Stealing Through Time: On the Writings of Jack Finney

by Jack Seabrook

  Si Morley decides not to tell Julia any of this, but the fact that he thinks it shows that he is a product of his times. When Time and Again was published in 1970, anti-establishment sentiment was widespread. Si Morley fits into the line of Finney characters who long for escape from the world in which they live; his description of what is wrong with that world is rather different than that provided by Miles Bennell in The Body Snatchers, but the feeling of dissatisfaction is the same.

  The mystery gets a twist in the tail in chapter twenty-one, as Julia deduces that the burned man she and Si met at Carmody's mansion was not Carmody at all, but rather Pickering, who would spend the rest of his life impersonating the man he had tried to blackmail. Julia walks back into the past, using the unchanging Brooklyn Bridge as her location for time travel.

  The final chapter of Time and Again finds Si back at the Project, resisting all efforts to have him continue with the time travel experiment. He says goodbye to Kate and writes Time and Again as a journal of his experiences, hiding it in the New York Public Library where it will be found by "a friend, a writer ... the only man ever to look through a great decaying stack of ancient religious pamphlets in the rare-book section" (393). That writer, of course, is Jack Finney, who spent years researching New York history to write this novel.

  The final pages of the book tie up the last thread left dangling, as Si promises Professor Danziger that he will stop the project. He returns to 1882 and prevents Danziger's parents from meeting, thus erasing the future scientist and his work from the course of history. As the novel ends, Si heads for 19 Gramercy Park, and Julia.

  The book concludes with a page-long footnote in which Jack Finney addresses the reader. "I've tried to be factually accurate in this story," he begins, but "I haven't let accuracy interfere with the story" (399). Most interesting are his admission that the Dakota Building was not built until 1885 (thus removing Si Morley's main spot for time travel) and that the photographs used in the book "couldn't all be strictly of the eighteen-eighties. Before 1900 things didn't change so fast as now — one more reason why Si so wisely decided to stay back there."

  In an advance review published in the March 9, 1970 issue of Publishers Weekly, Barbara A. Bannon wrote that the novel is "delightful, clever and imaginative" and correctly pointed out that "the actual blackmail plot is almost incidental. The real fascination of the book lies in Morley's discovery of the New York of that period...." She added that "Finney has the gift of making his time travel perfectly believable, largely through the smooth use of authentic details."

  The week before, Kirkus Reviews had called the novel "a fully illustrated fascinator" and remarked that "the time transitions are seamless." The novel was published by Simon & Schuster in May 1970, and subsequent reviews were mostly positive. The Washington Post called Time and Again "one of the most original, readable, and engaging novels to have come along in a long time" (Blackburn). Thomas Lask wrote a long piece about the book for the New York Times on July 25, 1970, and W. G. Rogers followed this with another long review in that same newspaper on August 2,1970, calling the novel "a most ingenious confection of time now and time then." This glowing review set the tone for reviews that followed, in numerous magazines and journals.

  Yet Time and Again sold only modestly upon first publication (Hirschfeld 13). Finney appears to have been captivated by the subject matter, though, because he wrote four lighthearted articles for the New York Times during the next year. The first was titled, "Where Has Old-Fashioned Fun Gone?" and described a Christmas celebration on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1882. Finney ends the article with these wistful remarks: "Maybe, just maybe, New York has begun reaching back toward a day when it would have been possible to say 'Fun City' without sneering."

  Next came "Off to the Golden West," which relates a coast-to-coast trip by train circa 1890, and ends with the following editorial comment: "Jack Finney, author of "Time and Again,' is in love with yesterday." Finney's third New York Times piece was titled "St. Nicholas Monthly's Xmas List" and reproduced sketches and advertising copy from an 1875 periodical. Finally, he published "When Felony Had Style," which featured mug shots and information about criminals from the late nineteenth century. Some of the information came from "the testimony of Thomas Byrnes, famous nineteenth-century head of the New York cops" and a character in Time and Again.

  In the decades that followed, Jack Finney's novel attracted a "cult following" (Hirschfeld 13) and was the subject of a considerable amount of critical discussion. After the initial flurry of reviews, the first writer to look seriously at Time and Again was Richard Gid Powers, in his introduction to the 1976 Gregg Press edition of The Body Snatchers. Powers calls Time and Again Finney's "most important novel" and comments on the author's "acute and aching sense of what was lost when the world grew up and became 'modern.' Finney's heroes are romantic traditionalists so much in love with the past that they are able to wrench themselves into it by an overwhelming act of will" (vi).

  In a 1977 discussion of the novel, Quentin Gehle points out numerous instances of Finney's use of irony, "which at some times is far more subtle than at others" (7645) and comments that "even though the novel suffers from disunity, that disunity does make available the appeal of a detective story, a love story, and a science-fiction tale" (7646). Two years later, Anne Carolyn Raymer's piece on the book explained, in comparing the hero of Time and Again to that of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, that "Morley can appreciate that era because, unlike Bellamy's hero who escapes from it, he is not a Utopian but an ordinary man capable of enjoying the simple delights of a less hectic and complicated era." She adds that "Finney's handling of character ranks among his most important contributions" (2285). Unlike Jack Finney's other novels (save The Body Snatchers which, it can be argued, received attention because of the popularity of the films it inspired), Time and Again rather quickly became a novel of interest to literary critics.

  By February 1979, the English Journal was publishing suggestions for activities to help teach the novel to students (Haagen 46). A New York Times article on July 6, 1986, reported that Columbia University history professor Kenneth T. Jackson was using Time and Again in his college courses, calling it an excellent introduction to Victorian New York City (Fleming). Michael Beard called it a "minor cult book among New York enthusiasts" in his 1981 survey of Finney's career, and wrote that " Time and Again is the most solid and consequential of Finney's novels and the one in which his characteristic stratagems and complex turns of plot work out in the most satisfying manner" (185).

  A study of the novel by Brooks Landon correctly notes that it "returns to a common theme in his short fiction, and represents in several ways the distillation of his central concerns as a writer: his fierce championing of individuality and his dissatisfaction with the complicated, dulled, and polluted contours of modern life" (1938). He writes that "more than three million copies have been printed" and concludes that, "in Time and Again, there is no fantasy that can equal the allure of the past, no tomorrow as safe and desirable as yesterday" (1942).

  Time and Again was listed as one of the entries in David Pringle's 1989 volume, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels, and regular reprints of the book kept it in the public eye as the new millennium approached. Curiously, though, no film had been adapted from the novel in the twenty years since its publication. An interview with Jack Finney published in the May 25, 1990 issue of the New York Times reported that Universal Pictures had bought the rights to film the novel around the time it was published but that no film had ever been made. "My agent tells me he no longer bothers to tell me how many inquiries he gets," said Finney of interest in filming the novel. As of 1990, Finney and his agent, Don Congdon, planned to try to reacquire the television rights to the novel, but no television adaptation was ever made. Finney also remarked that he was "350 pages into a sequel, with 150 to 200 pages to go" (Van Gelder). The sequel would not be published for another five years, right before the author's dea
th.

  Time and Again's reputation continued to grow in the 1990s. A 1994 article in the New York Times reported that "over the years, the novel ... has captivated and entranced some of the biggest names in the film business" (Hirschfeld 13) and has attracted "a vast cult following" among readers. Movie star Robert Redford "said he plans to produce, direct and probably star in a film version for Universal Pictures." The article adds that Jack Finney "started the novel in the late 1950's, inspired by a lifelong fascination with old photos, prints and newspaper articles" but that he "became so blocked that, at one point, he abandoned the effort, then started 'Time and Again' over again with a completely retooled plot."

  The article (basically a history of the novel's success since its publication), states that Time and Again sold "27,000 copies in hardcover" and "200,000 copies as a large-sized trade paperback" (13, 20), something less than the more than three million copies that were earlier said to have been printed. It also noted that walking tours around Manhattan of sites from the novel were "still popular" (20) and that an elaborate banquet had been held earlier that year at Columbia University, reproducing the atmosphere of 1882.

  Finally, a "Broadway musical based on the book" was said to be in the works (20). More than two decades after its publication, Time and Again was more popular than ever. In 1995, the New York Times listed it as one of the ten best books about New York (Roberts 14), and the sequel, From Time to Time, was published early that year.

  Jack Finney died in November 1995, but interest in his 1970 novel did not wane. Advertisements for "The Jack Finney 'Time and Again' Tour" around Manhattan continued to run in the New York limes as late as 2001, and the growing popularity of the internet in the late 1990s allowed fans of the novel to publish their own reviews for each other to read.

  The musical version of Time and Again is discussed in chapter seventeen. As of January 2002, Robert Redford was still considering filming the novel (Kobel), which was in the running that same year when a New York City committee met to select a single book to recommend to all New Yorkers.

  Why, then, is Time and Again so enduringly popular? Why has it remained in print since 1970 and attracted such a cult following? I think that the main reason is because it is such an entertaining novel. Finney uses melodrama skillfully and his wistful recreation of 1882 New York touches something in readers who, like Si Morley, often grow tired of the modern world. The novel is also very well written, and the characters are appealing. In his excellent 1999 survey of Finney's work, Jon L. Breen wrote that Time and Again is "Finney's finest achievement" (32) and explained that, while the illustrations are nice, "the magic of the writing does most of the work" (33). That same year, Fred Blosser called the novel "perhaps the most impressive historical novel ever written about everyday urban life in nineteenth-century America" (53).

  In short, Time and Again is the central book in Jack Finney's oeu-vre. In it, one finds themes that ran through his work from bis first short story to his last novel, and its main character is one of his most memorable. Time and Again is Jack Finney's masterpiece.

  TWELVE

  Marion's Wall

  In Marion's Wall, published in 1973, the formula of Time and Again is turned upside down. This time, a character from the past travels to the present and wreaks havoc on the life of the narrator, 30 year old Nick Cheney Jr.

  The story begins with a letter, written to Nick Jr. by his father, Nick Sr. Nick Sr. recommends an old Victorian house at 114 Divisadero Street in San Francisco, California, where he once lived in the bottom apartment.

  As the story proper opens, the reader realizes that the letter is an old one, and that Nick Jr. and his wife Jan have already bought the house in question and are in the process of remodeling it. While stripping wallpaper, they uncover a message, written in red lipstick and covering the large, living room wall: "Marion Marsh lived here, June 14, 1926. Read it and weep!" (18). They do not know who Marion Marsh was, but, when Nick brings his visiting father home from the airport, they are surprised to learn that he knew Marsh quite well and was present at age twenty when she wrote the message.

  She had been an aspiring actress in the 1920s, Nick Sr. explains, and she wrote the message for future generations to read after she had become famous. She died in a car crash, however, before making it to Hollywood. Nick Sr. tells Nick Jr. and Jan that Marion had a small part in only one movie—Flaming Flappers—and that Joan Crawford inherited the next part she was hired to play and became a star in her place.

  The writing on the wall becomes the showpiece of the house at a party that the Cheyneys throw after renovations are completed in chapter two. Time passes and winter turns to spring, then to summer in San Francisco. Jack Finney's theme of the destruction caused by progress surfaces as Nick Jr. walks home from the bus stop and looks out over the bay: "The money-makers were destroying the city as fast as they could go, blocking off the old views with higher and higher buildings ... and the destruction of the Bay itself with fill and pollution continued" (30-31). Yet the destruction is not complete, and transplanted Midwesterner Finney's voice may be heard through the thoughts of his character in this passage: "But there was still an awful lot of beauty to destroy before they finally Manhattanized or Milwaukeeized San Francisco, a lot still left that was good to look at meanwhile. As a Midwesterner, a flatlander, I appreciated this place, and had been here long enough to feel a part of it" (31). The author of this passage was born in Milwaukee and lived in Manhattan before moving to California, so when Nick Jr. thinks these thoughts it's likely they were shared by his creator.

  Like so many of Jack Finney's young, urban protagonists, Nick Jr. worries about getting stuck in a rut, and something happens that will change his life. Flaming Flappers is being shown on television that night, and he and Jan sit down to watch, looking for a glimpse of the starlet who wrote the message on their wall.

  Silent films were enjoying a revival of interest as both nostalgia and history in the early 1970s, and Jack Finney taps into that trend in Marion's Wall. Yet Nick cannot stay interested in the film, which seems remote to him, and he instead plays with his dog, Al, joking that he's really a person in a dog suit and thus recalling the climactic scene in The Woodrow Wilson Dime.

  Jan calls to Nick and they watch Marion Marsh's scene in the movie; Nick thinks that "unlike every other figure in the absurd scene, this one tiny gray-and-white figure was alive" (39). After the movie ends and Jan goes to bed, Marion's ghost appears and speaks to Nick, thinking he is his father. She had resurfaced in order to see her own movie for the first time, and she appears, brief and transparent, at Nick's request. After she disappears, Nick goes to bed and is surprised that Jan awakens to make love. Nick then falls asleep, pleased that whatever had been interfering with his and Jan's happiness had suddenly disappeared with her unexpected behavior.

  In chapter three, Nick learns that Marion had possessed Jan's body when they made love the night before. Jan's strange behavior continues at a party the next night, where Marion takes over and, using Jan's body, behaves in a manner much like that of a 1920s flapper. Afterwards, she and Nick speed through the night in his old Packard on a wild, drunken ride ("I was so confused," thinks Nick [57]). He reveals that it's not the Roaring Twenties anymore and that he's the son of her old lover. She seduces him and, when they make love, this time Nick knows it is not really Jan.

  The next morning, Jan is ashamed of her behavior the night before, but Marion soon takes over her body again and drags Nick further down into her world of debauchery. They make love and drink again, spending the day drinking champagne, playing 78 RPM records, and dancing like Eddie Cantor. Marion drives Nick to the train depot and is sad to see the decline of the formerly grand passenger trains.

  Marion tells Nick about seeing Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pick-ford leaving for Hollywood on the Lark, and Jack Finney has Nick think this evocative description of another lost American institution:

  She looked slowly around at the worn empty benches; at the l
ong row of ticket windows nearly all permanently hoarded over with raw plywood; at the dusty-windowed restaurant in a corner of the waiting room, the big handles of its entrance doors chained together and padlocked; at the great overhead blackboard labeled ARRIVALS DEPARTURES, its green-ruled spaces empty; at the dismantled lunch counter, its row of metal stool supports still bolted to the floor, the stool tops gone [78 79].

  Long-time readers of Jack Finney might compare this railroad station to the Grand Central Station of "The Third Level": in the 1950 story, a visitor to the still busy station could use it as a gateway to the past. By 1973, Finney seems to say, even this method of time travel has been closed off, and Marion Marsh can only recall the distant past through memory.

  Further disappointment awaits Marion when she and Nick drive to the site of the old Alcazar Theater, which is now an ugly motel. '"It's a different world, Marion,"' Nick tells her. "'The Alcazar's gone. So is the Lark. So will the SP station before long. And the world is filling up with motels. Flaming Flappers was long, long ago. And I'm not my father'" (81).

  Marion decides that she is tired and gives up on recovering the past. She claims she is leaving forever, and Jan awakens, in control of her body again. She sees the chaos that Marion's visit has left in their house and deduces that she has been possessed by the flapper's ghost. The knowledge that Nick made love to her knowing that Marion was in control angers her, and she tears Marion's dress to shreds, a sign that Nick's marriage is in trouble.