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Book Review:
Somewhere In Time
by Richard Matheson
Copyright 2013 Christina M. Guerrero
The Basics
Richard, a screenwriter and playwright who is terminally ill with a brain tumor, has decided to spend some time at the Hotel Coronado in San Diego, California. He is still able to move around, read, write, listen to music, and socialize, so he hopes to fill the remainder of his life with some sort of relaxation at the hotel, until he needs full-time care. This is the beginning of Somewhere In Time by Richard Matheson.
While exploring, Richard enters the hotel’s Hall of History. Within a few moments, he has found what he calls “the love of his life” in a photograph. She is Elise, an actress. She died in 1953. Richard is living in the world of 1971.
Richard wavers between longing for Elise, and feeling ridiculous at the thought of being madly in love with her, based only on viewing her photo. His crush wins the battle, and he decides to research her background and career. In the process, he believes he has found evidence that he and Elise met in 1896, and that in order for this to happen, he must leave the world of 1971.
Richard, The Writer(s)
Regarding his plots, Matheson said in a 2007 Entertainment Weekly interview with Clark Collis that he writes “about real people and real circumstances.” His character, Richard, is a professional sidelined by an illness: a real person with whom readers may be able to identify. Richard’s baby steps toward the possibility of traveling through time, and finding Elise, are also easy to understand and perhaps identify with, because Matheson gradually adds time-travel theories and ideas until they become difficult to separate from Richard’s rather sad and solitary life at the Hotel Coronado. When Richard begins to experiment, the results are mesmerizing and triumphant.
Elise, The Actress
Readers may also be able to relate to Elise. She is definitely surprised and slightly wary of Richard, upon meeting him. In 1896, she is devoted to her career, and is doing well financially, but wishes for more recognition for her work. She is also lightly chaperoned by her mother and her manager, so Richard must mind the manners and morals of the day as he interacts with her.
Points of View
At this point, one may be wondering about this from Elise’s point of view: why would a rather proper woman, at age 29 in the Victorian Era, want to spend time alone with a stranger? Matheson was thinking about this during the first chapter. He plants a few logical reasons: Richard is quite handsome and well-built, and is considered attractive and approachable; he finds Elise enchanting, beautiful and haunting, and wants to learn more about her.
We learn about Elise’s feelings only from Richard’s point of view, yet Matheson describes almost her every move and syllable. Like Richard, she wavers between what is socially proper, and how she feels. Matheson also provides explanations, but in reverse, about Elise’s motivations: at the beginning of the book, plenty of information about what she was doing at the end of her life (as Richard researches her), and in most of the book, what led to the decisions she made after 1896.
Matheson’s style in Somewhere In Time is genial and casual at first, drawing the reader into considering the possibility of time travel, gradually becoming more formal as Richard enters the world of 1896. Once there, Matheson’s descriptions are vivid; one can almost see the ornate wallpapers, and hear crackling fires on hearths at the hotel; hear horses clip-clopping on the property; sense the more formal manners of the people around him.
How It Could Have Happened
Matheson provides only a second point of view: from Richard’s brother, Robert, who adds a few asides in the middle, and at the end. Through Robert, Matheson covers one possible explanation for Richard’s experiences by suggesting that perhaps the brain tumor caused elaborate hallucinations. To summarize Robert’s final words on the matter: one would hope that the love shared by Richard and Elise actually happened, because it would certainly explain Richard’s detailed and prolific notes (found after his death), and Elise’s choices and behavior (chronicled in several theater history books) after 1896.
Sources:
Collis, Clark. “Richard Matheson, Author, Screenplay Writer, and Science Fiction Legend, Dies At Age 87.” Popwatch page at Entertainment Weekly website, June 24, 2013.
Matheson, Richard. Somewhere In Time. Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, L.L.C.; RXR, Inc. 1980, 1998. Originally published as Bid Time Return.
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