James Mustich's 1000 Books to Read Before You Die discussion

For further info, please have a look at my last post here.

I finished it last night. I am coming down with a bug. So while the whole family and house guest went to church, I continued to read Stephen King. I finished by 9pm. WOW! I loved it. I cried. I was four years old at the time of the Kennedy assassination, and I recall the feelings of sadness of a nation even at that young age. I remember Bobby Kennedy's assassination vividly.

My book had questions at the end of the book and a list of the songs he listened to while editing the book. I listened to them last night when I was done. It was great. Oh, there were also recipes for the food mentioned in the book. LOL!

Here are the questions at the end of my copy:

Some questions might include spoilers in the questions. So I will do that spoiler thing when appropriate:

1) Where were you when JFK was assassinated?

2) 11/22/63 is filled with historical research -- it twins real events with events and characters from King's imagination. Did you learn anything surprising about the actual events leading up to the Kennedy assassination while reading this novel?

3) Our hero Jake Epping goes on an epic journey to try to prevent Kennedy's assassination (I am assuming this is not a spoiler since it is established so early on in the book). Why choose this watershed moment in American history rather than any other moment? Would you choose a different moment, and if so when?

4) Many great books, TV shows, and movies have investigated the idea of time travel. Do you have any particular favorite books or films that explore this?

5) (view spoiler)[ When Jake lives in 1960s small town Texas, he meets some of the most important people in his life, including the lanky, lovely librarian Sadie. Why is Jake drawn to her? And why is she drawn to him? How does their relationship change over the course of the novel? (hide spoiler)]

6) (view spoiler)[ What is the role of romance in this book? Some reviewers of 11/22/63 cited King's optimism about love -- after reading 11/22/63, do you agree? (hide spoiler)]

7) Jake (or rather George has to spend a lot of time in Dallas, which he experiences as a malevolent place, Jodie, on the other hand, is everything idyllic small town America should be. Do you believe that certain places are evil at certain times?

8) 11/22/63 gives readers an opportunity to immerse themselves in the past, in all its casual cigarette smoking glory -- the music, food, language, cars, and dancing. What are your favorite things about the '50s and '60s King creates in 11/22/63? and least favorite?

9) Do you believe in the butterfly effect/chaos theory? (From Wikipedia: "The butterfly effect refers to a concept that small causes can have large effects. Initially, it was used with weather prediction but later the term became a metaphor used in and out of science." From Bing Dictionary about Chaos theory: "the branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences.")

10. If you could pick any other period in history that you could go back to, which would it be?

11. (view spoiler)[Conspiracy theories abound, and numerous books have been written on the subject of the Kennedy assassination. In his afterward, King concludes (as Jake does in the book) that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman, a disturbed and grandiose man who altered world history forever all on his own. Do you agree? (hide spoiler)]

1. Not on the scene yet. I was born in 1968

2. I don't think so...not that I remember

3. We talked about this in one of the other posts...I'm not sure JFK's assassination was the watershed moment that King makes it out to be...at least in the way he does. I agree one could say that America, in a sense, lost it's innocence at that point, or that we emerged out of a black/white world into something that had much more nuance to it.

What I find interesting is how King pictured the world if Kennedy had lived. If I were writing these questions, mine would be 'were you surprised by King's vision of the timeline where Kennedy lived?'

7. I wouldn't rule it out

8. I'm not sure I buy that the 50s were as great as King makes them out to be. I think there are plusses and minuses no matter what time you pick.

9. Absolutely

10. Well, I was a kid in the 70s--even as weird as that time was, I have a soft spot for it (probably just like King does for the 50s). I also think the mid-90s were a pretty laid-back time. Seems like there was a lot of hope then that the world really could be a better place.

11. As regarding all conspiracies--I don't think that enough people can keep from blabbing about their part in a conspiracy to believe that something can be hidden for very long.

I finished it last night.
1. I was at home. I was 4 years old and I remember crying as I watched it on TV.

2. I was unaware of the General being shot at.

3. That was one of the biggest momemts in my life. There was also Vietnam. I hated that war. I lost many friends over there. One who came back was so shattered he wasn't able to live a normal life. MLK's assassination was hard to take, but I think that if he hadn't died the nation wouldn't have let African Americans have their place in society, which it isn't in some places still.
I think 9/11 was another watershed moment but unless the timeline to come back changed, nothing could have been done.

4. It's on my list to read some but I'm still in the BC period of history.

7. I think it could happen. There are some really weird places on earth and I wouldn't rule out having evil being in a place and then influencing the population.

8. I loved how safe we felt in the 60's. My mom let us play outside til after dark. We didn't worry about poison and razors in candy on Halloween. When we lived in the country, we walked to the neighbors dairy farm and bought fresh milk from them. It was unpasteurized. We would skim cream from the top and make fresh butter from it. The milk tasted great. When we moved back to the city and had pasteurized milk, I didn't like the taste and I haven't liked milk since. I disliked all the profanity but that is still with us.

9. Absolutely.

10. I loved the late 60's and the 70's as I grew up then. I still love psychedilic rock music. Another period I would like to visit would be the late 1890's to 1900. They thought the world could only get better then.

11. It's very hard to keep secrets secret so I think any conspiracy would eventually come to light and being as long as it has been, I think Oswald was a lone gunman.

1) I was 4 years old. I just remember a feeling, but I wouldn't have been surprised if my parents didn't tell me about it. My dad was NOT a Kennedy fan (not that he would have wanted him to be assassinated though). My mom and her family were all HUGE fans of Kennedy and were Democrats through and through (although my mom did vote for a Republican president once, and my grandparents did not speak to her for a year). I remember having his memorial record with his speeches on it. I remember Bobby Kennedy's much more as I was older, and my mom woke me up with the news. My aunt was supposed to be at the rally in Southern California, but could not go at the last minute. I do remember being in the grocery store after Bobby's and someone saying in line, "Two down and one more to go." Can you believe it? There was real hatred for the Kennedys in my, strongly Republican, town. They are still that way with my high school friends very verbal about politics. Probably 90% are Republicans.

2) I knew little about Lee and Marina. So it was sad to read of the abuse. His mother sounded looney. I also did not know about the General's assassination attempt. I wonder who did it? I wonder what Lee's children are doing today. They would be my age.

3) I got the impression that Stephen King thought Kennedy would have saved us from Vietnam. I don't think so! The wheels were set in motion and Kennedy had a part in those wheels going.

I don't know if I would have chosen a different moment. Why not back to the first slaves coming here? Could that have been prevented? And if it were, what would race relations in America look like today?

I think he chose it because King is an East Coast Democrat and also would have been 16 at the time of the assassination. So it would have affected him deeply.

4) I love Dr. Who because he travels all over time! My favorite episode is when he travels back to the time of Vincent Van Gogh and then brings Vincent to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and I cry like a baby with Van Gogh as he sees his value. It is so moving.

Another movie is It's a Wonderful Life. What would life be like if you had never been born? My best friend was in a deep depression, and that movie was life changing for her.

5) I think Jake is drawn to her because she is real and vulnerable. He kept referring back to his ex-wife Christy who hid her drinking problems. The book starts out about his ex-wife's complaint that Jake didn't cry. Sadie evoked a deep spot in Jake that made him cry. I love that she was tall and clumsy because I am too! She is drawn to him because he is gentle and kind to her which is something she did not experience from her ex-husband. They are also drawn to each other because of the "dance"!

6) The romance was the most surprising thing about the book. I think King is optimistic about love, and I love what he says about his wife in the afterward, about how she challenges him. King is obviously a man in love with his wife (and family).

7) I think King sees Dallas as a malevolent place at the time. Some of it is warranted (racial prejudice was horrendous in the book) and some of it is his political leanings that makes him think that people of a different political persuasion are bad people, but they really are people who just think differently from him.

I wouldn't mind living in Jodie. I grew up in a small town in Southern California that had a "Jodie" feel; everyone knew everyone else. I live in a little bit bigger one now in Oregon!

I think there are evil people all over the place. I think there are lovely people too. I do feel "vibes" that are not good in some places. Some places around the world are so heartbreaking. I think there is systemic evil and oppression there.

8) I LOVED being immersed in the past of the 50s and 60s because I grew up I it. That playlist that King listened to while editing the book was FABULOUS. I rocked out on Sunday night! "In the Mood" made me cry. Music always evokes strong emotions in me. So music was my favorite. Modesty of that time (not prudery) is delightful. I love the movies of the time. Sex happened, but there was a fade out to darkness. You knew what was happening, but you didn't watch it happen. That is what I don't like about today's movies. I don't want to watch someone else having sex! I miss the safety for children (maybe it wasn't but I felt it was).

Least favorite - I love being able to search for something on Google now because I am a learner. I remember going to the library for my information in the 60s/70s and it took time and effort. Now it is so much easier to do so.

I don't miss Miracle Whip and white bread and lack of international food choices. I don't miss "a woman's place is in the home." Although my mom chose that life even though she had a career prior to marriage. I chose that life too, but I would not have wanted it dictated to me from a man. :)

9) Do you believe in the butterfly effect/chaos theory? I don't know if the changes that happened because of George's intervention would have resulted in such drastic changes in America. That seemed so far-fetched to me in the book.

10. Maybe living in the aristocracy in Jane Austen's time. I want servants (I would pay them well though). Although, I wouldn't want to wear a corset. I would give Jane Austen a living! I would want to see if I would have been a radical when it came to women's rights. I wonder if I would speak out against slavery and help the poor. I don't know if I would. I like living today really. So, I probably wouldn't really want to live in that time. :)

11. Lee was crazy! I think he acted alone, but I want to watch the Oliver Stone movie again just because. I do think Kennedy had MANY opponents, but I don't think they would have wanted to see him killed. We will never know. Why did Jack Ruby kill him? (King talks about that in the afterward, but I didn't really follow his train of thought very well.)

That sneaky Stephen King. I should have known he wouldn't give his characters an easy ending. He also dealt with all of my objections, particularly whether saving Kennedy was a good idea.

But I think in the end this time travel book wasn't really about Kennedy's assassination. I think it is an older person's book, a "what if?" book. King is exploring what his life could have been, a more likely life that being a mega-best-selling author.

Fun fact: my grandfather taught English at the University of Maine, and King was one of his students. They kept in touch after King graduated. He told me that King was just an okay writer in class. I think he would be proud of how much King has grown since then.

Were you surprised that King made life w/Kennedy such a disaster? I think by the time I got to the end of the book, I could sense that that was the direction King was headed, but it was much different than what Al and Jake thought it would be.

I recently read Ursula K. LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven, where a fellow could change reality with his dreams. It reminded me a lot of this book, since there were people trying to change the current reality, only this time there wasn't any time lag. It got me to thinking about different paths life could take, and how we can fixate on the idea that one is better than another. Sometimes that might be so--sometimes I think it's obviously so. But, speaking just in general, the moral, if you will, that these authors seem to be describing is not worrying about what should have or could have been and start living what is.

Bryan wrote: "Were you surprised that King made life w/Kennedy such a disaster? I think by the time I got to the end of the book, I could sense that that was the direction King was headed, but it was much differ..."

I shouldn't have been surprised - King likes to have a big scene and a twist at the end. But he had me fooled; I thought he was like Jake, thinking that Kennedy could have fixed everything.

I love The Lathe of Heaven. You're right, they have similar themes - the grass is always greener idea. I think they also are saying that we aren't as smart as we think we are.

I just realized, they also both seem to be saying that the universe pushes back - that there is a way things naturally happen, and if we mess with it too much, we'll make everything worse. It's actually kind of an enviromentalist approach - be part of the world, understand that everything is connected, and don't do things that will disrupt it.

Janet wrote: "That sneaky Stephen King. I should have known he wouldn't give his characters an easy ending. He also dealt with all of my objections, particularly whether saving Kennedy was a good idea.

But I th..."

So cool that your grandfather taught Stephen King! WOW!

Carol wrote: "So cool that your grandfather taught Stephen King! WOW!"

Yes, it is my only claim to fame! It is fun reading King's books when they are set in Maine, because I recognize a lot of the places, or know places just like them. Although none quite like Derry...

1) Not born yet

2) To be honest I didn't know much about the Kennedy assassination beyond the basics so this was very interesting to me.

3) I agree that King chose this moment because it held personal meaning for him. I'm not sure if there is any one watershed moment I could choose.

4) Of course I have a favorite time travel movie... Back to the Future, duh! Lol

5) I don't really have comment on Jake and Sadie. This was a love story and one that King did well. Bottom line, I've never been a big fan of King's female characters, and that includes Sadie, although I liked her a bit more by the end.

6) *see above*

7) I don't believe that places can BE evil, but I believe they can SEEM that way.

10) The 1920s have always intrigued me

11) I believe it was just Oswald alone

Thanks for answering the questions everyone. It was fun to think through them. I was so tickled when I went to Boise this weekend for my spiritual direction training because one of the other trainees had JUST read 11/22/63 and thought it was so much better than The Stand (the one everyone tells me I have GOT to read, but I tell them it is NOT on the list so not gonna' read it). It was so great to talk about this book FACE to FACE with someone! I wish I could find a 1000 Books to Read Before You Die book here in my town! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE talking DEEPLY about books!