Richard Matheson – Somewhere in Time – Comment

 

The novel has become a classic tale of romantic and obsessive love, notions of fate in our lives and the possibility of time travel. 

 More known for the 1980 film adaptation starring Christopher Reeve as the protagonist, Richard Collier, Jane Seymour as Elise McKenna and an excellent performance by Christopher Plummer as her aggressive manager, author Richard Matheson penned the screenplay, turning the film into a cult-like classic with continued popularity over a generation. 
 
Considered by Matheson to be his best-written novel, the book begins with a Note by Collier's brother, Robert, who has doubts whether he is doing the right thing in publishing his brother's manuscript. This clever literary device, to my mind, gives the novel credibility, presenting the work as not a work of fiction but a real event. 
 
Richard Collier is a writer for television diagnosed to have a brain tumor, (a death sentence) and sets out to travel in his car, flipping a coin, leaving his destinations to chance, he arrives at the Coronado Hotel, a 19th century establishment where Collier comments, "The Past Haunts this hotel". In the hotel's quaint museum, he discovers a photograph of a well-known stage actress of the period, Elise McKenna. Richard's obsession begins; he falls in love with the long dead woman, and wonders how he can get back to her, in the year 1896. 
 
What is so good about this novel is Matheson's descriptions and feelings about the past once he travels back in time. The reader can see and feel what Richard sees and feels, in some cases, quite acutely. Richard Collier's method, too, of travelling back to the 19th century, for me, seemed quite feasible. There are no machines or technological transporters, merely his Will to reach his one true love. 
 
As has been mentioned many times, Richard Matheson is an original writer, his work mixing categories or genres: science fiction, horror, romance and the supernatural. He is a prolific writer of over 16 novels, film scripts, and television movies and was one of the main writers for the legendary show, The Twilight Zone. Matheson's other famous text, What Dreams May Come: A Novel , adapted for the big screen as well, starring Robin Williams, is also considered by the author to be one of his best novels. 
 
I found this novel to be very moving, realistic and original.  

Well worth owning and reading again.