Time on My Hands - Softcover

Delacorte, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671023241 ISBN 13: 9780671023249

Publisher: Scribner, 1998

Synopsis

While in Paris, Gabriel Prince, a somewhat jaded but charming writer of high-end travel guides, is offered the chance of a lifetime -- a trip through time. There's only one hitch: the left-wing owner of the time machine, quantum physicist Jasper Hudnut, wants Gabriel to perform an errand. Gabriel must go back to pre-World War II Hollywood -- a time when Howard Hawks was in his prime and Humphrey Bogart was still waiting for his break -- and somehow derail a young contract actor named Ronald "Dutch" Reagan from his track to the Oval Office. When signing on for the trip, Gabriel couldn't have imagined the strange turns his life would take. He wouldn't have guessed he'd fall in love with a starlet, or that after landing a job as a screenwriter at Warner Bros., he'd discreetly plunder the future for script ideas. And he certainly couldn't have guessed he'd become friends with Dutch Reagan. Gabriel learns quickly that altering history isn't as easy as it looks -- especially when he must stay ahead of several sinister characters from the future. Yet, despite numerous decade-tripping detours, Gabriel still has time on his hands -- time to discover what the world would be like had Reagan never been President, and whether or not his own future should ultimately reside in the past.

About this title

Review

Here's a genre you don't run into every day--a political time-travel novel. If you enjoyed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, or Back to the Future you'll definitely want to give this a tumble. A brilliant physicist has discovered a time machine from the 22d century languishing in an obscure Paris technical museum, but is too old to try it out himself. Fortunately he meets up with a bored travel writer (our hero) who is up for the mission. The physicist, a political liberal, has only one request of him: when you go back in time, divert B-movie actor Ronald Reagan from becoming president. The writer makes the trip (several times), meets Reagan (several times), but ... well, let's just say changing the entire course of modern American politics isn't easy. And there's the additional problem of falling in love with a luscious blonde who's been dead since 1938.

About the Author

Peter Delacorte is the author of Games of Chance and Levantine. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Bonnie, two very strange cats, and one extremely well-adjusted dog.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0671023241
• ISBN 13: 9780671023249
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400