Somewhere in Time

by Richard Matheson
Category: "Fiction - S. F./Fantasy"
Pages:316
Year of Publication:1980
Date Added:01/19/2021
Date Read:12/09/2024
Notes:In 1971, Playwright Richard Collier, dying of cancer, travels aimlessly until he ends up at the Coronado Hotel in California. He sees a photo from 1897 of an actress named Elise McKenna and becomes obsessed with her. He finds out all he can about her life and then determines to self-hypnotize and travel back in time to an evening when she starred in a play in the same hotel. He finally manages to get back and find her. She is inexperienced with men and reluctant to spend time with him, but at the same time is drawn to him (having been told by a gypsy that she would meet her love). They spend a few hours here and there and declare their deep love for each other. Her agent, Robinson, opposes the relationship every chance he gets and finally has Richard kidnapped and tied up in a shed. Richard escapes and goes back to Elise. They spend a night together, but in the morning he discovers a penny from 1971 and involuntarily returns to his own time. He shuts himself in his room until he dies. Elise lives the rest of her life mourning her great love. When she is very old, she attends a play at a college and sees Richard, several years before he traveled back to see her, and then she dies.
My Rating: 4

Reviews for Somewhere in Time

Review - Somewhere in Time

What an annoying book. The first half involves Richard wandering around California aimlessly and then obsessing about going back in time. The entire time, he's a winy, annoying pill. When he gets back to 1897, he and Elise fall in love based on about 20 minutes of time together and spend all their moments talking about how magical it all is (although he never tells her he's from the future). Then, the staid, virginal woman jumps into bed with him. There are hints here and there in the book that the whole thing was a fevered dream Richard had after seeing the photo of Elise, which I guess makes the sappiness more understandable but no more interesting to read.

Reviewed by Roger on 2024-12-10 17:44:52

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