Time Travel Via Ill-Reputed Paths Is Tricky

A Shortcut In Time is a bit of an odd book. It's told by Josh Winkler, and starts with him relating how his younger brother's (Kurt) life was ruined when they were teenagers. Then it advances to his present, where he's an artist, and his wife, Flo, (whose life was also altered by the same incident that ruined Kurt's) is a successful pediatrician, and they have a teenage daughter, Penny, who is afraid of storms. The trouble starts when she's heading home from a friend's, and gets caught in a storm. She phones Josh from a random person's home (she sought refuge there), and Josh walks over to get her. As he does, using footworn paths called "perp walks" that run through part of town, the storm seems to stop. He reaches the man's house, but his daughter isn't there. Hasn't been there. Neither has the storm for that matter. At least, not for another fifteen minutes.

Yep, Josh somehow traveled back in time. Soon enough, he's met an oddly dressed girl named Constance, looking for someone named "Dash". Turns out she's from 1908. As Josh tells his family about all this, it achieves some level of notoriety in the town, since Penny can't keep it to herself. Flo is mostly annoyed by the whole thing, worried that it will attract sufficient attention she'll lose her special zoning that allows her to operate her business in her home. Against her advice, Josh tries to help Constance find her way home, while trying to keep her from learning too much about what's to come (not much success on that score). Then Penny vanishes, and Josh has to find some way to bring her back. Cue difficulties with not changing the past, and cue failure to avoid changing the past.

It's sort of an odd book. No real attempt to explain how the time travel works, or why it's happening at all is made, but that makes sense considering the characters. Outside of Josh, Constance, and Penny, no one really takes it terribly seriously, and those three are more concerned with achieving their various goals, rather than understanding how they're able to do so. Still, it is strange that one person travels 15 minutes back, another almost 100 years forward. A dog travels perhaps 30 seconds ahead, Penny travels almost 90 years back, and somehow, so does Josh. Why does he travel the same distance back that she does? No clue.

It is funny, though, watching Josh try to undo changes Constance made once she got home (and it's a bit evil how he does it), but then he turns around and makes changes as well, though he doesn't realize the severity of them until later. The other bit I like is that, having read the book jacket, I knew the book involved time travel going in. So by the end of the first chapter, I figured there would come a time when Josh would use the time travel to alter the course of Kurt's life. Dickinson plays around with that some, and I was suitably impressed with that twist. The other interesting bit is that when Josh makes it back home, he's befuddled by all the changes from what he knew. Over time, though, he gradually seems to know the new timeline, while still remembering the old one. It isn't that he learns people's names by talking to them, it's that eventually he just knows their name, because in this timeline, they're old acquaintances, so he would know them. It makes me wonder if, given sufficient time, he'll forget everything from his old timeline. That could have some interesting consequences, given the end of the story.

I like how most of the characters are written. Josh is a curious fellow, prone to being driven, but not always certain what is driving him. He cares for Penny deeply, and wants her to follow a path of her choosing, but he would really like it if that path would keep her close to him (emotionally, at least). Penny loves both her parents, but is independent enough she'll do as she pleases, but she's also deeply caring. Constance is driven, but devious, though she tries to play that off as the present corrupting her, but I don't buy that. There's Jack Ketch, childhood bully, who is fortunately barred from gaining too much power as an adult by his stupidity and love of abusing power.

Then there's Flo. I suppose I understand her annoyance with the whole thing, and what she feels is Josh's obsession with it. She's the primary breadwinner, and him talking about time travel is hurting her business. At the same time, she is so completely unsupportive, I thought I was watching a sports movie. I half expected a scene on a staircase where Josh proclaims he's going to travel back and find Penny, only to have Flo exclaim, "You can't do it, Josh!" Maybe Dickinson is making a point about people coming together in tragedy, that it's nice, but it doesn't last because eventually the memory of the tragedy fades?

I will say the end seems rather abrupt. Josh spends seemingly a lot of time in 1918, wandering around, talking to people, trying to get some food, trying to figure out how to save Penny, but the resolution once he's back home comes quickly. Remaining questions and difficulties are wrapped up in the space of a few pages, when I would have liked to have seen those in greater depth, or seen the story carry on beyond where it ends. I suppose Dickinson decided to leave that to our imagination. Somewhat weak ending and inconsistent time travel usage aside, I thought it was a good book. I think it's more about the characters, and the time travel serves as a tool for them to learn things about how they relate to one another, their differences, and similarities.