Time and Again

by Jack Finney

book data

763 ratings, 4.03 average rating, 235 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		39%
4		32%
3		21%
2		5%
1		1%

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published

August 9th 2001 by Gollancz (first published 1970)

details

Paperback, 400 pages

setting

United States

isbn

0575073608 (isbn13: 9780575073609)

description

"Sleep. And when you awake everything you know of the twentieth century will be gone from your mind. Tonight is January 21, 1882. There are no s

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Mar 31, 2009

Stephen rated it:

Read in June, 2001

I had been casually looking for this book for years after a friend/English Lit instructor at Dixie College recommended it to me. I finally found in my local Deseret Industries, a definite treasure. This is a wonderfully gentle book about a New York man who travels back through time to the 19th century. It is a lovely blend of science fiction, historical fiction, and romance and I heartily recommend it. I am strangely taken by the Victorian era, especially Victorian New York City and this book...more

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Dec 03, 2008

Jayne rated it:

Read in November, 2008

recommended to Jayne by: can't remember
recommends it for: anyone

I'm usually not a fan of science fiction but I enjoyed this story of time travel to New York City in the 1880's. It's a good story that includes love, intrigue and makes the reader experience that time period as Jack Finney transforms the reader through his descriptions of the sights, smells, and sounds of NYC in the 1880's.

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Apr 23, 2009

H. rated it:

(review of isbn 0671204971)

bookshelves: dont-own, fiction-sf

Read in June, 2009

recommended to H. by: Dad and sister
recommends it for: people obsessed with the 1880's

If Simon Morley, protagonist of Finney's Time and Again, had any real personality beyond his nickname being "Si," perhaps the book's loose ends and rough edges would have distracted less. But he is neither a complex and interesting original nor a heavy-handed archetype. He's more of a blank slate onto which we might project ourselves, the first-person writing tone that of an amateur blogger who is trying his hand at a journalistic account of a very exciting place. No matter the topic,...more If Simon Morley, protagonist of Finney's Time and Again, had any real personality beyond his nickname being "Si," perhaps the book's loose ends and rough edges would have distracted less. But he is neither a complex and interesting original nor a heavy-handed archetype. He's more of a blank slate onto which we might project ourselves, the first-person writing tone that of an amateur blogger who is trying his hand at a journalistic account of a very exciting place. No matter the topic, if the writing is boring so must be the reading.

Here, plot must take the place of character but, unfortunately, it has many weaknesses, and often what strength it appears to have is mere fluff: the author's showing off of his in-depth research on the 1880's.

There is beauty in the idea of simplicity and novelty as the route to time-travel, but Finney's simplicity is just that: it falls short. The idea is that with enough study on a time and place, a person can mentally transport themselves to this other time. This is put forth as a government project, and Finney attempts an exploration of the human motivation to use knowledge that shouldn't be used, to negative ends.

So many obvious questions pop up, left unanswered, that the ridiculousness gets in the way of the story. It comes off as badly thought-out and amateurish. How does a time-traveler come equipped with money? How does he will himself to a specific day? How does time pass in the present while one is in the past? Why isn't the government asking these questions? Why isn't the government watching more carefully? Why is it so easy for random people to be able to do this when apparently it's so hard for others who spend ages studying and have huge amounts of government money spent on them?

It's all very sloppy. Luckily there was another storyline of some mystery and suspense that kept things moving.

[minor spoiler:]
The romance, however, did not convince or engage. It's hard to fall in love with characters that do not have much character to them, and harder still to care whether they fall for each other. I think the breaking point for me was when Morely decides to interfere in his love interest's life upon the epiphany that the people of the 1880's are just as human and worthy as those of his time. He realizes this after spending time with an impoverished man who works 14-hour days freezing his ass off for $1.50/day so his children won't join the thousands of orphans around the city. So Morely decides that these are real people, and his action against their real pain is to... save his crush from a bad marriage.

The morality of this story seemed as confused and vague as the character, actually, and it gets quite full of it at the end.

If I hadn't come to this book with high expectations, I might have been more accepting of the mildly diverting mystery storyline, but I think I would have been less forgiving of the onanistic travel book descriptions of buildings and carriages, and verbatim quotes from newspapers of the time.(less)

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2 comments

Jan 14, 2009

Philip rated it:

bookshelves: favorites

TIME AND AGAIN is probably the most famous novel about time-travel published in past half-century, and one of the most convincing. I first read it around 1976 or 1977, when it was already becoming hard-to-find (fortunately it was brought back into print in the early 1980s and has remained available every since). I fell in love with it from the very first reading, and have re-read it several times since. It's an "illustrated novel" that's illustrated with photographs and woodcuttings...more

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Nov 13, 2008

melydia rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Though the story is about time travel, this is not what one would commonly consider a science fiction novel. Simon Morley, a bored illustrator living in 1960s New York, joins a top secret government program that sends him back to 1882. Rather than your standard time travel machine, temporal distances are covered through self-hypnosis and a bunch of hand-waving involving vague references to Einstein. But never mind all that. Since the narrator is from modern times, his descriptions of New Yor...more

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Apr 17, 2008

Jaclyn Hamlin rated it:

Read in May, 2008

I love to read. I read because it's fun for me. Pretty much anything I read, it's fun for me.

But I can't remember the last time I've had THIS MUCH fun.

So, a recap: Simon Morley is an illustrator working in the advertising business in 1970s New York. He is recruited to join a top-secret U.S. government project. Scientists, applying a statement of Einstein's, think they have figured out a way for people to travel back and forth in time. Si is chosen as one of the first...more

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Sep 05, 2007

Tracey rated it:

bookshelves: nyc, re-read

Read in May, 2007

recommends it for: fans of time travel and/or those interested in turn of the 20th century NYC

Perhaps one of my favorite time travel novels, I picked up my copy of Time and Again for a re-read earlier this week.

Si Morley, an advertising illustrator who is living in New York & feeling somewhat unfulfilled in life, is approached by a mysterious man who asks him to commit to a secret project. Not having much else to look forward to (even his relationship is somewhat desultory), he agrees. The project, under the aegis of the US government, is time travel by means of self-hypnotis...more

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Dec 27, 2008

Eli rated it:

Read in January, 2009

This book was strange. There were times when I couldn't put it down, and it was facinating, and others, when I seriously considered not finishing it.

I'm really glad that I did.

It's obvious that the book isn't a modern read, it's got a some what old way of thinking to it. (Even though it was only written in the 80's)

My only arguement against 'Time and Again' is that it is sometimes too descriptive and long winded. Chapters that should have been expounded wer...more

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Sep 05, 2008

Rick rated it:

Read in January, 1998

Finney is a giant in this genre (a blend of science-fiction and mystery), but I had a little trouble getting into it. The story, written in 1970 (with a sequel, "From Time to Time" written in 1995), concerns a time traveller's attempts to alter history. Finney's prose was a little flowery for my taste. I liked them (I wouldn't have finished reading both of them if I hadn't), but there were times that I found it rather slow going. Try the "Time" series of books by Allen Appel,...more

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Jun 26, 2007

Angela rated it:

Read in January, 1991

recommends it for: time travel nuts, history buffs

I sincerely call this my favorite book and have probably read it 6+ times since I was 12. Someone else mentions that it makes time travel actually believable. When I was younger I found myself wondering if I was in a place that I could hypnotize myself to travel back in time.... but anyway... the historical references and descriptions show the great thought put into this and allow you to feel like you're really there.

But on the flip side, it can be pretty slow at times and kinda sap...more

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Mar 18, 2010

Angela rated it:

(review of isbn 0671242954)

Read in March, 2010

Parts of this book dragged, but I really liked it overall. I've always thought I might belong to a different time than my own, so the popular idea of time travel appeals also to me. Loved the original way of telling the story with the photos, drawings, woodcuts, etc. The history was fascinating.

I especially love the paragraph on page 387: "I was stunned. I was, and I knew it, an ordinary person who long after he was grown retained the childhood assumption that the people wh...more

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Aug 20, 2009

Heather rated it:

Read in March, 2008

My 85-year-old mother recommended this book to me, and I can see why. It is similar to Somewhere in Time in that the main character, Si Morley, who becomes involved in a secret government time-travel project and goes back to the New York City of 1882 and falls in love. I think my mom liked this book because she lived in Manhatten and Finney spends quite a bit of time detailing and describing the New York of the late 1880s. Even though my mother wasn't alive then, I think she probably could visua...more

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Sep 14, 2009

Ashleigh rated it:

(review of isbn 0684801051)

bookshelves: beachy-reads

Read in September, 2009

I was disappointed in this one. I don't remember exactly where I heard about it, but I think it was on NPR. I'm pretty sure it got a glowing review there, which I don't think it lives up to at all.

The writing in this novel is very immature, as are many of the concepts. Basically, it's about this guy who works at a boring job he doesn't enjoy. He's recruited by the US government to take part in a top secret time-travel experiment. He signs up, travels back to New York in 1882, an...more I was disappointed in this one. I don't remember exactly where I heard about it, but I think it was on NPR. I'm pretty sure it got a glowing review there, which I don't think it lives up to at all.

The writing in this novel is very immature, as are many of the concepts. Basically, it's about this guy who works at a boring job he doesn't enjoy. He's recruited by the US government to take part in a top secret time-travel experiment. He signs up, travels back to New York in 1882, and all kinds of crazy hijinks ensue!

Large portions of the novel are very boring. They consist of long, drawn-out descriptions of New York City and comparisons between "then and now." The author clearly read up on architectural history and knows his NYC geography and sometimes it really just feels like he's regurgitating in an attempt to show off this knowledge (Here's an example: "We walked around such and such corner and *gasp* the ABC building wasn't there!! Instead, I saw the X building which I knew would later be destroyed in a fire in 1906! Shocking!!" This goes on ad nauseum.). He does the same thing with tons of small details: carriages, clothing, food, etc. I suppose this would appeal to someone who has an extreme interest in the obscure details of daily life in the 1880s. I love history and interesting little facts of this nature, but in my opinion the author really doesn't know when enough was enough and it becomes very boring and tedious.

Another thing that really bugged me was the author's/narrator's obsessive idealization of the past. The narrator here reminds me of myself at say 10 years old. In the 1880s, the world is so much more beautiful! People are so much better and happier! Everything is so alive! No such thing as chemical warfare, or nuclear weapons! It's completely unbalanced and immature. Poverty literally gets a one-line comment. Lack of civil rights get maybe one paragraph. Women's rights, disease, etc. get zero mention. Boss Tweed types are actually kind of glorified.

Some of it is even downright wrong in an obvious practical sense. For example, he talks about how the air in New York is so much cleaner in the 1880s. As anyone who has studied the Victorian period should know, the air in large cities of that era was disgusting. Every single building had a coal fire burning in it at all times. Cities were covered in soot and lung diseases were a major problem. I mean, I know our air today isn't clean, but it was definitely much more obviously dirty in urban centers back then. This is just a small example of his over-the-top idealism.

The final thing that really irked me was just the time travel plot itself. The explanations behind how it's done and the part of the story involving the government agency and conflicts over the ethical dilemmas are not written very tightly--there are a lot of holes and a lot of things left unexplained, or things that just don't make sense. I can't really explain in detail without spoilers, so I won't, but seriously. The author could've done much better in this regard.

In the end I'll still give the book 2 starts because it wasn't a total loss. It had some good moments, and I did enjoy the ending. The subject of time travel appeals to me in general, so I'm surprised I didn't like it more. There were just too many weaknesses though, in spite of a few enjoyable bits.

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Aug 08, 2009

Sara Poole rated it:

Read in January, 1974

Back in the day, a friend handed me what he said was a sci-fi novel with a twist and told me I’d enjoy it. The book was "Time and Again", and the friend was right. The adventures of Simon Morley struck a chord, particularly as, like him, I was working in advertising, chronically bored, and fascinated with the history of New York City Joining a secret government project, moving into the legendary Dakota apartment building overlooking Central Park, learning to time travel, and discov...more

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Dec 29, 2009

Starling rated it:

(review of isbn 0684801051)

bookshelves: fiction, novel-ladies, science-fiction

Read in January, 2010

I read this book for January's Circle of friends.

Jack Finney's TIME AND AGAIN is a classic time travel story. Si Morley is a commercial artist in New York in the 1970s and he is so bored that he quits his job and accepts a position in a secret government project. The project is training people to feel so comfortable in a different time and place that they can travel there, not just to the different place, but to the different time.

Si is one of a very select group of peopl...more

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Aug 18, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Read in August, 2009

recommended to Jennifer by: Amazon
recommends it for: fans of time travel

I heard about this book on an Amazon list of best time travel novels. It was originally published in 1970 and I think the copy I got from the library was an original, based on the musty smell (ewww).

Anyways Simon (Si) is an illustrator who is recruited to be part of a top secret government project to travel back into time. But they don't use any special machines, they just go to a historical place and mentally transport themselves there (think Somewhere in Time). He travels back...more

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Dec 04, 2009

Michele rated it:

(review of isbn 0684801051)

bookshelves: favorites-books-i-recommend-on-a-re

Owns a copy

recommended to Michele by: My Mom
recommends it for: everyone (in fact, I do)

“Have you ever given someone a book you enjoyed enormously, with a feeling of envy because they were about to read it for the first time, an experience you could never have again?”

Yes, yes, and yes. And it is exactly how I feel about this book. There's a spoiler moment I won't mention but I want to be sitting on the couch with you when you experience it. I want you to look over at me with the same wonder I feel every time I get to that point in the book and I want your eyes ...more

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Jul 23, 2009

Aubrey rated it:

A beautiful piece of time travel fiction.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

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Mar 01, 2010

Eli rated it:

(review of isbn 0684801051)

bookshelves: fiction, steampunk-etc

Read in March, 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 25, 2010

Kressel rated it:

(review of isbn 0671242954)

bookshelves: fantasy, fiction, historical-fiction

Read in February, 2010

A history professor I knew in college once advised me to stop reading all fiction, except for this novel. That certainly raised my expectations for it, and while the Pickering/Carmody intrigue was absolutely gripping, all the visual descriptions before getting there nearly made me give the book up out of boredom. I'm glad I didn't; the latter part of the book was worth reading. The preparation for time travel at the beginning was interesting at first, but it went on way too long.

Pe...more

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