Time and Again by Jack Finney Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Time and Again
Book Review: Better the First Time
Summary: 3 Stars
The first time I read this book, five years or so ago, I thought it was wonderful. I even made my mom, who reads very little fiction, buy a copy and she loved it as well. I just read it again for the second time, and I have to say, there were several flaws in the logic of the story that I either did not pick up on or just did not care about the first time around. (I am not going to enumerate them because the book is much more enjoyable if you do not see them.) A little long and a little wordy, it is nevertheless a pretty good read if you do not read too deeply.Book Review: Boring Time Travel Book With Horrible Paradox!
Summary: 1 Stars
I thought this book was mostly boring. The first HALF of the book was just the characters talking about time travel. I found the plot dull. The man character, Si, has a girlfriend, who has a mysterious letter from the past. He goes back like 100 years and watched get mailed. Wow, so boring.
The last quarter of the book has some exciting moments, involving an 1882 police chase.
Then, the most horrible thing a time travel can do is create an obvious time paradox. Si goes back in time and stops this time travel expirement from even happening! Which means Si being in 1882 becomes inpossible!
Yea, I didn't like this book. Don't waste you time.
Book Review: Boring time and again
Summary: 2 Stars
I love anything to do with time travel, I find it fascinating, but this book couldn't have made it a more boring subject. In the book, the government has spent a lot of money on setting up environments condusive to time travel to get people in right frame of mind, and goes into huge detail of everything they have setup, but then basically shows that is all for nought, because you just need the "right" person with the right ability. When you're reading that much boring detail, you at least hope that it serves you well for later in the book, but no, it was just that, a bunch of boring, useless detail.
The book does get interesting, like others have said, during the last 1/3 of the book, but it took me a long time to get there as I kept putting the book down out of boredom and coming back to it days later determined to finish it.
Overall, not a book I'd recommend unless you're a history buff of that time period.
Book Review: Cant Get enough of this classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Number one time travel book period. If you love this classic please check out the other Finney books which are funny and also time travel related. awesomeBook Review: Clever, surprising historical romance w/ time travel twist
Summary: 5 Stars
I was vacationing in Pentwater, Michigan, this past weekend and saw Finney's Time and Again on the bed and breakfast's library shelf. Strange, I thought. This is only a "library" of two book shelves of varied literary styles (from Tolkien to Sheldon to the Bible); coincidental, as well, since I had this book in my hand two days before and almost bought it...but decided to read it another day.Well, that day came. I read the entire book over the weekend, mostly in the mornings before breakfast...and Saturday night from about 3:30 a.m. until 5:30 a.m.
The subject matter fascinates me. I've always loved stories about time travel. Some of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone touch on that subject ("Walking Distance," especially). Plus, one of my favorite movies of all time is Somewhere in Time. On top of that, I'm in advertising. So the main character's profession was of interest to me as well.
I had never read any of Finney's books before, although I was aware Richard Matheson borrowed heavily from this book for his own book, Bid Time Return -- which became Somewhere in Time. (In the movie Somewhere in Time there's a running reference to a time travel book called, I think, Travels Through Time by a Professor Finney. That was Matheson's tip of the hat to Finney's book.)
Because Finney was new to me, I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't familiar with his style, his plots, his characters and his endings. So I savored every word, only reluctantly putting the book down throughout the day (such as when I sat on the beach for three hours; in hindsight, a mistake since now I look like a boiled lobster).
I've read other reviews that complain about the intricate details of New York getting in the way of the story. Baloney. The rich detail only adds to the realism and makes the story that much more fascinating. Finney's description of 1880s New York, for example, is totally engrossing. I longed to see it myself!
Of course, maybe one of the reasons why I liked the detail so much is that I've stood outside the Dakota building. I've been in Central Park. I've looked up at the spires of the Dakota from within Central Park and was blown away by the architecture. So, that probably helped make the book more "real" to me.
Nevertheless, Finney's slavish attention to detail helped make the story "believable."
As the ending approached, I kept wondering if Simon Morley, the main character, would stay in the past, or return to the present. Would he be with Julie, from 1880s New York, or return to his girlfriend in present day New York. Or would one of them join him in either era? I honestly had no idea what would happen!
Admittedly, I had to read and re-read the part in the beginning about the letter mailed on blue stationery a half dozen times or more to make sure I got the names and dates correct. But I was amazed how all the subplots came together in the end. Surprises abound, let me tell you.
Speaking of surprises, the ending was a total shock. Not necessarily which era Si Morley chose to stay in, but the little twist regarding the Project. My mouth dropped open when I read the last page...and I quickly turned back to the beginning to re-read the setup...then back to the ending. Brilliant. I never would have thought of that.
The only strange letdown, to me, was the note at the end of the book from "J.F." regarding Simon Morley's adventures (was it called "Afterword"? I don't remember). At first, I thought it was a cool idea that "J.F." would recount how he came to write Simon's story. That makes the book seem that more more "believable." But too much is said, too much is unsaid, and the last line sort of deflates the book's own ending. I have mixed feelings about that one page. I would have left it out, or written it differently.
By the way, the title of my review represents my opinion that time travel is only an incidental, albeit necessary, part of the book. So if you don't like science fiction, please don't shy away from Time and Again. It's not a science fiction book. To me, the book was a melancholy historical romance that just happened to have a time travel twist to it. In other words, anyone who likes a really good love story, especially one that takes place - in large part -- in the past will love Time and Again.
And if you just so happen to be a sci-fi/time travel buff like me, then you just may find Time and Again that much more fascinating.