My mom is a huge Stephen King fan. She loves the books and the movie adaptations. My brother and I grew up watching The Shining, Misery, and Cujo over and over. They are great books and movies. We even had a chihuahua named Cujo and he was my baby. When I was a teenager, I tried to read a bind up of four Stephen King novels and I could only get through 1 and it was The Secret Window.
After learning that James Franco who is one of my favorite actors was starring in a new show from Hulu and it was based on a Stephen King novel, I had to read the book. Saying all this, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED this story.
This book was less scary than Stephen King's other books are, and I think that's why I liked it so much. It's a time travel historical fiction, where this guy goes back in time to try and save President John F. Kennedy and try to make the world a better place. I was a little overwhelmed and intimidated by the size of this chunky book, but I got through it and it was an amazing story.
The main character Jake is an English teacher who is newly divorced from his alcoholic wife. He is having a celebratory lunch with one of his Adult Ed students who had just earned his diploma and the diner owner is named Al. He shows Jake the portal to 1958, and tells him that no matter how long he stays in the past, he will only be gone 2 minutes in present time. He also learns that he has to keep the yellow card man content and that every time you come back to the present and then go back in time, it is a reset. Whatever you do in the past, and come back, it will still be there. But, when you go back, it will disappear.
At first, he gets supplies to wait for a day to help save a woman that Al had saved from being paralyzed. Jake has to constantly fight the past as it fights him. The past doesn't want to be changed and it will do everything in its power to keep you from doing so.
Like I said, this story was not scary, but it was thrilling and suspenseful and a definite page turner. You keep hoping that he doesn't run into Lee Harvey Oswald. Is his lover Sadie going to fuck up everything or run her mouth to someone who shouldn't know.
I loved how when he did save JFK and he went back to the present, it was completely changed for the........... WORST! I did cry at the end when he changed everything back and Sadie was 80 years old and he still couldn't be with her. I cried hard.
The show was amazing. I usually hate when they deviate so far from the story line, but this was an exception. I loved how they added scary elements into the show and I absolutely love the casting. Five minutes into the first episode I was crying, because the person cast as Harry Dunning did such an amazing job bringing the character's sad story to life. The guy who plays Al was perfect as well.
The most hilarious thing about this, is that my mom had NEVER heard of this book. She didn't know what I was talking about and I showed her the first five minutes of the show and she was hooked. I told her that I was going to buy her the book for Christmas and she was like OK!
I also learned more about the assassination of JFK and his presidency and while he was a senator. I didn't know much about him except that he is our youngest president in history and that he was killed in his motorcade in Dallas, Texas in 1963. My mom and dad were both a year old when this happened.
