Time and Again (Time, #1) in Retro Chapter Chicks

Oct 16, 2020 Candi rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, science-fiction, classics-shelf

“I’ve always felt a wonder at old photographs not easy to explain… I mean the sense of wonder, staring at the strange clothes and varnished backgrounds, at knowing that what you’re seeing was once real. That light really did reflect into a lens from these lost faces and objects. That these people were really there once, smiling into a camera.”

If you’ve ever been bewitched by antique photographs, intrigued by the lives of the people and places forever captured within, perhaps even wishing to take “I’ve always felt a wonder at old photographs not easy to explain… I mean the sense of wonder, staring at the strange clothes and varnished backgrounds, at knowing that what you’re seeing was once real. That light really did reflect into a lens from these lost faces and objects. That these people were really there once, smiling into a camera.”

If you’ve ever been bewitched by antique photographs, intrigued by the lives of the people and places forever captured within, perhaps even wishing to take a step into another era, then this time travel novel is likely to delight you. Better yet, if you have a penchant for all things New York City, this would be the perfect book to grab on a rainy autumn day.

Simon (Si) Morley is pretty sick and tired of his life. I had to laugh at this, however, when Si was approached by Ruben Prien, an agent for a secret government project: “You’re bored and dissatisfied with yourself, and time is passing; in two years you’ll be thirty. And you still don’t know what to do with your life.” What the hell? Since when did thirty years of age become a sign of time having slipped away?! If that is in fact the case, then my life passed me by a long time ago. And I still don’t know what to do with my life. But I digress. Naturally, Si jumps on the chance to engage in some pretty neat time travel. Don’t worry yourself too much about the logistics – that’s not really the point here. Although I was a bit intrigued with the physics of time and what that really entails.

“We think the past is gone, the future hasn’t yet happened, and that only the present exists. Because the present is all we can see… we’re like people in a boat without oars drifting along a winding river. Around us we see only the present. We can’t see the past, back in the bends and curves behind us. But it’s there…”

If you don’t dwell on this point too long, then you can easily settle in with Si on his grand adventure. You’ll find yourself making the leap from 1970 New York City to a much earlier time – the winter of 1882 to be exact. More than anything, I found this to be a romance – not between two people (well, there was a bit of that), but rather a love affair between the author (and the reader) with that grand city. You don’t have to necessarily know the intimate details of New York ahead of time to enjoy this. But it helps to be familiar with at least some of the major landmarks, which most of us have probably gleaned from books and films already. What Jack Finney does remarkably well is to evoke the place in a way that makes you feel as if you were also there, living in another century. Like Si, you become a part of the mass of people that laughed and loved and lived on some of the same streets that still exist today. The architecture is markedly different, but there are some things that remain as they were all those years ago. Finney also includes some marvelous photographs of the old buildings, and he vividly describes the clothing that was worn during the 1880s. It’s all wonderfully nostalgic.

“For an instant I had a glimpse in my mind of a lifted hoof wet with slush, the fetlocks balled with gray snow. And now I could – not imagine; that wasn’t the word – I could feel the city around me, all the others, I mean: the people in their houses tonight like me, in the soft yellow light of a million gas flames.”

This book doesn’t get philosophical or too science-y about time travel, so no worries if that were to turn you off. There’s some discussion about how an individual could alter the present by meddling in the past, but this is really an adventuresome book that celebrates an incredibly vibrant city. Read it for the descriptive setting and some nail-biting action that escalates towards the ending section of the novel!

“… I had forgotten the obvious: that simply being with people is to become involved with them.” ...more

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Oct 12, 2023 Tasha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi

Rating: 3.75 rounded up to 4 for GRs.

I'm really glad I read this book, it's been on my radar for years. So interesting to read a time travel book whose present day is history to me, 1970s. A strong sense of time and place when we go back to the late 1800s but also when we return to the 'present' in the 1970s! I think if you really know NYC you would appreciate this book even more. ...more

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