Though the story is about time travel, this is not what one would commonly consider a science fiction novel. Simon Morley, a bored illustrator living in 1960s New York, joins a top secret government program that sends him back to 1882. Rather than your standard time travel machine, temporal distances are covered through self-hypnosis and a bunch of hand-waving involving vague references to Einstein. But never mind all that. Since the narrator is from modern times, his descriptions of New York of over a century ago emphasize the sorts of things historical fiction would not: the little differences in everyday life, the future locations of certain buildings, that kind of stuff. In terms of nostalgia, it's simply wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about life in the late 19th century. Unfortunately, at the end it becomes tiresomely preachy, obsessing over the "good old days" that, as any historian knows, never really existed. The loose ends are also a little too neatly tied up, but by and large the book is a fun look at how people really lived back in the day. I listened to this on audiobook, then discovered the book has sketches and photographs. Perhaps if I'd looked at the paperback copy on my shelf I would have noticed that it was specifically listed as an "illustrated novel" but that's what I get for not paying attention. ( )

Goes from 1970 to 1882 by hypnosis. Self-contradictory endinq.

Completely original. I read it years ago but I can't give the book away. Even my husband read it and liked it and he's not big on fiction. Among other things it made me sentimental for New York. ( )

The premise is that time travel IS possible. At every given moment, every moment in time is going on. The only thing that is connecting a person to his/her time is the belief that you are where you are. So an experiment is set up. Put a person in an environment where he/she starts to believe they are in a certain time period.

That's what happens to our main character Si Morely. He's an illustrator that the government chose to participate in this experiment. For personal reasons, Si chooses to go back in time to New York City, 1882. They recreate the feeling of the time period by giving him an apartment in the historic Dakota building. In 1882, the said apartment is vacant. He dresses the part, thinks, the part, even his view to Central Park is unobstructed by anything modern. And it works!

The reason Si wants to step back to 1882, is because his girlfriend Kate has a mysterious letter dated in 1882 which was sent to Andrew Carmody, who was associated with President Grover Cleveland. This letter eventually let to Andrew Carmody's suicide. His wife burnt part of the letter, so the only known thing is that there was a meeting which discussed marble and Andrew Carmody wrote that the letter caused "the destruction by fire of the entire World". How mysterious!

Si steps back in time, to witness the mailing of the letter and the following meeting. He also lodges with an interesting group of characters later on in the story and falls in love with one young lady.

So we've got time travel, historic New York, a love story, a mysterious letter and rendezvous...just a fun book.

AND the fun part, since Si's an illustrator, throughout the book there are drawing Si made which shows the everyday life and times in historic New York. It's fun to see the lack of huge skyscrapers, small farms interspersed where the upper East side now is, and just the feel of New York City in the late 1800s.

I just noticed that there's a sequel called From Time to Time. Hmmm...I'll have to check that one out too. ( )

Fantastic. A must-read for any time travel zealot. You will not want to put it down. ( )