Name: Time and Time Again
ISBN: 9780848828073

James Hilton

Time and Time Again

Sarah Sammis

Time and Time Again was James Hilton's last novel. It was published the year before he died. It covers the rather ordinary life of a rather ordinary man. It's very much like Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Told in flashbacks, a diplomat outlines the big events in his life. They are basically a series of humiliations and disappointments.

The section that sticks with me most is the first one where as a young college student he meets the woman of his dreams. She is reading a book in a cafe and he's forced to sit with her for a lack of seating on that busy day. They get to talking and find that they enjoy each others company. They decide to marry except parents intervene.

I have to admit that the middle of the novel is a bit of a blur in my memory. It's a bit like "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin. Now in the both the novel and the song, I feel that the sons have ended up better than their fathers.

Time and Time Again

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