Time and Again

Interesting story overall, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped to. Perhaps because I had serious WSOD issues with the method of time travel.
I suspect that folks who know NYC well might really like the story as it features lots of old-timey Big Apple stuff.

I keep hearing this one referenced in discussions of great time travel stories, and deservedly so. It's a perfect example of the genre. Vividly-told, readable, with an engaging mystery at its core and an ending that lands, as in all great time travel stories, with a perfect inevitability that leaves you breathless.

Especially interesting here is the mechanism of time travel: not via complicated machinery, but via a method of self-hypnosis. The idea being that what keeps us rooted in a specific time and place is our subconscious knowledge of all the tiny detail of that time and place, and that if those details can be temporarily erased, if we can live exactly as if we are living in a former time and remember nothing else, until we ourselves come to believe it completely– that we can open the door and find ourselves elsewhere and elsewhen.

So I have mixed feelings about this particular book. The writing and prose? Beautiful. The characters are fully and feel alive. The mechanism of time travel (not a spoiler since it is fairly obvious that this book is about time travel) is quite brilliant and unique. However, the plot is straightforward if bland. What is the point that the author is making? That the modern world is horrible? That seems to be the conclusion. Every book I read tells me a story. Gives me something to walk away with. I'm not sure what this book really leaves you with other than a kind of “huh, neat.”

I'll start with the good parts of this book. It's short and easy to read. That's it.
Now for the bad. The story is a nonsensical attempt of a feel good journey. The characters or completely shallow with the main character, Meg, a spoiled brat that expects everything to be done for her and then gets upset when others such as her father are not all powerful beings that she thinks should literally change the universe specifically for her. I can't tell if she was supposed to be in her early teens or just out of diapers with her younger brother, who's too young to be in school even, needs to take care of her.
I could easily go on but then it would just be more ranting than I've already done. Don't waste your time with this one, there are so many better options.

This book is more coherent than the movie. I've rated it somewhat low for a few reasons. The story had basically no ‘science' to make it qualify as science fiction. Long passages of the story are written in an overly descriptive, yawn-inducing style. However, if you have a strong interest in descriptions of New York City life during the last part of the 19th century, this book is for you.

I really loved this book. It is a very different take on time travel. I am looking forward to the next book.

Executive Summary: Not really science fiction, but that wasn't my main issue. There is a good story here, it just took far too long for it to get started.

Full Review
This is one of those books I would have never read on my own. It's one of the main reason I'm still active in Sword & Laser. I would say calling this Sci-Fi is a bit of a stretch. Yes, there is time travel, but it's really just the vehicle for this story.

In fact the time travel is the part of the book I liked the most. I wish he hasn't spent so much time up front not really explaining the time travel, and simply gotten on with the story. Instead I was not only unsatisfied with his explanation for Time Travel, I was bored for two-thirds of the novel.

As someone who's only been to New York City once in my life, much of the marvelling about the similarities and differences of 1970s NYC and 1880s NYC were completely lost on me.

For me this book got going once this mystery about a letter found in the 1970's was explained by following clues in the 1880's. I think if the book had focused on this more, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Instead, it was kind of too little, too late for me. The characters were decent, but I never really connected with the protagonist. He romanticized the past as being far greater than his present. I didn't live through the 70's to compare. It's a tendency of most people to look on the past with rose-colored glasses. Si seems oblivious to many of the issues that plagued many people at that time.

The writing itself was fine as well. I think general fiction readers and/or people with close ties to New York City might enjoy this one more than I did.

Overall, I'm glad I read this one, but I'm hard pressed to recommend it, especially to sci-fi fans.

If you are a fan of history, time travel, and/or New York, you'll likely love this book. It's a romantic look into the New York of 1882 through 1970s eyes, and is certainly a unique read on my shelf. I learned a lot of very odd things about this time and place that I doubt I ever would have run across elsewhere. However, I think reading this I realized I'm not a big fan of history, time travel, or New York, so I found the 70s prose a little bit hard to work through. It's a book that I recognize as a great piece of fiction, but that isn't exactly my personal cup of tea.

I just loved it.

It was one of those books that draw you in in a soft and cosy way, yet grab you with an ice cold fist round the heart at key moments.

I wouldn't say that it was brilliantly written or that the characters are particularly three dimensional, or that the plot is especially innovative - but I would say that it just somehow hit a sweet spot for me.

I think this is one where the imagery and feel will keep returning to me. One to reread sometime I think!

There are various books by different authors with this title—such as [b:Time and Again 40224330 Time and Again Clifford D. Simak https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1527468765l/40224330.SY75.jpg 342347].This book gives us an affectionate and nostalgic look at New York in 1882; the author seems to have researched the period thoroughly, and conjures up the atmosphere quite well. The edition that I have includes a number of old photographs.The hero travels back in time in any unusual way (no time machine is involved) as part of an experiment sponsored by the American government; and to investigate a mystery. It's a crime story and a love story, a historical romance with elements of science fiction.Both the good and the bad aspects of life in 1882 are described; but the author clearly prefers the past.Not a literary masterpiece, but it's an unusual book that you may find worth reading. I've read it only once; but I give it three stars because I may yet read it again someday.

4 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Si Moley, a bored advertising illustrator, turns out to have the ability to vividly imagine the past - and therefore travel back to it with ease.

Review
I don't enjoy time travel stories. They very seldom deal well with the central paradoxes of the concept, and end up falling all over themselves. Yet, somehow, Jack Finney – who it sometimes seems seldom wrote about anything but time travel or alternate universes,* has been grandfathered in – I like almost everything of his I've read.

In this book, Finney acknowledges, but essentially doesn't address, the paradox question. And yet, the book works. I put it down to Finney's warm, but matter-of-fact, tone and characters. Reading Time and Again this time, I was struck by a mildly Holden Caulfieldish feel to the narration – maybe it's the somewhat dated (even – or especially? – for the '70s) treatment of women, despite Finney's otherwise progressive politics (they're mostly background).

Fundamentally, though, the novel's not about any of those things – it's an adventure and love story. For fans of Manhattan, it's a carefully researched and illustrated trip into the city's past. Again not of particular interest to me – but I still really liked the book. It falls apart a bit at the end, when Finney, having seemingly painted himself into a corner, resolves some big complications with a wave of his hand. Yet it's an appropriately romantic ending, and by and large fits the book.

Not Finney's best work, but still a fun read and worth trying out.

* Yes, his most famous book was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But that's not his fault.