TIME AND TIME AGAIN

by James Hilton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 1953

Not a major Hilton- but pleasant recapturing of a half century which parallels, in mood and tempo, the lives of many of his audience. Though the central figure, Charles Anderson, is a minor British diplomat, he has many similarities to such Marquand heroes as H.M. Pulham, Esquire, but he- for this reader anyhow- lacks the bones and sinews and emerges as a type rather than a rounded human being. His story is told in counterpoint to that of his seventeen-year old son, and culminates in a variation on a pattern which the father had thought would repeat his own ill-starred romance at the same age. (And characteristically enough, he was planning to apply the same medicine his own father had used with him;) The story starts as Charles savors in advance a long-planned celebration of Gerald's birthday, in Paris. His memory turns back to the girl, chance met, and loved, whom he had dared carry off from Cambridge for an idyllic week-end, only to have the dream shattered by adults who thought Charles' career in diplomacy imperilled. The incident left its scar, despite a happy subsequent marriage. And his memory traces the ""time and time again"" stencil of a life in which history, too, repeated itself. The career of an Englishman, class conscious in a way that has passed, that provides complete recall for the readers. A book that can readily be recommended, but that leaves no lasting mark.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 1953

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown-AMP

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1953

Categories: FICTION