Time and Again
"Sleep. And when you awake everything you know of the twentieth century will be gone from your mind. Tonight is January 21, 1882. There are no such things as automobiles, no planes, computers, television. 'Nuclear' appears in no dictionary. You have never heard the name Richard Nixon."
Did illustrator Si Morley really step out of his twentieth-century apartment one night -- right into the winter of 1882? The U.S. Government believed it, especially when Si returned with a portfolio of brand-new sketches and tintype photos of a world that no longer existed -- or did it? Review Review About the Author Manhattan, back 120 years A lovingly written time travel adventure. Recommended! Best Book Ever ReadProduct Details
Editorial Reviews
New York Times Go back to a wonderful world and have a wonderful time doing it. -- Review
New York TimesGo back to a wonderful world and have a wonderful time doing it.
Let Jack Finney make a believer of you as he takes you on an incredible tour in words and pictures of a time long goneCustomer Reviews
In this book we visit Manhattan during the winter of 1882, seeing the City as it was, having traveled there from the present (1950s). There are logical (and minor factual) roadblocks in the scientific and historical premises, but the characters are so appealing that I was willing to suspend disbelief. It is an engrossing page turner blending issues of morality, romance and history. It has a special attraction for those who love the history of New York, including Central Park, the financial district and the way people lived and worked in the 19th century. I could not put if dowm.
You know the drill: if you're going to write about time travel, you're going to run into paradoxes and other problems. How to give a believable explanation of the science of time travel? How do you go back in time to change something in the past, if by changing it, you wouldn't have ever needed to go back in time in the first place? It's enough to make your head explode (mine just did).
Fortunately, in Time and Again, Finney doesn't bother going through the gymnastics of trying to make it all airtight. He doesn't waste the reader's time on the whys and hows of time travel: instead, he focuses on telling a story and describing the world of New York in 1882, the setting to which our protagonist travels.
Si Morley, an artist who is unsatisfied with his advertising job, is approached by an ultra-secret government agency. They are recruiting him as a candidate for a new project, one in which he will attempt to go back in time.
As Morley moves between his contemporary 1970s New York City and the city of the 1880s, he takes in his surroundings with an artist's eye, and that is half the pleasure of the book right there: leisurely, loving descriptions of fashions and architecture of the day; passages describing the everyday world of 1882 and its inhabitants, going about their everyday lives. It all comes to full-color life, in contrast with the static, monochromatic photographs and relics that survive from the era.
Needless to say, Morley gets in over his head in 1882, and through chance and recklessness, threatens to upend history and the lives of those he encounters. He also runs into an ethical dilemma as the ultimate goal of the government project evolves into something other than time travel for its own sake.
Finney makes amazing use of photographs, illustrations and newspaper articles from the time, weaving them into his story and giving it life and resonance. Along the way, there is plenty of suspense and drama, but be prepared to take your time, as there is no lack of description. Finney wants to make sure that the reader really sees New York in 1882, and he succeeds on that count.
Time and Again can be forgiven if it doesn't give us a blipping, beeping, science-filled description of a time machine; it also earns forgiveness for setting aside the paradoxes of time travel. Instead of tangling us up in explanations, Finney surrounds us with a living, breathing world, a time and a story well worth stepping into.
My father gave me this book 25 years ago after my uncle had given it to him, both claiming it was the best book they ever read. I had lent this book out and never received it back so had to purchase a copy so I had one in my library.
I love this book like no book I have ever read. It completely sweeps you into the story, transcending time and full of details of history. The building the main character lives in, The Dakota,is where John Lennon lived and was killed in front of as he was leaving his home.
A beautiful story that makes it so hard to put the book down. Highly, highly recommended!
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