REVIEW: Time and Again (book) by Jack Finney

Time and Again is time travel fiction. I checked my copy out from the library.

Review:

Si Morley is a young graphic designer at an advertising firm. He has a deep love for the past, as evidenced by his fascination with the old stereoscopic slides at his girlfriend's antiques shop. As he pores over those slides, he can practically feel himself being pulled into the past.

Which makes him the perfect person for a secret government project involving time travel. The idea is this: the people chosen to travel back to particular times and places will, as part of their preparation, completely immerse themselves in the time and place they intend to travel to. That immersion will be so complete that they'll feel as if they're actually there - and, somehow, they then will be. 

Although Si is initially supposed to be part of an effort to travel to the San Francisco of 1901, he instead convinces the folks involved with the project to allow him to focus on New York City, January 1882. Si's girlfriend's foster father had always wanted to solve the mystery surrounding his father's suicide. The one remaining clue is a cryptic, partially burned letter. Si wants to see the moment that letter was mailed at the Main Post Office. He's told that he won't be allowed to interact or interfere with that moment, and he's fine with that. He figures that just seeing the person who mailed the letter might reveal something his girlfriend's foster father was never able to discover.

I read this for a book club. While I found the idea of a government project devoted to reconstructing, in minute detail, ordinary items from the past appealing, I had trouble truly believing in Finney's time travel idea. It didn't help when Finney complicated things further by having a character who hadn't been part of the intense training and preparation Si went through travel along with Si without a hitch. He might as well have had children accidentally time traveling when they played make believe too hard. 

It was clear that Finney's heart was in the historical details. The historical aspects of this book were so excellent and well-written that I found myself wondering why he hadn't just written historical fiction. It might have worked better for me than this weird "just roll with it" time travel stuff.

Si, unfortunately, came across as a somewhat dated character. When he was in his own time, he really loved Kate, his girlfriend. When he was in the past, he fell head over heels in love with a woman named Julia, as though Kate never existed in his life. It irked me.

All in all, the historical details, combined with the black and white photographs included throughout, were really good. The science fiction aspects, unfortunately, weren't as good. All that "let's not interfere with the past" stuff went out the window surprisingly easily.