63 pages • 2 hours read

11.22.63

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Part 4, Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4: “Sadie and the General”

Part 4, Chapter 17 Summary

Ellie Dockerty tells Jake that she knows his references are fake. She attempted to get his immunization records from his previous employers in Maine, but they had never heard of him. His actions have placed himself and the school at risk of legal action from the State Board of Education. However, since he refused to take on another contract, she believes no one needs to know. Jake asks her to please encourage Sadie to be careful of the possible return of Johnny Clayton. Sadie refuses to see him on the last day of class, but Mike and Bobbi Jill give him the gift of a monogrammed pen.

Jake rents the small house across from the Mercedes Street house the Oswalds will soon move into. The first few weeks are quiet and filled with the desperation of his neighbors. He thinks often of Sadie and what he might say to her should he tell her the truth. When he goes to the airport to watch Lee Harvey and Marina Oswald arrive in Texas, he sees Sadie board a plan for Reno. Jake watches Robert Oswald and his family escort Lee Harvey and his family through the airport. Jake witnesses Lee Harvey’s cruelty toward Marina when he chastises her for swaddling the baby, June.

Jake visits with Ellie and Deke over dinner. Jake once again stresses that they should be on the lookout for Sadie’s husband, Johnny Clayton. Ellie has procured a picture of Johnny and shows it to Jake and Deke. After dinner, Jake walks down to the football field to visit with Coach Borman, where Jake observes a reporter observing the practice with a directional mike. Jake returns to his electronics guy to procure one for himself.

Part 4, Chapter 18 Summary

The Oswalds come to rent the house on Mercedes Street. Jake listens to the conversation with his new directional mike. A guest, Peter Gregory, arrives at the Oswald residence and hires Marina to teach his son, Paul, to speak Russian. Jake knows from Al’s notes that this is the first step in introducing Lee Harvey and Marina to the group that will eventually lead them to George de Mohrenschildt, the man Al believes either encouraged Lee Harvey to shoot Edwin Walker, or who was Lee Harvey’s accomplice. A few days later, Jake sets a recording device on the bugged lamp inside the Oswalds home so he can listen to their private conversations.

Jake and Sadie speak, but she is still angry he will not share his secrets with her. At the same time, Jake arranges to rent the apartment below the Oswalds’ future apartment in Dallas.

Part 4, Chapter 19 Summary

George de Mohrenschildt arrives at the Oswalds’ in September. Jake listens to George and Lee Harvey discuss politics, listening carefully for any indication that George might be grooming Lee Harvey to become an assassin.

In late September, Jake moves to the apartment on Neely Street and returns to Mercedes Street during the day to observe the Oswalds. Not long after, Lee Harvey abandons his family to find work in Dallas, and a man named George Bouhe moves Marina out of the Mercedes Street house.

In October, the Cuban Missile Crisis begins. Aware Sadie is sensitive to such events, Jake tries to call her but gets no answer. Concerned, he drives to Jodie and finds Sadie passed out on the bed, her breathing raspy. She has overdosed on drugs. Jake drags her into the bathroom and puts her in a cold shower. Sadie is angry and frightened. Jake tells her the crisis will pass, reciting everything he can remember about the missile crisis from his college history class. The following morning, they get back together.

Part 4, Chapters 17-19 Analysis

Jake is barred from working at the high school in Jodie, losing his last connection to the town now that Sadie has broken up with him. This could end his desire to stay in the past, although he believes that Sadie will eventually come back to him. For the first time, Jake's dedication is split between his life in Jodie and his mission to stop Lee Harvey. He often comments on his dual life, a symbol of the duality of time travel—of existing in two separate realities and living as two different men: Jake Epping in 2011 and George Amberson in 1962.

History plays out in these chapters as King introduces historical figures Lee Harvey Oswald, his family, and George de Mohrenschildt. George is a real figure who played a big part in the Warren Commission’s investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy. He testified about his friendship with Lee Harvey and his discovery of a rifle in Lee Harvey’s home the Easter weekend after the attempted assassination of Edwin Walker, information that allowed Al to focus on him in his notes about Lee Harvey. As Jake observes Lee Harvey, history plays out and real events are mingled with King’s fictional world.

Lee Harvey’s character is explored in small bits when he is introduced as a cruel husband who often abuses his wife. However, he is also the child of an overbearing and cruel woman who does not understand boundaries. King builds some sympathy for Lee Harvey as he creates a character and not just a cardboard cutout of a historical figure. He also creates a likeable character in Marina Oswald, as he shows her struggling to acclimate to the new country her husband has brought her to.

Another piece of history appears in these chapters when the Cuban Missile Crisis plays out on the television news. Jake knows that Sadie is frightened by such things, as most people of her time period were. He uses the opportunity to rekindle their romance, but he also slips information to her that he should not have known. This is the beginning of Jake's revelation of his secrets, bringing Sadie to a fate she would not experience if Jake had not entered her life. This illustrates the theme of the consequences of time travel.