If you’re a fan of “Fumbling Toward Ecstasy”, then I have a feeling you’re really going to enjoy Jack Finney’s novels Time and Again and From Time to Time. Though I’d never heard of Finney until six months ago, our works bear striking similarities. Time and Again is about an advertising professional named Simon who’s recruited for a secret government project trying to achieve time travel. Instead of using a time machine to travel back in time, participants use hypnosis or self-hypnosis to transport themselves. Simon travels back to 1882.
In the sequel, From Time to Time, Simon travels back to 1911 to try to prevent World War I. His mission leads him to Belfast, where the Titanic is under construction, and he eventually ends up on the Titanic.
I haven’t read these gems, yet, but I’ve read a few reviews, including the Wikipedia entries about them. The similarities between his plots and mine are eery. I certainly plan to take a look at Finney’s novels after “The Journal” is completed!
By the way, if, like me, you think you’ve never heard of Finney’s work before, you might want to think again. Finney wrote the The Body Snatchers, the novel on which the classic 1950s movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers is based.
Course Correction Studio 