From Time to Time by Jack Finney

Jack Finney's beloved sequel to his classic, New York Times bestselling illustrated novel Time and Again. Simon Morley, whose logic-defying trip to the New York City of the 1880s in Time and Again has enchanted readers for twenty-five years, embarks on another trip across the borders of time. This time Reuben Prien at the secret, government-sponsored Project wants Si to leave his home in the 1880s and visit New York in 1912. Si's mission: to protect a man who is traveling across the Atlantic with vital documents that could avert World War I. So one fateful day in 1912, Si finds himself aboard the world's most famous ship...the Titanic.

This book might interest a historian - someone who wants long descriptions of New York City in the very early 1900's. The actual story line is pretty short, if you could subtract all the flowery prose.

The beginning and the end of this book were great!

But in the middle, the protagonist mostly ignores the overarching plotlines in order to wander around in 1912 NYC and basically show us a slideshow of his vacation.

In the first book, it was kind of charming, because it was interwoven with (and helped advance) the plot, but in this one it was frustrating because it was literally the protagonist going sightseeing instead of trying to complete his mission?

Also, McGuffin complaint: I absolutely refuse to believe any New Yorker would have not immediately thought of the Flatiron building. I did. He did not need a plane ride for that.His refusal to let Helen have an actual name for the whole book disproportionately annoyed me, too. I mean, plus the mild cheating on his wife, but okay, whatever. But like. WHY can't you just call her by her name??The coincidences of him always just running into people got to be a little much, whether famous people or plot points. He just always needed to meander around and the right stuff would happen to him.Tessie and Ted was built up into this huge thing and then was really anticlimactic.I'm mad that nothing really came of all the mysteries and weird artifacts from the first chapter. But the final chapter was incredible.