Rating: Summary: My favorite book of all time!! Review: 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!
Rating: Summary: A great look at New York within an average novel. Review: First, a disclosure: I'm a New Yorker, and I live within a mile of the Dakota building. I had seen it many times in passing, but after reading "Time and Again," I see it in a whole different light. Finney's general premise, that a few places in Manhattan have remained virtually the same over the last 100 years while the rest has changed dramatically, serves as the vehicle for his protagonist to visit the New York of 1884. I have never read a more detailed historical novel; Finney includes countless minutia about old New York, meticulously researched according to his afterword, and he really makes the city come alive for the reader. There are, however, several major problems with the story. If you're NOT interested in New York, don't even think about reading it: you'll be bored silly. Also, Finney's science of time travel is absurd, and hard-core sci-fi fans will be driven crazy by his theory that altering the past can almost never affect the present. Finally, the story is uneven, and Finney tries to make up for a slow first half with a ridiculously fast second half. In summary, New Yorkers and NYer-wannabees will greatly enjoy the book, while those simply looking for a sci-fi/time-travel story will be disappointed.
Rating: Summary: An Unforgettable Journey Review: This is the first book in months I have come across with that grabbed my attention so quickly. I kept looking for every opportunity to sit alone and read it, even snuck around at work and school. It's a sci-fi suspense novel about an ordinary man, Simon Morley, who was chosen to travel back in time and rediscover a world so far away in every way yet so close -- the year 1882 in New York City. However, this is not your oridinary time machine travel story, the means of time traveling is on a much different scale. The people Si Morley comes to know in 1882 are very real and intruiging and the purpose of Si's journey will have you turning pages. Jack Finney knows how to write a good, suspensful novel. His style is brilliant, very easygoing. Although it is a fantasy you'd want to believe in it!
Rating: Summary: Easily my favorite book of all time - a great read Review: I am shocked by the range of reviews for what I consider one of my favorite books. It is (using a much over used word here) a masterpiece. Strong characters, intricate plot, exquisite detail all grounded in the most exciting place in the world, New York City. What's not to love? I have re-read this book several times. I also have it on tape and play it to get through long car trips - it's an old, reliable, much loved friend. I am fascinated by time travel and I love New York so that probably explains the appeal of this book. I also grew up as a reader (as opposed to a real TV junkie) and I love getting lost in very detailed prose and intricate word pictures - the kind Finney employs here to hook the reader. I can visualize one scene in my mind now - Sy Morley in his rooms in the Dakota, snow falling, the city silent, bathed in white. Is he in the 19th or 20th century? Was the experinent a success or a dismal failure? You have to read on (and will want to read on) to see.
Rating: Summary: One of my favorite books Review: I always recommend this book to people. I love it. I love the description of NY history and the details of it. I'm from New York and, after reading some of the other reviews, I see that the details were less interesting to other people. But, elements such as: Trinity Church was the tallest building, City Hall was "uptown" (I love these!), The Statue of Liberty's head was visible but unassembled - I was lost in the scenery, what NY was like, and riveted by the history. When I started to read the book, I thought Finney bit off way more than any book can chew: a time-travel, love story, historical fiction, mystery all in one - ha, this guy is full of himself. Then I kept reading. He pulled it off famously. I was taken in and absorbed, riveted. New York then. The story - I was swept away. The intrigue - a page turner. I simply love this book. I adore it. I loved reading about this time period in NY, about places I know now, and with the story and style used. Just wonderful. Side note: The first time I came across it I was a student and had a job at a restaurant called "Time and Again." The whole staff was reading it and passing it around to one another. I'm a rebel and rejected the notion. A bit later, I read it. It stands as the book I always apologize for loving as much as I do, yet I come as close as I can to making everyone read it. It's one of my favorite fairy tales, told with that terrific historical accuracy and detail. I didn't care much for his other books, and I thought that the sequel to this was awful - but, oh, give this one a shot. Particularly if you're a New Yorker. It's just so entertaining!
Rating: Summary: Better the First Time Review: The first time I read this book, five years or so ago, I thought it was wonderful. I even made my mom, who reads very little fiction, buy a copy and she loved it as well. I just read it again for the second time, and I have to say, there were several flaws in the logic of the story that I either did not pick up on or just did not care about the first time around. (I am not going to enumerate them because the book is much more enjoyable if you do not see them.) A little long and a little wordy, it is nevertheless a pretty good read if you do not read too deeply.
Rating: Summary: Don't waste your time Review: Reading Time and Time Again by Finney is quite possibly the worst waste of time that I have ever experienced. The mind numbingly detailed descriptions of various items having nothing to do with the story line seem to drag on forever. Few of the characters were interesting and the end was predicable. Written properly, this could of been an okay short story. The only reason that I finished this story was to be able to write this review. My advise is to spend your time and money on something else.
Rating: Summary: A classic of time travel, romance, and history Review: Author Jack Finney (1911-1995), among his other writing accomplishments, penned two great, influential science-fiction novels: the 1955 alien invasion story "The Body Snatchers," the source for three great movies (with "Invasion of..." usually tacked onto the front), and this 1970 subtle romance about time travel. It's a novel that many people hold close to their hearts, and like the movie "Somewhere in Time," has the magic to allure you with the wonder of traveling back to a simpler time -- 1880s New York in this case -- and exploring in depth a world so unlike your own. Finney, with meticulous detail and the support of numerous old photographs and drawings from the period (this is referred to as an "illustrated novel") recreates New York in 1882, letting us and the main character, Si Morley, marvel as we walk over the old streets, see places where one day great skyscrapers will stand, gaze on a traffic jam of hansom cabs, discover the arm of the Statue of Liberty sitting in Madison Square awaiting the rest of its body, play old parlor games in a boarding house, and look at Fifth Avenue when it was a thin street of trees and apartments. People who have lived in New York will especially adore these decriptions of the vanished city and the comparision Finney makes between the "modern" city (1970; vanished now to us as well) and the 1880s city. However, even if you've never been to New York in your life, you'll feel like you have after reading this. That's an incredible compliment to pay to a writer. "Time and Again" won't please readers looking for quick action and thrills. It is a leisurely book that takes its time to build up the central situation: the U.S. government has found a possible method to travel back in time through purely mental means, and believes that young artist Si Morely fits the profile of the person who can achieve it. Once the books moves to the actual time traveling, the focus is mostly on the experience of being in another time and Si's discovery of how it affects him...especially when he feels he may be falling in love with a girl from the time. There is, however, a mystery simmering inside the story, and Si sets himself out to unravel it. What will the consequences be for history itself if he interferes? And what does the government really want to achieve with this project? The last third of the book is tense and suspenseful, and contains an incredible and lengthy description of a disastrous event that ranks with the most vivid visual writing I've ever read. And the resolution is nothing short of perfect; Finney delivers the most satisfying conclusion. However, the book takes patience. Let Finney's prose, his wonderful main character Si, and his ability to pull you back in time with him sweep you away -- you won't regret it when the journey is over. Even if you never read science fiction or claim to dislike it, this is one book you'll find it difficult not to fall for.
Rating: Summary: In reply to Lynn Gaige Review: In answer to Lynn Gaige: The Love Letter" (August 1, 1959) by Jack Finney -Published in The Saturday Evening Post magazine in the January/February 1988 issue -Collected in I Love Galesburg in the Springtime (1963) by Jack Finney -Collected in Tales Out of Time (1979) edited by Barbara Ireson -Collected in Tales in Time (1997) edited by Peter Crowther, ISBN number 1565049896 -Collected in The Young Oxford Book of Timewarp Stories (2000) edited by Dennis Pepper
Rating: Summary: Not my favorite 'time' Mr Finney has taken me to... Review: While I always look forward to being totallly immersed in every detail, as if in another time from shoes to hat and address, I think we all look forward to discovering the mysteries of things past... the real maps, streets, places, clotes, and bing included as a sleuth.. more than our future, still left to our own indivisual imaginations! BUT, please HELP! I am looking for the book(s) in which a HALLMARK movie, shown in the last 2-3 years or so, which said in the closing credits that it was based n a short story by Jack Finney... but not WHICH one(s)??/ It is called, "The Love Letter." Thanks, Lynn Gaige
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