Rating: 
Summary: Strange yet cool!
Review: A very odd novel, TOMH accelerates at strangely fast speeds at the beginning, slowing to a crawl in the middle before revving up to the downbeat ending.If you're a time travel/sci fi bod this book will disappoint, the novel is really about unquestioning lust/love for a woman. The main character is also a strangely calm person considering the absurd situations he finds himself in. He's an idealized person really, without any faults. He also describes how good/plain/whatever each and every meal is. But if you want to realise just how absurd Ronald Reagan's presidency was, and that a better world was lost when Carter failed to be re-elected, then read here. The photos however, do not really add much to the plot and are few and far between.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious and Wonderful...Where is the Sequel?
Review: After reading Ken Grimwood's Replay, I developed an abiding interest in the subject of time travel. Left cold by Hollywood's most recent version, I returned easily to the realm of the novel. I stumbled upon Delacorte's book on Amazon, and couldn't be more glad that I did. As a fan of both early hollywood and politics, this novel could not have been more up my alley. However, you need not be a fan of both. The novel's plot, summarized several times over on this page, is original and fun. The story flows well, the characters are intriguing and well drawn. The joy of Delacorte's novel is in the details. It gets them just so. He spent a good deal of time on the novel and it shows. It is warm, witty, and geniunely original. I couldn't recommend this comic novel more highly. Dutch, Gabriel, Jasper, and Lorna are worth the read. It poses ethical questions to be sure and does not (despite what the whiny Kirkus Review says) supply answers. As any good ethicist knows, it is not possible to answer these questions. The ending, of which I will say nothing, is tantalzing. Delacorte has said he would like to write a sequel. It is now 5 years later and we're still waiting. Can I travel ahead in the future on the time machine to find out when it is coming out?
Rating: 
Summary: Almost perfect, but....
Review: Delacorte has written a good novel, not great mind you, but good. Unfortunately it seems to be a cheap imitation of Jack Finney's Time and... series. Delacorte has even copied Finney's habit of throwing in real photographs to lend credence to the story. He got the time physics down pat, but there are a lot of loose ends left. It ends on a downer, but you can't expect everything.
Rating:
Summary: How do I get one of them machines?
Review: For the last twenty years or so I have had a recurring dream (a wonderful dream) where I suddenly find myself back in the Hollywood (close to where I grew up) of the late fifties and early sixties. It is the most realistic dream and I simply do not want to wake up from it. I visit stores I used to go to as a kid, I buy lots of first editions of To Kill A Mockingbird, just a fantastic fantastic dream. All this by way of saying that Peter Delacorte's new novel Time On My Hands is a dream come true for this reader. I couldn't stop reading this beautifully written book. I believed every minute of it, and fell in love with all the characters, including Ronald Reagan. Everything works. The romance, the portrait of a Hollywood lost forever, and of a city now devoid of its once considerable charms. Like my dream, I didn't want this to end. Buy it. Enjoy it. I'm thinking about starting it all over again
Rating:
Summary: Not Finney, but not bad.
Review: From the "a novel with pictures" on the cover to the at-first reluctant time-traveling hero to the romantic subplot, "Time on My Hands" seems determined to follow in the footsteps of the late Jack Finney, who wrote the two classic time-travel novels "Time and Again" and "From Time to Time." While Delacorte's novel is entertaining and will even be considered controversial by many --hero Gabriel Prince is sent back to 1938 to somehow prevent Ronald Reagan from becoming president (the most evil man of our time) -- the book doesn't quite stand in Finney's class. But to be fair, few books would. A few minor complaints: Instead of dispensing with logic fairly early on like Finney does and just going with the story, a lot of "Time on My Hands" has Prince and other characters arguing the merits, possibility, and feasibility of time travel and vertical "time lines". I found the device of the original owners of the time machine from the 23rd century who shadow Prince throughout the book to be more distracting than exciting and, in addition, the ending is a bit confusing. But, all in all, this is not a bad book by any means and I did read it in two nights which means its page-turning value is pr
etty good. I even hope Delacorte has plans for a sequel, as I'm always up for "the ultimate in vacations," and I'm curious to find out what really happened to Gabriel and Lorna. Unfortunately, I know what really happened to "Dutch".
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, though flawed
Review: Gabriel Prince, a writer of a popular series of travel books, meets an eccentric physicist while conducting research in Paris. This physicist makes an interesting proposal: go back in time and see to it that Reagan never becomes President of the US. After quick trips to a vintage clothier and coin dealer, the mellow Gabriel Prince is indeed in the past... 1938. Gabriel manages to make a decent life for himself in the past. He's got a list of winners for the racetrack, so he quickly has money. He's seen plenty of movies in his lifetime, giving him the opportunity to plagiarize blockbuster movies, so he gets a job as a screenwriter for Warner Brothers. Falls in love with a beautiful B-movie starlet. Hey, maybe this going back in time thing isn't so bad, after all. All this gives Gabriel the opportunity to meet his target, Ronald Reagan. At this point in time, he's still young Dutch "Ree-gan," an affable and somewhat bumpkinish unknown contract actor. Gabriel is surprised to find himself liking this harmless-seeming man. However, things don't go quite as planned. Not a problem, I'll just use this time machine thingy here and go back again. Handy things, these time machines. Forward and back, back and forth, if something goes wrong, just go back and fix it. The book was, all in all, entertaining. The Hollywood and Los Angeles of the late 1930's was vividly recreated. The politics and society of the old Hollywood movie lots were interesting. The photographs (this book is self-described as "a novel with photographs") were a nice touch. The empty and desolate Pacific Coast Highway truly does look like a road to nowhere. Now for those flaws. The first jawdroppper I came across was, "Why didn't (the physicist) go back in time himself?" I didn't find the reason he gave Gabriel to be valid or believable. There are two characters from the future who shadow Gabriel; they want the time machine. This wasn't anywhere near as sinister as it sounds, since these two idiots didn't seem competent enough to tie their own shoelaces. When they did enter the scene, I asked myself "Now what mishap is going to befall this bozo *this time*?" And here's one for time travel fans: there is a scene where Gabriel "misses" his targeted time and ends up a few years off. He runs into someone, who immediately and brilliantly deduces "Hey, you walked in my back door, seemed confused and scared. So I knew right away that you are a time traveler." Huh? Now, on my homeworld, there are plenty of confused looking people walking about. Not once in my life have I ever suspected any of these people to be time travelers. I just figured they were basically normal. Lost maybe, but normal. I found this book to be a fun read. The writing was pretty smooth and flowing. The ending wasn't really an ending. I'd say it's pretty clear the author will make a proper ending in a sequel. Not to be compared with Jack Finney, who is, after all, in a class by himself.
Rating:
Summary: Great "beach reading"!
Review: Hey, okay, he's not Jack Finney, but so what? As someone who loves time travel novels, I thoroughly enjoyed spending a few days with Gabriel Prince and Dutch Reagan back in 1938. This is not a "deep" book, it's not intended to change your whole philosophy of life. It's just FUN! Great for summertime reading, at the beach or by the pool - my only complaint is it ended too soon - I WANT THAT SEQUEL!
Rating:
Summary: Read it and think
Review: I can't believe how many of the reviewers didn't like the end. The end is fabulous and chilling. As someone below warns, this book is about a man travelling back in time to prevent Ronald Reagan from being president. My politics lean to the left, so initially I was not offended by the thought. Later on, I did start to get offended. But that is part of what makes this book so great. It gives you a lot to chew on. Think about this: You can change any bit of history you want, and this guy chooses to prevent Reagan from becoming president. Why? Why not Nixon? He arguably did more harm. Why not prevent one of the wars or prevent one of the assassinations in the 1960s or save a child's life or do something to improve economic conditions in one of the poorer nations? They do give a bit of explanation for this at the front of the book, but there's something that occurs later in the book that discounts the explanation. So read this book even if you do lean to the right. Think about if you had a time machine, what would you do?
Rating: 
Summary: In the end, a disappointment...
Review: I could have liked this book. I wanted to like this book. And had it closed 50 pages sooner (or perhaps later), this might have been an altogether different review. Peter Delacorte's old-fashioned narrative kept me turning the pages, but in the end the tale took an abrupt turn that left me entirely dissatisfied. It wasn't a matter of the ending not being the one I'd hoped for or expected; there were a number of ways that the author could have brought the story to a satisfying conclusion but, surprisingly, he chose none of them. Finishing this book was like watching a movie in which the credits began to roll at the end of the second act, just when it should have been gathering itself for the resolution and weaving together of the plots and subplots. After my initial disappointment, I'd thought for a moment the author had "disguised" the ending, leaving the reader to put it all together and discover the "true" conclusion, but after going back to reread the relevant pages, it became clear that the escape route, so to speak, had been blocked off. Maybe a sequel, which Delacorte says is a possibility, will provide the conclusion that this book deserved.
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable irrespective of politics
Review: I don't agree with the politics of Gabriel Prince (the protagonist), but I found them very consistent with other elements of his character. In any case, the message of this book is not one of politics, nor is it a gee-whiz time travel story. It tells a story of a person's efforts to find a proper direction in life. (And how much harder it is to find direction when presented with the navigational aid of a time machine). I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone.
|
