I went into this with no small amount of hesitancy, but also no expectations or idea what it was about. I decided to read it because I felt like I’d been seeing it everywhere, heard a few people say they enjoyed it, and was curious. Plus it was available at my library. The hesitancy part was because I’ve read another of Emma Straub’s books, The Vacationers, and it wasn’t a hit for me. But there have been plenty of authors who have been responsible for books I’ve loved and books I haven’t, so I decided to give her another shot.
This book has an interesting premise, though I didn’t know that going into it. It’s about a woman who is about to turn forty. She works at the exclusive school she attended in New York, lives alone, has a casual relationship she doesn’t really want to make more serious, and spends a lot of time visiting her sick father (her only family) in hospital as he slides slowly towards end-of-life.
She isn’t necessarily unhappy with her life, but nor is she completely satisfied. Those around her seem to have so much more certainty about their lives, and she often feels a bit left behind. Her best friend is always there for her, but also has a family and lives out in New Jersey, so they don’t have the kind of close and frequent contact they did when they were younger.
On her fortieth birthday she ends up alone in a bar, and instead of heading home after her night out decides to head to her father’s old apartment. But when she gets there it’s the early hours of the morning and she can’t find her keys. Rather than waking up the neighbours, she decides to curl up in the shed and sleep it off. She wakes the next morning… in her childhood bedroom, in her own bed, and she’s no longer forty. She’s sixteen. So begins a crazy adventure of reliving old parts of her life, making different choices, and seeing what happens to her current life when she does.
What I really loved about this book is that it’s so much about her relationship with her father, and discovering which choices she would make again and which she’d change. And they’re not necessarily the ones she might have expected. Throughout the whole book she learns so much about what it means to be a healthy adult, how important her relationship with her father is, and what she would do for his happiness as well as her own. I loved this relationship so much. I loved how they relate to each other, how they love one another, their unconventional relationship and how it has informed how they have walked through their lives (both separately and together) and the decisions they have made. This book attempts to answer that question we all hold in our minds as we reach middle age and look back on the choices we have made: would I be happier if I’d done things differently? What would have happened if I’d stayed with that person or told that person how I really felt about them? Would I be happier if I’d chosen a different career? If I’d had (or not had) kids? It’s fascinating to see which decisions made a difference, which didn’t, and how she feels about her life after making a small change with big consequences.
Weirdly, this book was pleasantly surprising. While I went into The Vacationers with very high hopes only to be disappointed, this book was the opposite for me. It’s not a favourite of all time or anything, but it was entertaining, had me wanting to see what would happen, and decently invested in the characters. I didn’t hate the time travel, which surprised me (I considered bailing when I realized that’s what it is about – I know, I should really read the blurbs before I get into books, but in this case it worked out well that I didn’t!). I loved the wisdom she gains through this experiment. And I was deeply invested in her relationship with her Dad, and her Dad in general as he’s pretty cool. It was a sweet story, nostalgic, wistful, and left me feeling oddly comforted that maybe my life wouldn’t have been better if I went back and fixed the things I regret. Maybe I’m right where I’m supposed to be, and either way, I’m actually pretty lucky. It’s a good one if you’re feeling a bit jaded, getting older and struggling with it, or looking for a strong family connection story.
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 that she would change if she could? – Goodreads
Book Title: This Time Tomorrow
Author: Emma Straub
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: Riverhead Books
Released: May 17, 2022
Genre: Fiction, Family, Time Travel, Regret, Life Choices
Pages: 310
Date Read: March 25-April 3, 2023
Rating: 6/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.81/5 (90,843 ratings)
