Matheson’s novels are all special in some way.
What fascinates me about this author is his ability to present completely
different stories, often in different genres, which do not seem to feel the
passing of time. When I open a book of his, whatever the period when he wrote
it, I already know that I will remain stunned.
“Somewhere in Time” (or “Bid Time Return”,
depending on the edition) is many things: a novel about travelling in time, but
also about love, and a fake diary of the descent into madness of a person
suffering from an incurable disease. It is up to the reader to decide how to
interpret it. Whatever their choice, they’ll find an engaging and intense work in
their hands.
While reading I really felt in the mind and
skin of the protagonist (the usual almost-hero of Matheson’s book, in whom
every person can identify with because of his being ordinary and fallible) and
I also got carried away in the past by the evocative historical reconstruction
of places and customs. The involvement was such that I read the entire second
half, in which the plot seems to accelerate, in no time.
As always in his books, the story is terribly
modern to be more than forty-five years old (in this case). So many time travel
stories were written, but here the main character does not find some technological
or magical device to go into another period. Here the protagonist discovers by
accident the traces of his own passage in the past and is convinced that he is
intended to go there, and to do so, he just has to believe it.
And Matheson makes us live his inner life in
such a realistic way that we end up believing it too.
The structure of the story is really well
designed. It is not easy to tell by means of a diary, which is a retrospective
narration of events, and make the reader feel as if they were happening in that
very moment. To achieve this the author puts some breaks in the plot that the
protagonist uses to report briefly on what has just happened. Actually there is
nothing really short, since the narrated scenes are often very long, but it is
still a compelling literary device.
The ending is a bit expected, but the logic of
the whole and the poetry with which it is expressed makes it still
satisfactory.
Perhaps what makes this novel particularly good
is the fact that despite the story belongs to the fantasy genre, however, it
gives the impression that it is not only plausible, but also that it really
happened, thanks to Matheson’s ability to mix facts and real historical figures
with invented ones.
The only downside, in my opinion, is that the
initial part of the novel is a bit slow, but do not be deterred. Go on. You
will not regret it.
Somewhere in Time on Amazon.
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