Once upon a time, I read a Stephen King novel. Salem's Lot was about vampires. I know vampires are ridiculous. But still. I remember being alone at night and deeply engrossed in the story. When I looked up, it was dark. I had to pull down the shades. And I didn't want to look out the windows. So I walked to each window, backwards, felt around behind me and pulled down the shades. Then I went to my jewelry box and searched through my necklaces for a cross. It couldn't be just a cross; it I specifically had to have a corpus on the cross. Jesus protect me!
That night I couldn't sleep and swore I would never read another Stephen King book.
October's Book Club book is 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Everyone assured me that there were no vampires in it. That is true. But the book kept me awake last night, again. Now I'm walking around like a zombie vampire.
It's not scary, just too real. It's about the assassination of President Kennedy. I was in high school and remember it well. But I forgot how polarized the country was, at that time. It is uncanny similar to today's political environment. The early 60's was politically divided by the north and south and democrats and republicans. Just like President Trump couldn't do anything right, neither could Kennedy, according to their foes. "Haters." Then and now.
Just like statues are being torn down, so weren't some then. In Texas, their state flag flew above the US flag, which was upside down signaling distress. The similarities between then and now kept me awake. This time I was frightened for our country, not because of the vampires and zombies.
Stephen King is too good a writer.
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