63 pages • 2 hours read

11.22.63

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Part 5, Chapters 23-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “11/22/63”

Part 5, Chapter 23 Summary

Sadie's “facial nerve” (752) is severed, leaving her permanently disfigured. Jake worries about paying for the medical bills, but Mike Coslaw comes up with a solution: another Jodie Jamboree. However, Sadie’s parents want her to move back home with them. Jake talks her into staying with him in Jodie.

Jake continues to spy on the Oswalds, overhearing an Easter weekend conversation between George and Lee Harvey about the attempt on Edwin Walker’s life that implies George knows Lee Harvey was the shooter. A few weeks later, Jake observes Lee Harvey board a bus for New Orleans.

Part 5, Chapter 24 Summary

Sadie is unhappy about the Jodie Jamboree as she does not want to be a charity case. Ellie convinces Sadie to make an appearance at the end of the Jamboree. A few days later, Jake tells Sadie the place where he comes from has medical advances that can repair her face. He admits he is from the future and proves it by inviting her to watch a prize fight he knows who will win. He makes a bet on the fight with a man named Frank Frati, believing the name, which is similar to Chaz Frati in Derry, is another harmony with his past.

Part 5, Chapter 25 Summary

Sadie enters the hospital for her first reconstructive surgery. While she is recovering, Jake arranges to meet George de Mohrenschildt. He pretends to be a CIA agent and demands proof of George's whereabouts the night of Edwin Walker's shooting. George provides a newspaper clipping showing him celebrating his wife's birthday with Jack Ruby. This information leaves Jake confident Lee Harvey is the sole shooter and he can safely eliminate him upon his return from New Orleans.

Sadie returns home to recover from surgery. Jake moves in with her, though he continues to park his car outside Deke’s house for the sake of her reputation.

Sadie asks Jake for details on why he is there in the past. He gives her a vague idea, telling her he wants to stop the President’s assassination, but refuses to offer details such as the assassin’s name.

Jake and Sadie attend the televised showing of the prize fight. It looks as if Jake is going to lose his bet, as the younger fighter quickly knocks the older boxer off his feet in the first round. However, just as Al promised in his notebook, the older boxer knocks out the younger one in the fifth round. The following day, Jake drives to Fort Worth to pick up his winnings from Frati. He takes it immediately to the bank before heading to his Dallas apartment to retrieve his handgun. He is followed into the apartment by a bookie and his goons. They believe he has been cheating on his bets, and they beat him severely.

Part 5, Chapters 23-25 Analysis

Despite his concerns about her safety, Jake begins revealing things about himself to Sadie in order to make her happy and keep her in his life. Each time he reminds himself that telling her too much could put her in danger, foreshadowing a time when his concerns will come to pass. Also touching on the theme of technology, Jake realizes that if Sadie had been wounded in his time, doctors could do much more to repair the damage than the doctors in her time, leading him to invite her back to 2011. He does not stop to consider the damage this could cause to the timeline. Once again, there is the contrast between what Jake is willing to do to change history and his choice not to learn all he can to understand what those changes might do.

Jake continues to concentrate on his mission to stop Lee Harvey. He overhears George de Mohrenschildt accuse Lee Harvey of shooting at Edwin Walker on Easter weekend. This is an actual event that took place and was discussed during the Warren Commission investigations, though there is some question as to whether it actually went the way in which George claimed it did. King seems to embrace George’s testimony in this version of events, supporting the idea that George might have had a hand in talking Lee Harvey into doing what he did.

Jake meets with George de Mohrenschildt posing as a CIA agent. This appears to confirm that George did have some kind of connection to the CIA, as people have speculated since the Warren Commission. However, his connection to Lee Harvey appears to be less covert than has been assumed when he is able to show proof that he was not with Lee Harvey on the night of the attempt on Edwin Walker’s life. The irony of this moment is the fact that George and his wife spent the evening with Jake Ruby, the man who would kill Lee Harvey while he was in police custody. Jake sees this as another harmony.

Money is becoming an issue for Jake. Despite his reservations, he decides to make one last bet. Jake worries his previous experience with the Florida bookie might foreshadow more trouble but decides to take the chance even when another harmony takes place. He is sent to a bookie named Frati. Jake immediately makes the connection to Chaz Frati in Derry. However, he forgets something important about Chaz Frati: He sent Bill Turcotte after Jake. This foreshadows the moment when this new Frati will send someone after Jake with malicious intent. As a direct result of this bet, Jake is severely beaten, another obstacle to his mission to change the past.