Time and Again (novel)
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| First edition cover | |
| Author | Jack Finney |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Released | 1970 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0671242954 (first edition, hardcover) |
Time and Again is a 1970 illustrated novel by Jack Finney. The many illustrations in the book are real, though, as explained in an endnote, not all from exactly from the period of the book, 1882.
It was a popular book and a much-later sequel, From Time to Time (1996), was published a year after the author's death. The book left room for a third novel, apparently never written. It has been often rumored that Robert Redford would convert the book into a movie.[1]. The project has never come into fruition.
Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government project. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he views what seems to be movie sets, with people acting on them. It seems this is a project to learn if it is feasible to send people back into the past by what amounts to self-hypnosis, by convincing themselves that they are in the past, not the present.
As it turns out, Simon (usually called Si) has a good reason to want to go back to the past, for his girlfriend, Kate, has a mystery linked to New York City in 1882. Then, a letter was mailed to an Andrew Carmody (a fictional minor figure in history, who was associated with Grover Cleveland). The letter seems innocuous enough--a request for a meeting to discuss marble--but there is a note, which though half burned, seems to say that the sending of this letter led to the destruction "of the entire World", followed by a missing word. Carmody, the writer of the note, then wrote of his blame for that incident. He then killed himself.
Si agrees to participate in the project, and explains that he wishes to go back to 1882 New York and that he wishes to watch the letter be mailed (the postmark makes clear when it was mailed). Dr. E.E. Danziger, head of the project, an elderly man, agrees, and expresses his regrets that he can't go with Si, for his parents first met in 1882 New York (the novel is set in 1970 or thereabouts).
Si is successful in going back to New York, at first very briefly, and then a second time taking Kate with him. They travel by streetcar down to the old post office, and watch the letter being mailed by a man. They follow him, and learn his name is Jake Pickering and he lives at 19 Gramercy Park. Then they return back to their base at the Dakota apartments and return to the present.
Si is debriefed, and as far as they can tell, his activities in the past have made no difference to the present. He is encouraged to go back again. He presents himself at 19 Gramercy Park as a potential boarder. He is accepted, and begins living there. He explores Manhattan of the past for several days, sketching all the while. He secretly observes the meeting spelled out in the letter, and learns that Pickering is blackmailing Carmody. He finds himself falling for the landlady's niece, Julia Charbonneau. But he has a rival--Pickering. Eventually, Pickering makes a scene, having self-tattooed the word "JULIA", and Si soon leaves, to return to the present.
Things aren't going as well in the present. One of the other participants in the project, having gone back to Denver some seventy years in the past, has made some unknown change in the past and thus a friend, whom he remembers, was never born. Danziger insists that the project be stopped. When he is overruled, he resigns. After Prien talks to him, Si sees little alternative than to return to the past again, though he is troubled by Danziger's resignation.
He is accepted back at Gramercy Park cheerfully, with even the dour Pickering happy. It seems Pickering and Julia are now engaged. Si tells Julia that Pickering is a blackmailer (casting himself as a private detective). They go to Pickering's office and conceal themselves to watch the blackmail money being turned over by Carmody. Carmody brings only $10,000, rather than the demanded million dollars for the incriminating files. After a fistfight, Carmody ties up Pickering and sets out to look for the papers. He realizes they are concealed amid many other files. He patiently thumbs through the files, as Si and Julia agonize as the hours pass. But Carmody sets on a scheme--burn the files by burning the building. He does so. Pickering tries to save the files, burning himself badly in the process. To the two's astonishment, Si and Julia burst forth, urging them to flee, and flee themselves.
It is a huge fire, and Si and Julia find themselves trapped above the ground floor. They barely escape. Si learns that the building used to house the newspaper the New York World and one piece of the puzzle fits in--the missing word in Carmody's note was "Building". After watching the efforts to fight the fire, in which many die, the shaken two return to Gramercy Park. There is no sign of Pickering. [The burning of the New York World building is a factual historical event].
Two days later, the two are picked up by Police Inspector Thomas Byrnes, and then taken to Carmody's house. The terribly burned man there accuses them of murdering Pickering and starting the fire. After they leave, Byrnes expresses indecision and lets them walk away--only to yell "The prisoners are escaping" to the sergeant who accompanies him. It is a set up, the two are to prove their guilt by "attempting to escape". As it turns out, police all over the island have already been provided with their description and photographs. They are able to flee, but have no money and nowhere to go. They shelter in the Statue of Liberty's arm, then standing in Madison Square. [Again, the arm lying in Madison Square Park prior to being erected is a factual event]. Si tells Julia the whole story, but she doesn't believe him at first. She is soon convinced otherwise, as Si brings them both into the present, and she observes the dawn from high on the statue, seeing a totally strange New York.
They spend a day in the present, with a shocked Julia observing the things that have changed in ninety years, from clothing to television. At last they settle into Si's apartment. He is ashamed to tell her the history of what has happened in the past ninety years, the horrible wars and the fact that there are areas of the city where no law abiding citizen can safely go. Julia must return home. The two realize that the man whom they met at Carmody's house was in fact Pickering--Carmody died in the fire. With that fact, Julia can keep Pickering from having her arrested lest he be exposed. As 1882 is far more real to her than 1970, she returns to the past on her own.
Si goes to report in, and tells most of the story, concealing Julia's visit to 1970. They have an assignment for him--to intentionally alter the past. Research has confirmed that Carmody (actually Pickering) was an acquaintance of Grover Cleveland--and talked Cleveland out of buying Cuba from Spain. The military men now in effective control of the project can only see that if Pickering is exposed, he might never have influence with Cleveland, and the US might never have to worry about Fidel Castro. Especially after talking with Danziger one more time, Si worries about the other effects the change might cause, and Danziger makes him promise not to carry out the scheme. Si returns to 1882. Having been told how Danziger's parents met, he frustrates the meeting. Danziger will never be born, and the project will never happen. Si walks away sadly--towards Gramercy Park and Julia.
