Product Description

Simon Morley is selected by a secret government agency to test Einstein's theory of the past co-existing with the present and is transported back to 1880s New York.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79451 in Books
• Published on: 1994-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
SALES POINTS * Part of the Fantasy Masterworks series * this charming, illustrated novel is a classic tale of time travel * 'Go back to a wonderful world and have a wonderful time doing it' New York Times * Jack Finney is best known as the author of The Body Snatchers, which became the hugely popular and influential film, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers * the delightful illustrations add to the richness and charm.

Customer Reviews

Romanticized, but Highly Entertaining
Si Morely is a late twentieth-century artist who spends his days in the comfortable but non-creative pursuit of drawing boring illustrations, and his nights in an equally comfortable but not-so-great relationship with an interesting (but definitely not hot) antiques dealer. It's the type of relationship where you might get married someday, but then again, you might not. Si's girlfriend, however, is a lady with a secret: a burned, blue envelope that appears to warn of the the end of the world by fire.

The government interrupts Si's comfortable but mundane life when they make a proposal. The only problem is, Si has to agree before he can learn any of the details. As nothing particularly spectacular is happening in Si's life right now, he agrees and learns the government has been experimenting with time travel. They are now searching for the perfect people to send back in time, i.e., people who love history, who can recreate the past in their imaginations.

As it turns out, Si has a very good imagination and is the first to make the trip. He crosses time's threshold and enters New York in 1882, a place where he will encounter an old mystery and a future love.

Finney's Old New York is both magical and romanticized, a little like Mark Helprin's in Winter's Tale. Horses trot down the city streets, skyscrapers are only a dream and snow transforms the city into a winter wonderland. The streets are cobblestone, the men are gentlemen and people live in boarding houses whose windows reflect the light from the gas lamps lining the streets. It's an idealized version of New York, to be sure, and Finney doesn't tell us about the child labor, the rampant racism, the myriad of problems that were portrayed in Caleb Carr's The Alienist, for example. That's okay, because Time and Again is so good, and such wonderful entertainment, that we easily forgive Finney his historical inaccuracies.

While visiting the past, Si investigates his girlfriend's family secret, the secret of the blue envelope. Although a little contrived, this is a mystery with many twists and turns, at times sinister, at times amusing, but always engrossing.

Finney wisely presents no new earth-shaking ideas here and only briefly touches on themes such as the paradox and angst associated with fooling around with the course of history. Si is a man who interacts with the past in much the same way you or I probably would, and, ultimately, this is what makes Time and Again so very believable and so very good.

Gratefully, Finney eschews gimmicks and high-tech solutions to the problem of time travel and gracefully relies on plain old-fashioned will instead. That is part of why Si is able to accomplish it so easily. For him, history is more than names and dates in a book, it's something that's happening right now, something that can be recreated, if only one can get into the right frame of mind.

Time travel is a wonderful and entertaining genre if only it's handled correctly and handling it correctly is something Finney never fails to do. In Time and Again Finney gives us the complexity of a murder mystery wrapped in a "Russian" enigma. It's a wonderful book with wonderful characters that never fails to entertain.

My favorite book of all time!!
This is without question one of the most original and totally absorbing books I've ever read. I will admit that the beginning was a little slow. The first time I started to read it, I stopped at the beginning and gave it to a friend, because it just didn't grab me. My friend read it, loved it, and convinced me to try again. I am so glad I did! On my second attempt, I was completely drawn in and mesmerized by Sy's travels. I live in NYC and love its past, and was thrilled to have old NY described in such vivid detail. I really felt like I was there. This book also affected my sleep - I had dreams about travelling into NY's past almost every night. This book makes you believe it really can be done. For those who are interested in science fiction, forget this book. It is a non-sci-fi book about time travel that really holds a person's interest. I have recommended this book to everyone, have read it twice myself, and can't wait to read it again and again and again!

An enthralling read.
A beautifully written time-travel fantasy, that manages to be believable without the need for techno-babble solutions to how its done.

The book also succeeds in evoking the feel of 1880s New York, and its linking with a real, if minor, historical event makes an intriguing mystery.

The ending is one of the most touching I have read in science fiction or fantasy.

My only complaints are that I wanted the book to be twice as long, and why have I not come across it until now!