FROM TIME TO TIME

Rating:
Summary: Tempted to look for the Beekey Bros. warehouse....
Review: I reread both this novel, as well as, the original _Time and Again_, in order at the same time. I was amazed at how well the two books flowed into each other almost seamlessly. I noticed no lack on continuity or deterioration of narrative or style. Simply put, I loved the first book, and this sequel is every bit as good.
Of course, I might be biased here. Finney develops a theme that I've toyed with for years, namely, how much better the 20th century would have been for the vast majority of mankind if WWI never would have occurred. Think about it, no WWI means no Soviet Union, no Nazi Germany, no defacto American Empire.... Moreover, there most probably would have been no overriding pressure to develop an atomic bomb. Things would have flowed along much more orderly and civlized lines. For that matter, Palestine would still be under the firm control of the Ottoman Empire.
It is somewhat eerie to read the main characters discussing the first book. Several times I have been tempted to search Manhattan for a Beekey Bros. warehouse....
As for those that hold that it is totally unbelievable that the government could ever establish any thing as preposterous as The Project, well, I guess they never heard of a little military intelligence project called Project Stargate with a directive to develop mental techniques to transcend time and space. Of course back in 1970 when Finney wrote the first book there was no Project Stargate- or at least no public knowlege of it.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining sequel, but not up to "Time and Again"
Review: I think some of the "on-line" book critics are much too hard on Jack Finney's long awaited sequel to "Time and Again." Science fiction buffs miss the point all together. This is not intended to be a sci-fi novel. Rather it is a pleasant "what if" journey into the past, designed with the armchair historian in mind. Those of us who study the late 19th and early 20th centuries will appreciate Finney's lavish attention to detail. Remember the "Tea Dance" at the Plaza? The revelers in the scene were dancing the "Grizzly Bear," a long forgotten, very risque dance popularlized along the Barbary Coast, but banned in Chicago and elsewhere, circa 1910. A little known fact incorporated into the story brings the story alive, don't you think? However, I admit that the plot line does become a bit confusing. Finney provides no explanation or rationale for his "parallel time" theories. The opening chapter kind of hangs out there, with little relevance to the central plot, and he never returns to it. And if Si were roaming about New York in 1912, would he not be curious to catch a glimpse of his home, his wife Julia, and his son? Would he not want to go back to his residence on Gramercy Park and see what his family, and yes, even himself, were up to 26 years into the future? A little twist here and there along these lines would have made Finney's sequel worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining sequel, but not up to "Time and Again"
Review: I think some of the "on-line" book critics are much too hard on Jack Finney's long awaited sequel to "Time and Again." Science fiction buffs miss the point all together. This is not intended to be a sci-fi novel. Rather it is a pleasant "what if" journey into the past, designed with the armchair historian in mind. Those of us who study the late 19th and early 20th centuries will appreciate Finney's lavish attention to detail. Remember the "Tea Dance" at the Plaza? The revelers in the scene were dancing the "Grizzly Bear," a long forgotten, very risque dance popularlized along the Barbary Coast, but banned in Chicago and elsewhere, circa 1910. A little known fact incorporated into the story brings the story alive, don't you think? However, I admit that the plot line does become a bit confusing. Finney provides no explanation or rationale for his "parallel time" theories. The opening chapter kind of hangs out there, with little relevance to the central plot, and he never returns to it. And if Si were roaming about New York in 1912, would he not be curious to catch a glimpse of his home, his wife Julia, and his son? Would he not want to go back to his residence on Gramercy Park and see what his family, and yes, even himself, were up to 26 years into the future? A little twist here and there along these lines would have made Finney's sequel worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Deadly Dull
Review: If you have read Time And Again, you will be extremely disappointed with this sequel. In the first book, Si Morley traveled into the past and there were long passages discribing a long gone New York City that were well written and absorbing. Jack Finney tries to duplicate that by again sending Si back and all it comes off as is long winded and boring: an excruciatingly boring buildup just so Finney can introduce Al Jolson; page upon page of boring descriptions of vaudeville, clothing, architecture and early flight are other examples. If I did not know better, I would say that the kernel of this book (returning to the past to prevent WW I) was originally lopped off Time And Again in order to shorten that book and Jack Finney decided to expand it into full book length just to make a fast buck. He would have been better off re-issuing an expanded, "uncut" Time And Again rather than putting out this drivel.

Rating:
Summary: It's not ABOUT time travel, it IS time travel.
Review: It is rare to read as divergent reviews as are seen here for this book and its predecessor. The key seems to be that if you are a science-fiction reader looking for a story about time travel, you'll be dissappointed. This novel and its predecessor are light and thoroughly non-convincing on the 'science' of time travel; that topic is shunted off as expeditiously as possible. Rather, these novels are about what it would feel like if a 1990's person with a love and awe of the past (you) were to find yourself in New York City in the late 1800's to early 1900's. They are about Finney's mastery at painting scenes that take you there. That is, they should not be judged as novels ABOUT time travel, they should be judged by how they succeed AS time machines. In the tens of thousands of scenes that have been painted in the thousands of novels read in a lifetime, nothing compares to the palpability of Finney's Titanic pulling up to the dock after successfully crossing the Atlantic.

Rating:
Summary: excellent writing and description .... and time travel too!
Review: Jack Finney is a superb writer. Many people seem to agree that he excels in descriptive details, bringing the past to life. But his narrative frames are wonderful too -- this novel's prologue is intriguing, and a number of interesting characters are introduced. It's a shame this is a throwaway chapter, intended to introduce the consequences of time travel and the ways that observers (in The Project) might discover and analyse them. I would have enjoyed updates with this group to see the effects of various actions on the part of protagonist Si Morley. But this was Finney's book to write, and it's a fine novel. The old photographs are fun to look at and are incorporated smoothly into the story.

I suggest that you do not buy this book if you want to read a technical and plausible method for travelling to the past. This is a fantastical opera, in the fine tradition of soap opera and space opera. It is more concerned with painting vivid experience of a past time, as if the novel itself were a time machine. If you are a tech-head, press the "Back" button and search elsewhere. If you are an impressionistic history buff, you will have a grand old time in old New York.

Rating:
Summary: Too Many Slow Rambles
Review: Jack Finney loves the past. He describes perfectly the desire of all of us to understand days of yesteryear. From Time to Time has perhaps just a little too much detail. I had the audio version and frequently had to rewind it as my mind would wander away from the narrator's words. Many times I felt I was listening to something like American History Illustrated rather than fiction piece. Parts of it were quite exciting---the Titanic episode--but parts of it dragged. For the enthusiast of minute detail of this time period, though, I would recommend it entirely.

Rating:
Summary: Historical Fiction At Its Mind-Numbing Worst
Review: Some 25 years after the publication of his classic "Time and Again," Finney succumbed to that storytellers temptress--sequel. Finney brings back the hero of that book, Si Morely, from his cozy existence in 1880s New York for an entirely unentertaining stroll through 1912 New York in an awfully dull attempt to prevent WWI. It should be noted from the get go that this is no sci-fi, time travel extravaganza, rather it's solidly a piece of historical fiction--and if you're not interested in the minutiae of 1912 New York, don't even pick it up. Somewhere in the 25 years between the two books Finney apparently lost all ability to plot: the first chapter of the book (which is actually rather intriguing) has next to nothing to do with the rest of it, Morely is given no real motivation to come back to the present and then return to the past to carry out this mission, but then at the end, he is given a really excellent motivation! Why not just give him the plausible motivation from the beginning?

In the meantime, the reader must wade through lengthy descriptions of clothing verbatim reportage from period newspapers, and aimless set pieces that have much less to do with the plot than they do in displaying Finney's ample knowledge on the time and place. A tiresome, lengthy interlude involving a dance demonstration is even more infuriating when it becomes apparent that it's been set up to provide a cameo for a young Al Jolson. Similarly, when Si becomes baffled by the description of a building, he decides he must take an aerial tour of the city, piloted by a new friend. This is a convenient way for a lengthy exploration of the progress of aviation at the time. Never mind that the description of the building he's been given to work with is obviously the Flatiron Building--only one of New York's most famous pieces of architecture. Most egregious is the mind-numbing foray into the world of vaudeville, which Si undertakes in order to grab a glimpse of his father as a child. One part of this has a vaudevillian (who is completely unrelated to the plot) spend six pages recounting his less than interesting life story! Oddly despite expending great effort to glimpse his vaudeville antecedents, he never even thinks of looking up his 1880s wife and son, who live in, oh, Manhattan...

Let's not even get started on the "Jatta" girl, who pursues him. She's clearly a time-traveler as well, something he either fails to recognize (is he retarded?), or purposefully ignores (why?). Oh yeah, the climax comes aboard the (sigh) Titanic, on it's rendezvous with an iceberg. I love historical fiction, but in the end, one wishes Finney hadn't been so keen on period detail to the exclusion of any semblance of storytelling. E.L. Doctrow's "Ragtime" covers the same rough time period and place, but manages to tell a good story while doing so.

Rating:
Summary: Take a journey through time to Old New York.
Review: Strongly recommend if you are interested in the many insightful details about urban life in the late 19th-century and 1912. People often forget that if it were possible to travel back in time, it would be like visiting a different culture. You will find this to be more intriguing than the discussion of time travel itself or the two chapters about the protagonist's journey on the Titanic.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely suffers from being a sequel
Review: The best reason I don't like sequesl is that they all seem to be about the author cashing in on a successful formula. The author usually has to concoct some kind of interim plot to connect the original book with the sequel, and it usually bombs. This book is no different. After the fine ending to Time and Again, Finney has to somehow get our hero back to his own time, but that time does not exist anymore. Well.............let's just say it's not as fun. Here's to hoping there are no more Simon Morley adventures.