Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A Wonderful Re-Issue of TIME AND AGAIN

I am thrilled to see this re-issue of TIME AND AGAIN, Jack Finney's terrific 1970 time-travel novel in which a New York artist travels to the city in 1882.  My friend Jim lent me the book in the 1990s and said that I would enjoy it.  I did like
the story, which is adventurous, romantic, and nostalgic.  But beyond that, the tale had that ineffable something that made me never forget it--neither the title nor the author--and I've recommended it to many people myself in the years since I first read it.

Now Touchstone has released an updated version with "digitally restored art, a completely redesigned interior, and an all-new foreword by Audrey Niffenegger."  

I was lucky enough to snag a copy of the new version, and I'm enjoying it greatly, especially the photographs of New York which Finney uses as the basis of his story.  Every old photograph creates a sense of nostalgia for a time we never knew, and there is a certain associated sadness with the necessary separation of our reality and that image. Finney erases the separation with his bold tale of a man who walks into the past.