Although it
revolves around time travel, Time
and Again has broad appeal beyond the science fiction
community. History and romance, not technology, are supreme in this
novel. No machines are used to transport Si Morley from 1970 back to
1882 — the feat is accomplished simply by mind power.
Si, an advertising illustrator, is recruited by the U.S. government to
participate in a secret time-travel experiment. He fits the
government's likely-to-succeed profile: "someone who sees things as
they are and as they might have been." When Si — unmarried,
the only child of dead parents — accepts, he asks
to go to 1882 New York to try to figure out a mystery in his
girlfriend's family. Trained in self-hypnosis and living in an
apartment in the Dakota with period trappings, Si succeeds in
transporting himself to Manhattan when Fifth Avenue was just a narrow
street and no planes, cars, or television sets existed. Si's detailed
descriptions (in both words and illustrations) of the city that was are
compelling, especially for New Yorkers and those who love New York. The
evocation of that earlier time veers toward the idyllic side, but there
is undeniable charm in the portraits of people who amuse themselves
with after-dinner parlor games and horse-drawn sleigh rides.
Si has strict instructions not to do anything that would affect the
course of history, but that proves difficult, especially as he finds
himself falling in love with a young woman whose shady
fiancé figures in the mystery. Back in his own time, he
takes part in a debate about the morality of the government's
experiment and ponders a decision that will profoundly affect his own
life: In which era should he continue to live?
Time and Again
is one of 15 books the editors of A
Passion for Books (Times Books, 1999) "feel have become so
much a part of us that if we ever found ourselves forced to, we could
memorize them in order to preserve them." Finney continued Si's story
in a sequel, From Time
to Time (1996).
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