Long ago I read Time and Again by Jack Finney. I loved it. But I haven't read anything else by that author, until now. My husband has a good collection of books by Finney, so I decided to try one of his short story books for Short Story Wednesday.
I read the title story from I Love Galesburg in the Springtime in the morning and liked it; I took the book up to read in bed that evening and finished the book before I went to bed.
All of the twelve stories in the book are magical, with unexpected, lovely endings. A few included some variation of time travel, and all had some fantastic element, although the setting is our everyday world. The stories in this book were published between 1952 and 1962, and most were published in McCall's magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, or Playboy.
Overall I see this as "feel good" reading, although at least two stories left me in tears. I don't mean that they are light reading, but that I felt entertained and uplifted in some way by each story. But I can see that some of them could be interpreted in different ways.
The short story, "I Love Galesburg in the Springtime", is about a small town saving itself from being paved over and becoming completely modern. Galesburg is a real town in Illinois and Jack Finney attended Knox College there.
I enjoyed every story in the book but these two other stories were ones I especially liked:
"The Love Letter" is told in first person by a young man who buys a desk with a secret drawer, and finds an old letter in the drawer. He finds an extraordinary way to communicate with the letter writer.
"Hey, Look at Me" is the story of an author whose knows without a doubt that someday he will write great books and be a renowned writer. He dies young, before he can accomplish this. This one is also told in first person, this time by a book critic. The setting is Mill Valley, California, where Jack Finney lived when the story was written.
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Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 1963.
Length: 264 pages
Format: Hardcover
Setting: US
Genre: Fantasy, short stories
Source: Borrowed from my husband.
18 comments:
You're very good at finding authors I've never heard of, Tracy. And I'm becoming more and more enamoured of collections of short stories, to the point where, if I don't have one on the go, I feel like something's missing.
I have to read this! I love short stories, especially when they have some kind of fantastic element. This collection sounds wonderful. Thanks for highlighting it!
Generally, you will not have heard of Finney unless you are a science fiction fan, because he did most of his important work in that area. I Love Galesburg in the Springtime is an excellent collection, but it is fairly rare and often very expensive. The cheapest copy I found today was a paperback for $50. You may be better off with a cheaper collection such as About Time, which has many of his time travel stories.
Cath, I have enjoyed short stories much more in the last few months, and have had more trouble sticking with longer novels. That is a switch for me, but it has been good to discover new authors and short story collections.
Monika, I have many short story collections (mostly in the mystery genre) but only lately have I been delving into them. And enjoying it very much. I do have a few fantasy collections (Jo Walton, Connie Willis).
Very nice. I have a hunch I've read Finny, but no specific memory of doing so. I have tons of short story anthologies and collections here, and I'm having trouble getting to them. Must bear down.
BTW, I love Mill Valley.
Anonymous, You make a very good point. My husband was buying books by Jack Finney at used book stores, and online, but could never find a copy of I Love Galesburg. This would have been 10-15 years ago. He finally found one on Ebay that was a reasonable amount (but neither of us remember what he paid). He was very excited. So I am not surprised that they are still hard to find. I did notice while researching this book that the short story collection About Time has some of the same stories that are in I Love Galesburg.
Rick, same problem here. I have so many short story collections I feel a bit overwhelmed. Especially by the huge ones, like Penzler's collections. But so far I am enjoying all the stories/authors I have tried.
Galesburg is, indeed, a real town. I lived there for a few years. It's a great place, too, and the people there are terrific. So nice to see that title, and to know that one of the stories takes place there, Tracy. I'm glad you enjoyed the book.
Margot, how amazing that you lived in Galesburg. I loved that Finney wrote about real places that he had lived in.
I'll definitely have to look out for Jack Finney, I'm not a huge fan of short stories but I'm pretty sure I would enjoy this collection.
This is a short story collection worth trying, Katrina. As I mentioned in one of the other comments, there is a different short story collection that includes some stories from this book (About Time). I hope you find something by him.
Jack Finney could write just about anything well. Compare the short story you read with INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS!
George, just based on TIME AND AGAIN and the short stories I read in this book, I would tend to agree with you. I will be reading more of the books my husband has. I did know that Finney wrote the novel that INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is based on but was too scared to watch the movie, so never tried the novel.
Like you, I read Time and Again a good while ago, and absolutely loved it. I really should read something more by him....
Moira, I plan to read more by Finney, especially as I have easy access to some of his books. Just have to decide where to fit them in.
Fantastic cover Tracy. Not my usual thing, but you make it sound interesting. Maybe one day...
It is a nice cover, Col. I think it also illustrates the variety of stuff within the covers. I think this author's short stories would be appealing to most people, but this specific book is hard to find.
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