an inaccurate copyright notice

I finished the longest book ever today! Ok, it probably isn’t the longest book ever, but it sho nuff did seem like it – 800+ pages. I think they could’ve lopped about 200 pages off that thing and the story would have been fine.

The book was 11/22/63 by Stephen King.

I had some trouble with the way they wrote the copyright notice in the front of the book. First, here’s the book description from Amazon.

“Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in a Maine town. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away . . . but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke. . . . Finding himself in warmhearted Jolie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten . . . and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.”

Now, did we notice some of those famous names/events? Yes, I think we did.

Let’s see what the copyright notice page says.

“This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.”

Hmmm. Is it coincidental? I’m thinking no. A lot of the book is based in fact, obviously not the time travel business, but the Kennedy assassination, Oswald, his wife, etc, many details were true. I realize the notice is the standard industry fare, but I think, in this case, the publisher should have altered the copyright in some way to account for all of the real stuff in there. 

The book is very good, btw.