Despite the gray, rainy weather, five of us were able to meet up at The Back Door Cafe in downtown Smithville. Housed in one of Smithville's many historic commercial buildings, the cafe was as close as we could get to stepping back into the late 1950's and early 1960's like the main character in our book.
We all enjoyed a delicious meal and for our dessert, Jonetta provided a homemade orange-glazed pound cake. If you have read the novel, then you understand the reason we got a laugh out of having pound cake at the end of our lunch! This literary meeting brought about the addition of a new member to our club. We are thrilled that she wanted to join our crazy bunch and bring our membership number back up to an even number six! Welcome to the party, Ellen!
Synopsis:
Jake Epping is able to literally step back in time, but always to the precise time and date of 11:58 a.m. on September 9, 1958. His objective is to live in the past in order to discover all he can about Lee Harvey Oswald with the intent of stopping the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. The trouble is that the past is obdurate - it does not want to change and will do all it can to thwart Jake's mission.
Comments:
Of course, one of the first questions we asked each other was, "Where were you when you heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated?" Everybody remembers that watershed moment, not unlike when 9/11 occurred in 2001. We questioned whether there was any other important moment in history which might have been even more vital to alter history for the good of mankind. One suggestion was the rise of Adolph Hitler - how would history have been different if Hitler had been removed from the picture before his dangerous ideas took hold?
When asking that question, we considered the butterfly effect: the phenomenon whereby a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. As Jake discovered, if we were to alter history by saving one man's life or taking one man's life, would the butterfly effect create a different and perhaps even more devastating disaster? We considered the death of President Kennedy. Perhaps the Vietnam War would not have occurred, but because of what happened to the president, future U.S. presidents were far more protected by their secret service agents and armored vehicles. Would the death of a future president been even more dangerous and devastating to our nation?
Another question we asked one another after reading all the carefully researched facts found in this book and studying Oswald along with our main character was, "Do you believe Oswald acted alone?" We had a mixed vote on that topic. As one of our ladies argued, how could he not manage to successfully shoot General Walker from such a close distance, but manage to hit President Kennedy from a longer distance and at an odd angle - that's the wrench in the works.
Jake was a schoolteacher by trade, but surprisingly had a knack for tracking and spying. His actions and knowledge made him appear a bit older than the age the author assigned to him. I had struggled with the idea that a mild-mannered teacher could hurt and kill people, as he does even prior to beginning his job of tracking Oswald. However, one of the FAB ladies pointed out that he had witnessed first-hand the shockingly violent attack of a mother and her children before he managed to reset history and then come back to pull the trigger on the would-be-attacker days before the tragedy. Witnessing that horrible scene would certainly give you cause and courage.
We enjoyed reliving some of the more innocent and free times of this book's setting. There were no seat belts, no TSA detectors at airports, no electronic devices to tote along and distract you, and some great music and dancing. However, there was also heavy industrial pollution and a lot more smokers. We do not miss the smoke-infused public facilities! One distraction for me was the overuse of the foul language, especially during a time when cursing was generally kept out of public conversation and certainly did not include the F word with such frequency.
Other distractions in the storyline which created loose ends for us occurred during the time period that Jake stayed in Derry, Maine. There were characters introduced for one scene with no connection to the main storyline and references to an evil entity. Brenda had read that Stephen King likes to slip in references to other stories he has written. I researched and found that Mr. King's scary novel "It" was set in 1958, in Derry, Maine, and a few of the character from our novel were also present in "It." Also, in his "Dark Towers" series there is an ongoing theme of the past harmonizing with the present.
Favorite Quotes:
"...I think a human mind that's moderately well-adjusted can absorb a lot of strangeness before it actually totters..." (p. 50 - Nook)
"Sing high C in a voice that's loud enough and true enough and you can shatter fine crystal. Play the right harmonic notes through your stereo loud enough and you can shatter window glass. It follows (to me, at least) that if you put enough strings on time's instrument, you can shatter reality." (p. 680 - Nook)
"Humans were built to look back; that's why we have that swivel joint in our necks." (p. 136 - Nook)
"But stupidity is one of the two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances." (p. 269 - Nook)
FAB Rating: **** (4 out of 5 stars)
This was a very interesting read with a couple of murderers, important historical moments, and a love story thrown in for good measure. It was also an intriguing idea that if the assassination of one man could be halted then our world would be better off for it. There were a few hitches which took a star off the rating. One hitch was that we all felt that this book was a tad long. There were many detailed days of Jake tailing Oswald or getting the layout of Derry which we found unnecessarily tedious. Another hitch was the idea that the butterfly effect would cause an earthquake in L.A. if Kennedy was not assassinated. We just could not find any basis for that occurrence using the chaos theory. Ultimately though, time travel always makes for a good plotline, and we enjoyed our trip back in time.
We all enjoyed a delicious meal and for our dessert, Jonetta provided a homemade orange-glazed pound cake. If you have read the novel, then you understand the reason we got a laugh out of having pound cake at the end of our lunch! This literary meeting brought about the addition of a new member to our club. We are thrilled that she wanted to join our crazy bunch and bring our membership number back up to an even number six! Welcome to the party, Ellen!
Synopsis:
Jake Epping is able to literally step back in time, but always to the precise time and date of 11:58 a.m. on September 9, 1958. His objective is to live in the past in order to discover all he can about Lee Harvey Oswald with the intent of stopping the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. The trouble is that the past is obdurate - it does not want to change and will do all it can to thwart Jake's mission.
Comments:
Of course, one of the first questions we asked each other was, "Where were you when you heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated?" Everybody remembers that watershed moment, not unlike when 9/11 occurred in 2001. We questioned whether there was any other important moment in history which might have been even more vital to alter history for the good of mankind. One suggestion was the rise of Adolph Hitler - how would history have been different if Hitler had been removed from the picture before his dangerous ideas took hold?
When asking that question, we considered the butterfly effect: the phenomenon whereby a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. As Jake discovered, if we were to alter history by saving one man's life or taking one man's life, would the butterfly effect create a different and perhaps even more devastating disaster? We considered the death of President Kennedy. Perhaps the Vietnam War would not have occurred, but because of what happened to the president, future U.S. presidents were far more protected by their secret service agents and armored vehicles. Would the death of a future president been even more dangerous and devastating to our nation?
Another question we asked one another after reading all the carefully researched facts found in this book and studying Oswald along with our main character was, "Do you believe Oswald acted alone?" We had a mixed vote on that topic. As one of our ladies argued, how could he not manage to successfully shoot General Walker from such a close distance, but manage to hit President Kennedy from a longer distance and at an odd angle - that's the wrench in the works.
Jake was a schoolteacher by trade, but surprisingly had a knack for tracking and spying. His actions and knowledge made him appear a bit older than the age the author assigned to him. I had struggled with the idea that a mild-mannered teacher could hurt and kill people, as he does even prior to beginning his job of tracking Oswald. However, one of the FAB ladies pointed out that he had witnessed first-hand the shockingly violent attack of a mother and her children before he managed to reset history and then come back to pull the trigger on the would-be-attacker days before the tragedy. Witnessing that horrible scene would certainly give you cause and courage.
We enjoyed reliving some of the more innocent and free times of this book's setting. There were no seat belts, no TSA detectors at airports, no electronic devices to tote along and distract you, and some great music and dancing. However, there was also heavy industrial pollution and a lot more smokers. We do not miss the smoke-infused public facilities! One distraction for me was the overuse of the foul language, especially during a time when cursing was generally kept out of public conversation and certainly did not include the F word with such frequency.
Other distractions in the storyline which created loose ends for us occurred during the time period that Jake stayed in Derry, Maine. There were characters introduced for one scene with no connection to the main storyline and references to an evil entity. Brenda had read that Stephen King likes to slip in references to other stories he has written. I researched and found that Mr. King's scary novel "It" was set in 1958, in Derry, Maine, and a few of the character from our novel were also present in "It." Also, in his "Dark Towers" series there is an ongoing theme of the past harmonizing with the present.
Favorite Quotes:
"...I think a human mind that's moderately well-adjusted can absorb a lot of strangeness before it actually totters..." (p. 50 - Nook)
"Sing high C in a voice that's loud enough and true enough and you can shatter fine crystal. Play the right harmonic notes through your stereo loud enough and you can shatter window glass. It follows (to me, at least) that if you put enough strings on time's instrument, you can shatter reality." (p. 680 - Nook)
"Humans were built to look back; that's why we have that swivel joint in our necks." (p. 136 - Nook)
"But stupidity is one of the two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances." (p. 269 - Nook)
FAB Rating: **** (4 out of 5 stars)
This was a very interesting read with a couple of murderers, important historical moments, and a love story thrown in for good measure. It was also an intriguing idea that if the assassination of one man could be halted then our world would be better off for it. There were a few hitches which took a star off the rating. One hitch was that we all felt that this book was a tad long. There were many detailed days of Jake tailing Oswald or getting the layout of Derry which we found unnecessarily tedious. Another hitch was the idea that the butterfly effect would cause an earthquake in L.A. if Kennedy was not assassinated. We just could not find any basis for that occurrence using the chaos theory. Ultimately though, time travel always makes for a good plotline, and we enjoyed our trip back in time.
