https://victimsofcommunism.org
“…he [JFK, that is] wanted *all* American personnel out of South Vietnam by 1965. Two weeks later, just eight days before he died, he announced that the first one thousand men there were packing and would be on their way home by Christmas.” (author’s original emphasis)
—p. 6
Again, how overly simplistic.
First of all, how many times in history have political leaders promised to “have the troops home by Christmas” and not delivered?
Second of all, Jack Kennedy was *not* the ultra-pacifist that so many present-day liberals make him out to be. He was an anticommunist and Cold Warrior at heart, and moreover, he *created* the very same Green Berets and Navy SEALs that were the core of the “advisers” he sent to Vietnam in the first place! Indeed, Roy Henry Boehm (LCDR, USN, Ret; R.I.P,
gone but not forgotten), in his autobiography “First SEAL,” credits JFK for fighting the Vietnam War correctly, i.e. as a guerrilla war via special operations forces, and discredits LBJ for turning it into a conventional forces war!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
“I remember the thrill of riding the swift, sleep, luxurious 707 as a boy—but it no longer looks or feels like that, not after a 747. Its narrow, cigar-shaped body produces a confined, almost claustrophobic feeling. It has become a lumbering, vibrating, flying fossil. Old airplanes, like old lovers, are better remembered, not revisited.”
—p. 152
Well, lessee, my experiences with: (1) riding the the WWII-era B-17 and B-25/PBJ courtesy of Commemorative Air Force (CAF); and (2) the quality time I’ve spent with my current girlfriend show that the author ain’t 100% correct here!
“Dr. Koopman enters the gun store, walking into a world where sudden death is the ultimate object of each customer.”
—p. 175
Oh, horse-hockey!! Armed private citizens acting in legitimate self-defense shoot to *stop* the threat,
NOT to kill! And others own guns strictly for target shooting (whether clay pigeons, paper, or steel), with absolutely zero intent of using them on living things (human or animal)!
September 20, 2011
This is the original "time traveler tries to save Kennedy" story which I read years and years ago. I used to work in a book store, and I would occasionally find gems like this on the "remainder" shelves (it's how I discovered Bret Easton Ellis's "Less Than Zero" as well.) Stephen King will be offering his take in his book 11/22/63 which will be released in November. I've been a fan of King's writing for years, so am excited to read his take on it.
January 27, 2013
Same premise as Stephen King's "11/22/63"--go back in time and prevent JFK's assassination, which in turn will prevent the Vietnam War. While the novel lacks King's detailed plotting and character development, Shapiro handles the time travel paradox issue very well, better than most SF writers dealing with time travel. Too many more details would make for a lot of spoilers for both novels, but if you've enjoyed "11/22/63", dig up a copy of "A Time to Remember".
February 15, 2013
Wow, that was a great read! There are a lot of twists and turns in this JFK inspired time travel book.
July 21, 2011
My mom found this in our house a while back, and I grabbed it up. I have a slight obsession with the Kennedys, so I zero in on anything having to do with that family.
The plot is intriguing: David Russell, a man living in 1986 is presented with the opportunity to go back in time to Friday, November 22, 1963 and prevent the assassination of President Kennedy. He believes that by saving Kennedy's life, he will prevent the US from getting involved in Vietnam, and therefore, save his older brother's life(his brother was KIA in 1965). As you can imagine, things don't always work according to plan.
I would like to give this book 3 1/2 stars. It drove me crazy at some points because things would happen, and I would be thinking, "UGH! Not again!", but I really couldn't put this book down.
The author works off the belief that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy.
The plot is intriguing: David Russell, a man living in 1986 is presented with the opportunity to go back in time to Friday, November 22, 1963 and prevent the assassination of President Kennedy. He believes that by saving Kennedy's life, he will prevent the US from getting involved in Vietnam, and therefore, save his older brother's life(his brother was KIA in 1965). As you can imagine, things don't always work according to plan.
I would like to give this book 3 1/2 stars. It drove me crazy at some points because things would happen, and I would be thinking, "UGH! Not again!", but I really couldn't put this book down.
The author works off the belief that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy.
February 19, 2024
Great book. Similar to Stephen Kins 11/22/63 novel (yet this book by Stanley Shapiro was written first). I could hardly put this book down. If you like time-travel books - I'd suggest reading this one!
February 9, 2025
Stephen King did it just a little better, but this was still really good. I did not see that end coming.
November 13, 2011
not really a five star...but...
anyway. i'd read stephen king's 11/22/63 finishing it earlier today, saturday, 12 nov 2011...(case i need an alibi) and i'd read about this one here, in a review of king's story...so i wanted to read it.
it is an interesting take on going back in time to stop the assassination of jfk.
whereas king's story uses a device that is likened to a champagne bubble, this one uses a device that reminds me of the star trek series....beam me up, scottie.
gallium-arsenide crystal chips make time travel possible in this one...in this one, the s/f element is at the fore...an actual machine...help mr wizard! i don't want to be a carpenter anymore!
the story is okay, but it is threadbare...characters are on a ridge in new mexico...or different place...but the scenes lack detail and the characters lack depth...though as it stands the story flows, contains enough suspense to keep one reading, and all the rest.
perhaps some elements at the end are a bit....tuff...to take...tweak the ole willing suspension of disbelief. imagine an older you visiting with your family from 20 years earlier....would they know you? i'd hazard they would...and in that sense this story....meh...is weak.
still, entertaining....a quick read.
there are some elements that are a real hoot.....when the people trying to stop become alleged assassins instead...they flee...carjacking this old studebaker...
in king's story...a studebaker figures....
and then later too, in this one...there is this old salty character driving a model t ford...that scene was nice....so there are times when this story comes more alive....
some other things? it starts out eye-narrator present tense...shifts focus when the story looks through the eyes of other characters.
the after effects are interesting...a president westmoreland...hey we won in vietnam in 67....john connelly is president....heh!
but then....it is almost like the movie, groundhog day, in that the machine is used multiple times and there are a multitude of futures and pasts. a fun read. some problems....sure....but we're to treasure the bad....it helps us recognize the good. this has a bit of both.
anyway. i'd read stephen king's 11/22/63 finishing it earlier today, saturday, 12 nov 2011...(case i need an alibi) and i'd read about this one here, in a review of king's story...so i wanted to read it.
it is an interesting take on going back in time to stop the assassination of jfk.
whereas king's story uses a device that is likened to a champagne bubble, this one uses a device that reminds me of the star trek series....beam me up, scottie.
gallium-arsenide crystal chips make time travel possible in this one...in this one, the s/f element is at the fore...an actual machine...help mr wizard! i don't want to be a carpenter anymore!
the story is okay, but it is threadbare...characters are on a ridge in new mexico...or different place...but the scenes lack detail and the characters lack depth...though as it stands the story flows, contains enough suspense to keep one reading, and all the rest.
perhaps some elements at the end are a bit....tuff...to take...tweak the ole willing suspension of disbelief. imagine an older you visiting with your family from 20 years earlier....would they know you? i'd hazard they would...and in that sense this story....meh...is weak.
still, entertaining....a quick read.
there are some elements that are a real hoot.....when the people trying to stop become alleged assassins instead...they flee...carjacking this old studebaker...
in king's story...a studebaker figures....
and then later too, in this one...there is this old salty character driving a model t ford...that scene was nice....so there are times when this story comes more alive....
some other things? it starts out eye-narrator present tense...shifts focus when the story looks through the eyes of other characters.
the after effects are interesting...a president westmoreland...hey we won in vietnam in 67....john connelly is president....heh!
but then....it is almost like the movie, groundhog day, in that the machine is used multiple times and there are a multitude of futures and pasts. a fun read. some problems....sure....but we're to treasure the bad....it helps us recognize the good. this has a bit of both.
March 29, 2014
Wow. This book is a whirlwind of plot twists that it is sometimes impossible to take in all you read before another plot twist hits you and that is where this book fails to hit five stars. Great book, great idea just too fast for my pace.
The first 100 pages or so this book just takes you all over the place and it is hard to stay focused on what is happening at times. I felt the book lacked descriptive layers that would have invested me more in the characters and that was disappointing since it took on such a great time period to describe. After this the book settles in and this is where the book takes off and delivers some knockout punches.
The last 100 pages or so are very descriptive and kept me entertained and glued in to finish the book as fast possible. Now its time to watch the 1990 TV movie "Running Against Time" to complete my time travel book.
The ultimate question is how does this novel stack up against 11/22/63. And the short answer is, it does not. But as a companion type novel after reading 11/22/63 it fits in nicely and gives a different perspective on a familiar topic from 11/22/63.
Put it this way if you liked 11/22/63, you will like this.
The first 100 pages or so this book just takes you all over the place and it is hard to stay focused on what is happening at times. I felt the book lacked descriptive layers that would have invested me more in the characters and that was disappointing since it took on such a great time period to describe. After this the book settles in and this is where the book takes off and delivers some knockout punches.
The last 100 pages or so are very descriptive and kept me entertained and glued in to finish the book as fast possible. Now its time to watch the 1990 TV movie "Running Against Time" to complete my time travel book.
The ultimate question is how does this novel stack up against 11/22/63. And the short answer is, it does not. But as a companion type novel after reading 11/22/63 it fits in nicely and gives a different perspective on a familiar topic from 11/22/63.
Put it this way if you liked 11/22/63, you will like this.
February 26, 2015
Good read and easily read in one session. Good time travel story with a twist
January 21, 2015
quite an intriguing time-travel story
April 13, 2008
a fictional version of the kennedy assasination..
July 8, 2011
I read this book in two days! I loved the story.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews