Product Description
Finally on audio -- one of the most beloved tales of our time! 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.
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 A lovingly written time travel adventure. Recommended! ( kensimon )
You know the drill: if you're going to write about time travel, you're going to run into paradoxes and other problems. How to give a believable explanation of the science of time travel? How do you go back in time to change something in the past, if by changing it, you wouldn't have ever needed to go back in time in the first place? It's enough to make your head explode (mine just did).
Fortunately, in Time and Again, Finney doesn't bother going through the gymnastics of trying to make it all airtight. He doesn't waste the reader's time on the whys and hows of time travel: instead, he focuses on telling a story and describing the world of New York in 1882, the setting to which our protagonist travels.
Si Morley, an artist who is unsatisfied with his advertising job, is approached by an ultra-secret government agency. They are recruiting him as a candidate for a new project, one in which he will attempt to go back in time.
As Morley moves between his contemporary 1970s New York City and the city of the 1880s, he takes in his surroundings with an artist's eye, and that is half the pleasure of the book right there: leisurely, loving descriptions of fashions and architecture of the day; passages describing the everyday world of 1882 and its inhabitants, going about their everyday lives. It all comes to full-color life, in contrast with the static, monochromatic photographs and relics that survive from the era.
Needless to say, Morley gets in over his head in 1882, and through chance and recklessness, threatens to upend history and the lives of those he encounters. He also runs into an ethical dilemma as the ultimate goal of the government project evolves into something other than time travel for its own sake.
Finney makes amazing use of photographs, illustrations and newspaper articles from the time, weaving them into his story and giving it life and resonance. Along the way, there is plenty of suspense and drama, but be prepared to take your time, as there is no lack of description. Finney wants to make sure that the reader really sees New York in 1882, and he succeeds on that count.
Time and Again can be forgiven if it doesn't give us a blipping, beeping, science-filled description of a time machine; it also earns forgiveness for setting aside the paradoxes of time travel. Instead of tangling us up in explanations, Finney surrounds us with a living, breathing world, a time and a story well worth stepping into.
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Best Book Ever Read
My father gave me this book 25 years ago after my uncle had given it to him, both claiming it was the best book they ever read. I had lent this book out and never received it back so had to purchase a copy so I had one in my library.
I love this book like no book I have ever read. It completely sweeps you into the story, transcending time and full of details of history. The building the main character lives in, The Dakota,is where John Lennon lived and was killed in front of as he was leaving his home.
A beautiful story that makes it so hard to put the book down. Highly, highly recommended!
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 Slow start but them had me hooked!
Like others here on Amazon, often I am reading two or three books at a time until one really "hooks" me. This particular book was a B or C book for awhile. The first 100 pages are frankly slow but then BAM! Once the hero goes back in time you are right there with him.
I'll give you a little warning on this one. If you are looking for sci-fi time travel and or a time machine, this might not be for you. If you just want to take a trip back in time to see what things were like and to solve a mystery, I would recommend this one.
The hero is Si Morley, a NY advertising artist who is unmarried and leading a somewhat boring life. He is approached by a stranger offering him the chance to take the adventure of a life time. Another warning. This book was written in 1970 so it's almost like going back in time twice. Amazing how many people casually smoked. Anyway, the premise is a little unbelievable but just suspend that and go with it because going back in time is fun however you get there! A government agency has a secret project going on where they believe a person placing himself under self hypnosis who is placed in an environment that has basically been unchanged for years, can actually send themselves back in time.
Si is a perfect candidate for this project and agrees to go along with it. After many pages of build up Si finally transports himself back to New York via the Dakota building to New York in the year 1882. The author does a magnificent job of describing in detail what Si is seeing. For instance, I had no idea the Statue of Liberty's arm actually resided in Madison Square for years. There are sketches and photographs from that time period (supposedly taken by or drawn by our hero)that really add to the feeling of going back in time.
Si has also gone back in time to solve his girl friend's family mystery that dates back to that time period in New York City.
After the slow first 100 pages I couldn't put the book down until I had consumed it and ordered the sequel, written some 20+ years later.
Would have given this 5 stars except for the slow beginning but loved it none the less.
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 A good novel, but not a good time travel science fiction. ( raojx )
The good part of this book is already repeated by other reviews, so I'll just mention the problem I faced when reading this book. The time traveling aspect of this novel is hard to swallow for a scifi reader. I'm not expecting explanation involving quantum mechanics or wormholes, seeing this novel is written in the 70's. But there're certain rules or logics when omitted make the enjoyment of a time travel story impossible for inquisitive readers like me.
The method of time travel in this book is unusual to say the least, when the time traveller comes back from his first two short trips, I keep asking myself how do you know this is not a dream or hallucination? Strangely enough, nobody in the science team asked this question, they're more interested in whether the trip changed history instead of investigating whether there is a trip in the first place.
Some other questions that I tried my best to bury when reading the first half of the book: Where did the time traveller's present body go when he goes to the past? Did it disappear in flash of white light or does it still exist in the present? What can he bring into the past and what can he bring back from the past? I think he did some drawings and took some photos, where did that go?
In the end I did finish this book and some of the questions are answered indirectly, but I didn't enjoy it as a time travel science fiction novel, I think H. G. Wells' work is much better in this aspect, even though it is written more than 100 years ago.
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Favorite Book of All Time ( bilodeaubooks )
I read this book years ago but still hold it as my favorite book of all time. I cannot think of another book that describes detail in a way that you feel you are not reading at all but actually watching a movie. I highly recommend this book!
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