Review: Time and Again by Jack Finney

Title: Time and Again
Author: Jack Finney
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publish Date: 1970
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a fiction fan.
• You're a sci-fi fan.
• You like vivid descriptions.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Science fiction, mystery, a passionate love story, and a detailed history of Old New York blend together in Jack Finney's spellbinding story of a young man enlisted in a secret Government experiment. 

Transported from the mid-twentieth century to New York City in the year 1882, Si Morley walks the fashionable "Ladies' Mile" of Broadway, is enchanted by the jingling sleigh bells in Central Park, and solves a 20th-century mystery by discovering its 19th-century roots. Falling in love with a beautiful young woman, he ultimately finds himself forced to choose between his lives in the present and the past. 

A story that will remain in the listener's memory, "Time and Again" is a remarkable blending of the troubled present and a nostalgic past, made vivid and extraordinarily moving by the images of a time that was...and perhaps still is."

My Two Cents:

In "Time and Again," poor artist Si Morley is just trying to make it in 1970s New York. When he gets tapped for a secret government project that involves time travel, he jumps on it. It may mean leaving the world he knows and the girl he loves but he's ready for whatever may come. This book originally came out in 1970 but is being re-released now to a brand new audience. After reading this book, I'm convinced that there is a great reason that this book is being re-released. I definitely got sucked into this book.

Time travel has always been a very fascinating subject to me. Si seems to deal with some of the typical things that time travel books deal with, which includes the changing of the course of history. This topic seems to be huge in almost every time travel book that I come across. When he falls in love back in 1882, he has a chance to change the entire course of time and he struggles with whether or not it is truly worth it. It was interesting to see how he weighed his choices.

One of the things that I liked best about this book is that it is illustrated with historical pictures and drawings that Si drew of the people and places he encountered in 1882 New York City. You really got to see Si's experiences through his eyes. Some of the historical photos that were included were really fascinating. I thought this was a really nice touch. Si's illustrations were also really cool. We got to see a lot of the people that he encountered in his adventure.

This is only the first book in a two book series and I would love to read the second book to see where Si's adventures and decisions take him!