Category: book Nook
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Book Number:RC 23888
3 sound cassettes
N L S had a pretty bad synopsis of this book, so I found the information
below. I loved this book and give it a 5 out of 5.
Happy reading,
Carla/TexasRed
In this altogether wonderful novel, Simon Morley -- an illustrator and
secret government operative, native to 1970 New York -- is transported back
in time to the Manhattan of the 1880s. Essentially a period novel, the book
is also by turns a science fiction, a romance and a tale of suspense.
"Ingenious," wrote the New York Times reviewer in 1970, the year of the
book's publication. This edition is illustrated with archival photographs.
Time and Again is told in the first person by Simon Morley, a 28-year-old
artist working in a 1970's Manhattan advertising agency who is approached to
join a covert government operation exploring the possibility of time travel.
Recruited as having the right stuff, Si begins to learn about the project
and its goals. Initially recruited to explore San Francisco prior to the
1906 earthquake, Si manages to convince his superiors to allow him to
investigate 1880's New
York. Simon's motive for choosing New York is to witness the mailing of an
envelope. An event Simon hopes may explain a family mystery of his
girlfriend Kate. Unlike most covert projects involving time travel, this one
does not involve any hi-tech machinery. Quite the contrary, the project
director Dr. Danziger believes that the past is just outside the window and
that you only have to free yourself from the present to step into it.
Through mental conditioning, such as familiarizing the candidates with the
past and through self-hypnosis, Dr. Danziger plans to project his subjects
into the past. As Simon becomes more adept at his training he eventually
steps into the past and begins an adventure of a lifetime. Finney's eye for
detail and his ability to weave historical fact seamlessly with his fiction
will have you believing that Finney traveled through time himself to bring
this tale to life. Finney describes in rich detail the architectural history
of New York City, comparing cityscapes of modern day New
York to those of 1880 as seen through the eyes of Simon. As with Finney's
short stories (See About Time - Short Story Collection)
his ability to see the theme of time travel in a new light is awe-inspiring.
In Time and Again Finney expresses the inability of the average modern
person to be able to think of the past as living and new. We think of it as
faded
and old. Through his training Si is taught to stop seeing the past as black
and white photos or antiques and imagine the past as being alive and
vibrant. This, among other exercises, allows Si to let go of the present and
slip willingly into the past.
Yeah I'll try it. Nls doesn't always have great synopsiss. Many of them aren't that great. I mean, Hp's summary was pretty lame.