This Time Tomorrow: A Novel

by Emma Straub

Hardcover, 2022

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Science Fiction

General Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Riverhead Books (2022), 320 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. HTML:#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER �??The pages brim with tenderness and an appreciation for what we had and who we were. I could not have loved it more."�??Ann Patchett �??The kind of book that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you call the people you love. Exceptional."�??Emily Henry "Delightful"�??Boston Globe "Poignant"�??New York Times What if you could take a vacation to your past? With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story. On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice�??s life isn�??t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn�??t exactly the one she expected. She�??s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn�??t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it�??s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Hccpsk

Emma Straub manages to straddle an interesting fence between “chick-lit” and “real” fiction, and between YA and not. She does this because she writes women at all ages really well — teens, mothers, women in their 30s and 40s, and even older women, and she succeeds again with This Time

Tomorrow. In it, Straub focuses on one character, Alice Stern, who has reached her 40th birthday still treading the same water she was in when she graduated from college — but she’s happy, isn’t she? When Alice gets the opportunity to do it over again, she takes it. Yes, this is a book with time travel, so if you can’t deal with that…but if you can, this is also a book about fathers and daughters, figuring out what’s important, and New York City.( FYI — Straub handles the time travel issue with humor and the frankness of discussing all of the tropes, movies, and books that have come before her which makes it much easier to swallow.) Readers who like Straub will not be disappointed with this novel, and new readers will be won over by a heartfelt story, excellent writing, and Straub’s witty, emotional, and somehow realistic story.

Show Less

24 more

LibraryThing member nicole_a_davis

I was a bit disappointed in this. The first half of the book dragged a little and felt slow to figure out where it was going. It got a little more interesting toward the middle once the time travel aspect picked up a little more, but then I felt like the time travel didn't really make sense or work

well--the author didn't really establish the rules of how time travel worked well enough, even though it kept referencing other pieces of time travel fiction, and that annoyed me. (I mean if certain individuals keep going back and altering their won timeline over and over and change outcomes, then what is happening to the timelines of those same people in the other person's altered reality? And how could she embody a differnt version of herself and not have the memories of that version of herself?) And then after all the dragging of the first half, the second half felt rushed, not really going deep enough into how the time travel and different experiences were giving her new perspectives. At the end I didn't really feel enlightened. I was hoping for a mid-life crisis book, this would provide a little more comfort.

Show Less

LibraryThing member bibliovermis

A moving portrait of a father/daughter relationship, with a great time travel allowing the exploration of the characters and their growth together. I thought the time travel was done in a fun way and the central relationship was very sweet.

LibraryThing member thewanderingjew

This Time Tomorrow-A Novel, Emma Straub, author; Marin Ireland, narrator
Alice works in the same private school she attended, ironically as an Admissions Officer. She has a boyfriend Matt, but she is not sure he is right for her forever. She carries a torch for a high school crush, Tom. On her

fortieth birthday, Alice (from a privileged background), meets her best friend Sam (black female with male nickname), for dinner. She is called away when her husband, (implication incompetent babysitter, women are better), calls to tell her that her son might need stitches after a fall. Alice proceeds to eat the rest of the meal alone and then goes to a bar she used to frequent as a teen, with a false ID (not a good role model), and gets very drunk. Instead of going to her place, she walks to her dad’s. When she can’t get in, she falls asleep in the empty guardhouse, and so begins her odd journey through time. Alice is single, most of her friends' lives have moved in different directions. Could she have made better choices that might have given her a fuller life, with children? Time may tell!
When she wakes up the following morning, she is no longer in the guardhouse, but instead, she finds herself in her old bedroom, in her dad’s place. She has no idea how she got there. Soon she discovers that she is no longer 40. She is now about to have her Sweet Sixteen party! Each morning, when she wakes anew, she finds herself in another moment in that teen-aged time. As she time travels, will she discover anything about her real feelings for Tom? Does he care for her? Is he really Mr. Wonderful? Is she going to be able to help her dying father by making some small changes in his life, during each day she time travels, or is it too late? She is very close to him and filled with grief at the thought of his passing. How will she cope? How does anyone cope with loss? Will she be able to change her own life by making some little changes in her own choices? Does she have regrets?
Can she remain in these different time zones? Is she able to see the results of her choices and change herself? Do the little changes she has made alter the lives of others permanently, as she goes forward, or do things simply revert back when she wakes up to what they were originally? When it begins, she is alone caring for her dad, an only child of a divorced dad who had custody of her because her mom wanted her own life. Her mom marched to the beat of gurus, with curative crystals, et al. In the end, though, her father has a wife, Debbie. Was she real or a figment of her imagination or a result of time travel? Will these trips through time change her, as they changed her dad? If she keeps time traveling, can she keep her father alive and keep seeing him, preventing the impact of his death? Ursula, the well-loved cat, seemed to be the one constant that did not change as she traveled through time, one day at a time.
During his seventy years of life, late into his thirties, Leonard Stern began his career as an author. He had written two best-selling books separated by two decades. One was called Time Brothers and the second was Dawn of Time, Dawn being a person and not daybreak. In it, does Alice see a great deal of her own experiences? Was this book written in her time, or was it written because of changes she made as she time-traveled? Was she able to inspire him, help him to be happier and more successful? Could she make her own life more fulfilling?
*** disclaimer: The parenthesis above refer to emphasis on progressive issues in the book that did nothing to enhance the novel, but simply distracted me. The author included LGBTQ+ characters, multi-racial casts on TV, and electric cars, as well. Most of these facts were extraneous and unnecessary to the point of the story which seemed to be less about politics, and more about our choices, how we handle grief and move forward, and how we maintain our own state of being and happiness. Is it possible to recognize our own errors and correct them or relive them, even without time travel? As Alice travels largely between the memories of her 16th birthday and her current fortieth, is she able to make any permanent changes? Does she grow? As she relives the moments of her life between her 16th and 40th birthdays, and makes some different choices, is anything really resolved? Would this book be more appropriate for the Young Adult?

Show Less

LibraryThing member pdebolt

I'm a little conflicted about this book. I loved the bond between Alice and her father, Leonard, during every part of her life, beginning with end-of-life issues that are so very difficult for all of us to witness. It is especially poignant for Alice raised as an only child by her dad, a famous

novelist. The sci-fi portions simply weren't enough to engage me. Time travel isn't something I could wrap my mind around in this novel.

Show Less

LibraryThing member froxgirl

This one grew on me, mostly because of the witty and quotable writing, despite the well-worn time travel concept. Alice is single, just turned forty, and frozen in amber as an admissions counselor at her old snooty private school in Manhattan. When she visits her dying father at her childhood home

in a charming 1921 landmark neighborhood, Pomander Walk, and is locked out, she sleeps in the gatehouse and awakens twenty four years earlier, on her 16th birthday. Ironically enough, her father Leonard is the author of an incredibly popular series of YA novels called "Time Brothers". What happens to Alice is Back to the Future + Groundhog Day + Peggy Sue Got Married, but Alice's father, best friend, and ex-boyfriend all play critical roles in the timing of her return trips. The novel is worth one visit, but mostly for Straub's skill with language, which is the novel’s exceptional aspect.

Quotes: "It was like being raised bilingual, only one of the languages was money."

"She felt like she was an impostor, like she was wearing a costume made with her own face."

Show Less

LibraryThing member nivramkoorb

Emma Straub is one of my favorite authors. Her books are entertaining and do a great job of getting into family relationships. This book brings a bit of fantasy into play by introducing time travel. Alice Stern is a woman about to celebrate her 40th birthday. She is an admissions officer at the

private school that she attended. The book takes place mostly in the upper west side of Manhattan and deals with Straubs upper middle class to very upper class demographic. Alice's father Leonard is a one hit wonder science fiction writer. His book was a best seller, a cult classic, and was made into a tv show.We are in Alice's head throughout the book and get a lot of back story. A key point in the book is Alice's great relationship with her 72 year old day who raised her as a single parent since she was 6. He is now dying. On the night before her birthday she gets drunk, ends up in her childhood and then wakes up the next day and she is now 16 years old celebrating that birthday and there is her dad(26 years younger) and all of the friends from high school. The is a lot going on in this book but it really deals with our choices and what might have happened if they were different. I am seeing a lot of that in books(Sea of Tranquility) and Straub does a good job of using the time travel format to bring out the key themes of parent child love as well as the importance of friendships and making good choices. Always look to the future. A good entertaining book.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Narshkite

Sweet and loving without being sentimental and cloying. That is hard to do and Straub does it well. This is a love letter to the parent-child connection, to friendship, and to NYC. The central character, Alice, is turning 40, a time when many of us begin to look back at our life choices and to

wonder "what if." At the same time Alice's beloved father is coming to the end of his life and Alice cannot let go. On her actual birthday Alice discovers a time travel portal. Can she/should she change the future? What happens if she does one thing differently? Can she prevent her father's death? Can she find (and does she want to find) a life partner? Is papaya really the best drink flavor at Papaya King? (spoiler -- the answer to that is yes.) Like Straub's other books this is a light beach read, but it is smart and not formulaic like other books that get that designation (see Jennifer Weiner, Abby Jimenez, Elin Hildebrand, etc.) If you are looking for a light but also really meaningful read this is great choice.

Show Less

LibraryThing member nicx27

Alice Stern lives in New York, works in a job she likes but finds unfulfilling, and hasn't managed to find a relationship that is right for her yet. Her father, Leonard, is in hospital and may not wake up again. About to turn 40, she stays the night at her old home, her father's home, and wakes up

there the next day, not as a 40 year old but as a 16 year old.

I came to This Time Tomorrow for the time travel element. I love the genre and whilst I didn't necessarily understand why it had happened for Alice, I just loved that it did happen and she got to see her father again as a younger man. The beginning of the book drew me right in and this was before the travel back in time. I enjoyed the scene-setting, getting to know Alice and her life before it was turned upside down. Even though I feel like the reader was supposed to think her life was flat and empty, it didn't really feel that way and I think Alice had a pretty good life apart from her father's ill-health.

After she went back in time I did feel like it lost something along the way and my interest started to dip a little. Maybe I was just confused. This is quite a complex and poignant story of emotions and nostalgia, and I wasn’t entirely sure what Alice was doing, although I knew what she was aiming for: more time with her father.

I thought This Time Tomorrow was a touching story of revisiting the past and I liked the father/daughter relationship between Leonard and Alice which felt really special. For the most part I enjoyed this book but I think it lacked the emotion I craved to really make me empathise with Alice's predicament.

Show Less

LibraryThing member sublunarie

I really wanted this book to wow me, but it didn't. It was a nice story, I did enjoy it enough to finish it in 2 days. It did get me thinking about my own past and what I woud want to change. But I never felt connected to anything in the story. Maybe that's not the fault of the story, maybe I am

just not able to connect to a father-daughter story due to my own past. I'm not sure.

I can say, however, that I was very turned off by the New York City wank. I understand that NYC people love NYC and love to tell you about NYC. But at LEAST 20 pages of this book are just never-ending descriptions of NYC locations and specific lists of street names. None of which make any difference to the story at all. Absolutely unnecessary.

Show Less

LibraryThing member ccayne

The writing is good which pushed me to rate this as a four rather than a 3.5. The time travel emphasized the limbo in which Alice found herself - saying goodbye to her father and her boyfriend and figuring out what turning 40 means to her. I liked the closeness of father and daughter, Other than

that, I found it hard to connect with Alice.

Show Less

LibraryThing member bookworm12

Another sweet one to add to the mix of time travel books. It establishes rules quickly & makes sense without getting too bogged down. It reminds me of the movie About Time. It’s more about the relationship with her father than anything else. It’s got a lot of love for NYC. A great one to listen

to while packing!

“What a very long time one had to be an adult, after rushing through childhood and adolescence. There should be several more distinctions.”

Show Less

LibraryThing member melaniehope

Essentially this heartwarming story is about a father-daughter relationship. Forty-something Alice is trying to come to terms with the rapid decline of her father's health.
On the night of her birthday Alice winds up drinking too much and after falling asleep she wakes up back on her 16th birthday.

Her father is as she remembered him best, young, full of life and healthy.
Essentially this is a story of a girl trying to "fix" the future through manipulating the past. This story is full of charm, humor and heart felt situations. It was pretty unique to other books I had read.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Gwendydd

This book starts as Alice is preparing to celebrate her 40th birthday. Her father, who is the one-hit author of a popular novel about time travel, is dying. She has recently broken up with her boyfriend, and she works in the admissions office of the school she attended as a child. She's vaguely

unsatisfied with her life, and dreads her father's impending death. The morning after her 40th birthday, she wakes up and realizes she has time-traveled back to her 16th birthday. She comes to realize that she gets to live that one day as a 16-year-old before she will go back to being 40, and she can come back to her 16th birthday any time she wants, so she gets to experiment with how the decisions she makes as a 16-year-old impact her and her fathers' lives.

The premise is interesting, but not terribly original. The suspension of disbelief is unbalanced: this feels like the work of a literary fiction author who was aiming for magical realism but ended up in unfamiliar science fiction territory. It's hard to accept that a man who wrote a novel about time travel would discover a time-traveling portal in his own shed, and then not tell anyone about it, and then just be proud of daddy's little girl when she discovers the same portal. Why wouldn't he tell anyone else about it? Why wouldn't he immediately seek either scientific explanation or psychiatric care when he starts time traveling? As soon as the characters understand what is happening, they just go, "oh okay, so it turns out that the magic thing this guy wrote a book about is true after all; that totally makes sense," without ever questioning whether there are other time travel portals or the thousand other questions a sensible person would ask.

But Straub didn't write this book to be a time travel book: she wrote it to explore how Alice deals with her grief over her father's death and her disappointment with how her own life has turned out. Ultimately, the book does make a reasonably satisfying conclusion about acceptance and the fleeting nature of happiness.

Show Less

LibraryThing member bearette24

Interesting look at time travel. A woman goes back in time repeatedly to try to save her sick father, who is a science fiction writer and has time traveled himself. The story nicely captures the feel and details of being a teenager in the 90s.

LibraryThing member shazjhb

Time travel. Trying to find out who you are by traveling back multiple times. Really. Enough already

LibraryThing member NancyJak

Fascinating story of repeating a day and changing the course of your life

LibraryThing member mzonderm

Approaching her 40th birthday, Alice is devoted to her father, who raised her alone after he mother left. Alice finds watching her father waste away in the hospital to be unbearable. So when she discovers a portal that allows her to relive the day of her 16th birthday, she is determined figure out

how to change his life so that he doesn't get sick. What she discovers as she lives though many iterations of the day is that perhaps quality is a lot more important than quantity.

Fans of The Midnight Library will appreciate this more realistic (in terms of human emotions, not in terms of time travel) exploration of choices and consequences and what it means to be happy.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

Show Less

LibraryThing member midwestms

Moving story

LibraryThing member SallyElizabethMurphy

Three stars is a generous review-2.75 would be more accurate. Somewhat disappointing after the last book I read.

LibraryThing member janismack

Story of a 40 year old woman who time travels to right before her 16th birthday. Her dad is sick in her 40 year old world and she has some regrets. She keeps going back to the eve of her birthday and changes a few of her decisions to see how it would affect her future. Things are not as rosy as she

thinks they are going to be, and must accept her life as it is.

Show Less

LibraryThing member bookczuk

I picked this up when I learned that Emma Staub, a writer I Like a lit, created the wonderful Books Are Magic bookstore that is on my bookshop bucket list.
A bit of time travel mixed in with New York City. Nice.
2022 read.

LibraryThing member deslivres5

Poignant and sentimental, this title was a different kind of "Groundhog Day" time traveling story.
No strict adherence to any temporal prime directives here!
The rapid fire reference drops, both to time travel pop culture and to 1990s pop culture in general, made me smile/laugh.
I especially enjoyed

all of the NYC references. Definitely a bit of an homage to NYC.

It wasn't exactly what I was expecting.
But beside leaving me with some melancholy, I did enjoy this one.

Show Less

LibraryThing member terran

Alice accidentally began time traveling on her 40th birthday and then kept doing it, hoping she could change certain decisions she had made in her past and end up being happier. Her relationship with her father was very important in her life and she wanted to keep going back to their time together.

She also felt that she hadn't lived up to her potential and landed in situations where her choices were different.
I like the mechanics of the time travel and the descriptions of her teenage existence and experiences. She realizes how special that time of her life actually was and that she and her father had a great relationship. The loving descriptions of New York City were central to the story but not necessary to my enjoyment.

Show Less

LibraryThing member arubabookwoman

Alice goes to sleep on the night of her 40th birthday, and when she wakes the next morning she is 16 again, still living at home with her father, who is a relatively young man rather than an ill and dying man. And over the course of this book, Alice has the opportunity to time travel more than

once, but she always arrives back on the day of her 16th birthday. Each time as she returns she explores her relationship with her father, and tries to experiment (in gentle ways) to see if she can change things in her (and his) future.

I enjoyed the very real NYC setting of this book, and enjoyed getting to know the characters. Alice's relationship with her father and with her life-long best friend were beautifully portrayed. It also contained the message that a happy ending doesn't have to mean that you end up marrying the boy you had a crush on in high school and ending upon fabulously wealthy. This book is cotton candy of a sort, but in a good and satisfying way for times when only cotton candy will do.

3 stars

First line: "Time did not exist in the hospital."

Last line: "Until the future, whatever it was going to be."

Show Less

Fewer