Somewhere In Time by Richard Matheson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Somewhere In Time
Book Review: Favorite book and favorite movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this movie, and now I can read my favorite story everywhere I go. The only thing missing is the marvelous music.Book Review: I Don't Understand All of the 5 Stars,This Book Sucks
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm the type who always likes to finish a book. This book is definitely NOT a book you can't put down. I had to keep forcing myself to pick it back up. I am a Richard Matheson fan but I did not like this book at all. It's just weird and to me it almost seems like he shouldn't be writing a love story. I really don't understand all of the 5 stars. I think the 5 stars come from people who have seen the movie and maybe their opinion is tainted by that. I have never seen the movie but the book does seem like it would be a good movie. The story is just not deep enough for a book.Book Review: Interesting take on time travel
Summary: 3 Stars
Not bad. The first twenty or so pages were really slow. They were hard for me to get through since they were erratic and seemed to jump all over the place. I think that was the point since that's what Richard Collier was feeling at the time. As the story progresses and Richard travels back through time to 1896, the story drastically improves. The writing style is much more effortless and easy to follow. We get to know Richard Collier and get to see him court Elise McKenna, the Great American Actress. Nice little love story. I could have done without the last chapter (written by Robert, Richard's brother). It made the story seem false somehow and I would've preferred to be left in the world of Richard and Elise rather than outside it in Robert's world.Book Review: Just Couldn't Like This Book
Summary: 2 Stars
I picked this paperback up since it was inexpensive and looked like a nice "by-the-pool" summer read. Also, I rather enjoyed the film (I'm not a rabid fan of it, though), and I know several people who tell me it is their all-time favorite movie. I am not averse to romance novels, time-travel stories, or combinations of the two. I actually like the idea of timeless love and can swallow the hokey quite easily at times. But I actually had to force myself to finish this rather short book. The style is overblown and forced, in my opinion, and I just couldn't muster up any belief in the tale at all. The gushy, mushy exclamations of love the characters profess for each other seemed laughable to me. In one scene, the hero watches his love perform in a play, and he dictates a stream-of-consciousness spiel about her loveliness that includes lines such as, "Her feet are bare!...How can the sight of her feet excite me?" and "A woman singing offstage. Is it her? She sings too? What a lovely voice! God, I love her so. I tremble waiting for her." And don't even get me started on the sex scene where the love-starved heroine "was, at long last, unlocking the door of that subterranean dungeon in which she had kept her nature imprisoned." This is the only Matheson book I've ever read, and I see from the majority of reviews that my dislike of this book places me in the minority view. I honestly have no problem with the premise of the book (man falls in love with a photograph from the past and time travels through sheer force of will) and actually find it pleasantly romantic, but the execution of the book was lacking to me. So if you like love stories, you may enjoy this book as many others obviously have, but if you're at all like me, you may find it verbose and cheesy.Book Review: Part Fantasy, Part Romance, All Matheson
Summary: 4 Stars
Part fantasy novel, part romance novel, Richard Matheson's "Bid Time Return" finds dying writer Richard Collier falling in love with a photograph of a turn of the century actress Elise McKenna, becoming obsessed with her and then finding a way to travel back in time to meet her.
On the surface, the premise sounds absurd, but really no more so than your standard romance novel. It's the story of two people falling in love and overcoming obstancles to be together. In this case, it's the gulf of time standing between them. At least that's the case at first.
Once you accept the premise that Collier can and does find a way to move back in time to meet McKenna (he's staying at the same hotel she is, so he doesn't move in space, only time), the rest of the story falls well into place. Matheson's narration of the Collier via first-person, starting off in short, punctuated bursts from Collier's audio diary and later becoming longer and more detailed as Collier switches to writing out his feelings and confiding more in the readers, helps draw the reader in and question if this is really happening or if Collier has descending into dementia due to a brain tumor. Thankfully, Matheson wisely decides to not confirm or deny the reality of events, allowing the reader to choose for themselves.
Instead, what drives the story is Matheson's ability to put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and realistically portray the character's reactions. The premise may be one of fantasy, but the characters are realistic. It's easy to see why Stephen King says Matheson was a big influence on his (King's) works.
Time travel in a romance story is apparently nothing new. But Matheson's strengh is finding a new twist on the old story, bringing in just enough of his own distinctive storytelling style to make it his own. This is a book that will have you rooting for Collier in his quest and heartbroken at the end when it ends in tragedy (as it must, since the ending is set before the story begins.) But it's not the ending that matters so much as the journey. And in the hands of Matheson, this is a journey worth taking.