Reviews
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.