Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous and fascinating
Review: This book is a little bit slow in the first few chapters but stick it out and get through them and you will be glad you did. It is truly a fantastic book. I couldn't put it down and stayed up late to finish it. That's what a novel should be!
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Summary: Imagine !
Review: I read this book in 1970 in its first printing, and just finished my first re-read last week, 25 years later. I was once again overwhelmed by the scope of this novel, and the attention to detail that Mr. Finney devoted to his work. I was captured by the romance and magic of the characters and the concept, and the plot came to life as I read this fascinating glimpse into 19th Century New York. Anyone who is in the least bit interested in historic New York should read this book. You will fall under its spell and perhaps, not want to return to the 21st Century.
Rating: 
Summary: Cultural sci fi
Review: The book did a great job of depicting the late 1800s in New York City and how a present day man would interpret what he saw. Though the book has a sci-fi premise, the actual story is much more about the culture of the late 1800s.
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Summary: Finally, plausible time travel!
Review: I usually shy away from time travel books. Too hokey for my tastes, but Time and Again was one of the 3 time travel themed books I enjoyed and one of my favorite books of all time (no pun intended). The first few chapters are little slow, but it picks up. Of course it helps that I love NYC, it's architecture and people. Reading the passages where Finney gets into detailed descriptions of the city never ceases to enthrall me. While I was reading the book originally, I happened to work a few blocks from the house where Julia "lived" and I'd pass by on my lunch hour. I felt like I was looking at the city through new eyes. Walking in Central Park after the first big snow, the city strangely silent, it is so easy to imagine a different time period and then you hear the harness bells and hoof beats of one of the city's horse 'n buggy, you almost have to shake yourself. This book isn't just for lovers of NYC though. One of the things I loved most about this book is that although it's fiction, Finney's mix of history and photography give it an incredible touch of authenticity. Also the author doesn't romanticize the past. Finney's New York comes to life with it's crowded sometimes dangerous conditions, smells (delicious or repugnant), sounds and sights. It's heartening to know that it always took an insane amount of time to get cross-town. Do yourself a favor and get through the first few chapters, this is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: You'll have to read it "Time and Again"
Review: Most people don't believe in time travel, but after reading Time and Again by Jack Finney (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1970) you might reconsider the possibilities. In this science fiction novel, Si Morley is chosen to travel through time from the present into the year 1882. His travels include romance, mystery, suspense, and life-and-death adventures. His assignment is to travel to historical New York City to investigate Jake Pickering and his connection to Si's modern-day friend, Kate.
A self-published review, written by "Gollancz" in 2003, describes the strengths and weaknesses of Time and Again. The reviewer explains that Time and Again is great for science fiction lovers. However, he believes that Finney is mistaken over many facts. He points out that Finney does an excellent job of showing the differences in the two historical periods of New York City. Many other books about time travel don't properly emphasize the differences in city living between now and then. "Finney conveys far more of how different the world of even the relatively recent past would seem to a time traveler..." The reviewer also notes that "Si can comment on things in a way not possible outside the science fiction genre." Time and Again has great qualities that a historical novel would not be able to demonstrate. The reviewer complains, however, that Finney's invented method of hypnotic time travel is confused and confusing. This forces Si "to be bounced back as soon as any conscious thought of future events intrudes."
I agree with the reviewer's comment that Finney does a nice job of showing the two periods of time that Si experiences. For instance, when Si and his friend, Julia, need to contact her aunt, he suggests that they call her on a telephone. Obviously Julia is confused by his meaning; telephones were not available then. Another situation occurs when Si spots the arm of the unfinished Statue of Liberty. He points out that the arm is not pale green, but a brilliant copper. Julia mentions that she thinks the statue will never be completed, Finney humors us with Si's prediction that the statue will indeed be finished and that a nearby harbor would be its home. These details support the reviewer's comment that only a time traveler can notice the details of the two different worlds. While reading Time and Again I didn't really notice how the author did such a good job of showing the culture shock of switching time periods. The reviewer's comments pointed out these qualities in the story.
I was frequently confused while reading Time and Again, but not by the hypnotic time travel technique. I was more confused by details in the plot. I don't agree with the reviewer's complaint about being "bounced back." I was surprised and enjoyed the twists and turns that make this novel fun to read. One such surprise occurs when Si and Kate travel to 1882 and when they return to their modern apartment they are suddenly back in their time. Kate explains to Si that they are back because "we came back to the apartment, and we came back in our minds too." I can see how the reviewer was confused, but I thought it was a good and surprising scene. Later, Si is able to bring Julia to his time, merely by holding her tightly while he hypnotizes only himself. This was also a surprising twist on his time travel; Julia was not hypnotized.
I hope other readers enjoy Time and Again as I have. I became wrapped up in the characters and felt as if I really knew them. In addition to the time travel excitement, this story provides an exciting mystery to solve. But it takes a long time to read, so it's not a good book to read under pressure. Jack Finney did an excellent job on this book and this is why it is still popular after thirty yeas in print. It should certainly be enjoyed "time and again."
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Summary: Transported To A Different Magical World
Review: Jack Finney's timeless classic about a man who travels back in time to the late 19th century in NYC captured me. This book is not a difficult read and it strokes the imagination in a way much different than most novels. I first read it when I was about 15 years old and have just finished rereading it many years later. The first time I read Time and Again it made me wonder how the rest of the world might look, in response to this novel I traveled quite a bit and saw the world. Highly recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in viewing the world through another's eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous and fascinating
Review: This book is a little bit slow in the first few chapters but stick it out and get through them and you will be glad you did. It is truly a fantastic book. I couldn't put it down and stayed up late to finish it. That's what a novel should be!
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best I've Read
Review: This is, personally, one the best books I've read. Well written, great storyline, and a wonderful ending.
Rating:
Summary: A One-of-a-Kind Book
Review: To get it straight at the start, Jack Finney's novel Time and Again is not a great work of literature; it's an amiable and charming, if peculiar, rather lightweight hybrid of at least three genres--the mystery/spy/government-conspiracy novel, the historical romance and the nostalgic travelogue, with a short bow in the direction of science-fiction. It is not a definitive novel of time-travel; its method of changing eras is not far from squeezing your eyes really tightly together and tapping your heels together three times, though the theoretical basis is just a smidgen sounder than for Dorothy in Oz. It is not a great romance, though it is romantic. It is not even science fiction--well, okay, okay, to be kind, Finney's straight-faced use of Relativity theory allows it to barely squeeze under the fence into the field. Its plot is flimsy, with more holes than the Detroit infield, and some of its characters are mostly cardboard cut-outs to be moved here and there by the stage-hands moving the plot along. And you know what? I loved every silly, odd, funny, charming, implausible, exciting, interesting, occasionally poignant page of it. Why? Because rarely will you find a book where it's so obvious that the author had as much sheer fun writing 'Time and Again' as you'll have reading it. His protagonist, Simon Morley, keeps using words such as 'excited", "pleased" and 'glad' and phrases like "happy to be here" throughout the book, the book is full of happily excited people, and it's clear Morley's a fictional rubber-necking time tourist through which Finney has the time of his life swanning vicariously around the now-vanished hotels and theaters and civic buildings of Old New York. It's more than just travelogue, though. Finney was able to catch the details of day-to-day life for all these now-vanished people, known to us now only by old sepia photographs and antique knickknacks and a few old buildings which have escaped the demolishers. But then, it was their world, as familiar as ours is to us: that's where they lived their lives. Well, we'll be known the same way one day, after all--our day-to-day is going to be someone else's history up ahead, and in 'Time and Again', everyone wonders and asks Morley, what was it like, back then? what was it really *like*? As a science-fiction author, Finney never showed all that much interest in the future but was fascinated with and nostalgic for the past, in particular what came to be called 'The Good Years' for America and the industrialised world, a golden-afternoon period of increasing world prosperity based on accelerating technological progress and an uncrowded world at relative peace, its resources yet to be depleted--at least for the burgeoning middle-class and higher--beginning about 1880 and coming to a calamitous end in 1914. Through 'Time and Again' and his other time-travel novels and stories, it's clear that Finney mourned the loss of that world (as who wouldn't?), seeing the First and Second World Wars as hideous deviations from humanity's real path, one that we resumed, too briefly, between the late 1980's and September 11 2001. That the past and its people actually existed and still exist somewhere to be visited is a theme throughout much of Finney's short stories. His collection, 'About Time', collects a number of overtly time-travel stories, and another, 'I Love Galesburg in the Springtime', contains the nifty eponymous time-travel story as well as other science fictional themes). Besides 'Time and Again', at least two of his novels are explicitly about time-travel: its darker sequel, 'From Time to Time', which contains a chapter, in the opinion of this unworthy one, which is alone worth the price of the book, mostly just a front-porch conversation between several people on a hot New York summer evening, it's a loving evocation of daily life in the wide community of vaudeville performers and just may have been the best single piece of writing that Finney ever did, and an out-of-print novel called 'Marion's Wall', a lovely, funny ghost story in which a silent-movie queen who died relatively young comes into the lives of a modern (1970's) Hollywood couple--in it, Finney evokes the Silver Screen era as it impinges on, and occasionally collides with, the modern day. The plot of 'Time and Again' revolves around-- nawwww, it's really not that important. Really. Just go read the book. As long as you don't demand it to be Great Literature, you'll have a great time. And, like me, you'll probably recommend it to everyone you know as a 'Hey, ya gotta read this!' book, and re-read it yourself from time to time. Enjoy!
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.
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