Not so much the 'ghost story' that it is pitched as being, given the quotes used on the back of the copy I read, but instead an interesting mystery that, although overly long at times in the minutiae of old school New York City, nevertheless invites you to come down the rabbit hole with its main character, Jonathan Corbin. The story follows Corbin on a journey of discovery as he struggles to deal with his slipping grasp of reality. Every time it snows, he finds himself misplaced in time; no longer in 1986, but in 1886 and on the tail of someone, he feels, he intends to kill. 1986 isn't so peachy either, as it becomes evident that he isn't safe, no matter what time period he's in. And so begins a story of intrigue, family and loyalty, all set against the backdrop of this interesting sci-fi mystery backdrop. The book itself refers at times to the unnatural, unexplainable, happenings as ghostly; as supernatural, but I disagree. The closest thing I want to compare it to is the popular video game franchise, of which I am familiar, Assassin's Creed. The key isn't in relieving memories through ghostly possession, Time Out of Mind approaches it as unlocking a persons deeply embedded genetic code. Genetic memories. A theme familiar to Assassin's Creed and its fan base, as is the use of real life characters as supporting characters to a fictional story. This is what kept me reading throughout its longer-than-needed page count as I allowed myself to immerse myself in cracking Corbin's genetic code and memories. It is a more interesting concept than that of simply being supernatural, and, in 1986, I imagine it would have been quite original. The characters themselves are likeable enough, though a few do tend to rely heavily on stereotypes. The hard-nosed ex-cop detective character, the scholared donor character, etc, etc. But these weren't enough to derail the story or my interest in it. The melodrama that the novel crescendo'd with did feel a little soap opera-esque, but was satisfying enough after the 500+ pages that preceeded it. The only real flaw I found with Maxim's writing style was his almost exhaustive detail in describing old New York; even when describing street names there was a constant sense of having a lot of information crammed into long sentences that became quite tiring. For those interested in the concept of genetic memories, then Time Out of Mind is a fun read that tackles the subject in the way the best sic-fi should be treated: seriously. What is first considered to simply be madness, soon evolves into so much more and allows the book to become a time travel novel with some actual depth to it.
The underlying idea of "genetic memories" is intriguing and "Time of of Mind" was my first exposure to the concept. John Maxim explores the implications of this concept in two ways. The main character, Corbin, experiences genetic memories, perhaps to extreme. Gwen is amazingly accepting of the idea of genetic memories and supports Corbin's efforts to probe the events that devastated his family some 60 years ago.The "blurb" for this book appealed, so I took advantage of $0 pricing to download the e-book edition a while back. And I did finish the whole thing. But it was a struggle, primarily because of formatting problems - hyphens everywhere and strange indents were very distracting. The pace for the first 65% of the book was very slow. The author took plenty of time to describe Corbin's genetic memories, but everyone around Corbin seemed too ready to accept the concept.Typically, when an e-book has so many formatting problems I will delete it after reading 5 to 10%. The fact that I finished this one despite the formatting problems is testament to the strength of the underlying storyline. A re-edit of the e-version will vastly enhance its appeal.
Do You like book Time Out Of Mind (1999)?
Interesting concept for a story: Johnathon is possessed by his grandfather Tilden's ghost, who shows Johnathon scenes from the past and takes over Johnathon's actions at times. The story covers Johnathon's and Tilden's lives, moving back and forth between them. Johnathon could be walking down a busy, modern New York City street and be confronted by buildings and people from the late 1800's or early 1900's. Could get confusing if you don't pay attention. Wasn't reformatted properly for Kindle and there are pagination marks in random places. Character names misspelled, some technical errors such as paragraphing. Needs editing, but the story itself was good.
—Kathy
