Robin and Eleanor meet in 1811 at the British estate of Eleanor’s rich aunt Clara. Robin is about to leave to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, and Aunt Clara rules out a marriage between her niece and the handsome young soldier. Everyone Eleanor knows, including Robin, believe they’ve always lived in the early 19th century, in the Regency era that Jane Austen so vividly portrayed....
Neither sci fi nor romance, but a critically-acclaimed literary mash-up, Time Squared examines the roles women are forced to play in different centuries, the power they’re allowed, the stresses they face — and what this does to their relationships. Shakespeare famously wrote, "Love alters not when it alteration finds."Or does it?
(I skipped most of the summary because it's misleading and doesn't sound like the book I read. Maybe it was created from an earlier draft?)
If you're looking for a straight-forward historical romance, or a twisty time-travel tale, this might not be the book for you. Because (despite how it reads in the summary) this is a story that flows from one era to the next. With each jump forward, the world and the characters are adjusted to fit the new era. Occasionally, Eleanor will have flashes of other times, but she always quickly dismisses her confusion at the dissonance they create with her current life. These time jumps aren't resets, where Eleanor and Robin start their story over in a new time. Instead, their story is picked up and put somewhen new. (Occasionally, the characters reference things from the past, not realizing that they were the ones who actually experienced them. Maybe.) None of this is done in a flashy, loud manner, but rather -- like the life that Eleanor is living -- things are tweaked as the characters' stories move forward.
The result is a thought-provoking book.
The story examines the roles women are forced to play; it does this on 2 levels. On the 1st level, it felt like an old conversation to me, one that I've had/confronted reading other historical romances, where women are infantilized and marriage is the most a woman can hope for because they are given the tools or agency to do anything else. On the 2nd level, the ending makes a statement about what happens when women actually have agency and then use it.
The story made me think about what my life might have evolved from, if it was me instead of Eleanor in the hot seat. Also, what is the nature of the connections we have to one another?
When I was studying Russian literature, I was presented with an idea from the ancient Greek poet Archilochus: ‘The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Isaiah Berlin divides writers and thinkers into 2 categories: the Hedgehog, who has one single defining idea that they unfurl as time goes on, like a hedgehog uncurling as it gets more comfortable; and the Fox, who pops us here and there with nuggets of thought that they share when they appear. I would definitely put Krueger's story in the Hedgehog category.
This story also made me think about how, in literature, the passage of time can be likened to the flow of a river. While the symbol isn't used in this story, that idea is very apt when experiencing time in this story. As the story progressed and time flowed forward, it reminded me of that feeling you get when you float on a river, the ebb and flow of the water and the ways that sometimes it's peaceful, placid and deep, and other times it's fast and there are rocks to navigate and avoid. Time for Eleanor and the other characters is something that flows on, regardless of what era or war they're living through.
I was really struck by the violence and prevalence of war throughout the story. With every jump, there's a war that Robin/Robert/Rob is fighting in. From ancient Londonium to the war against Napolean to the Boer War to the Great War to WWII to the Korean Conflict to the Vietnam Conflict, on and on the death goes as men fight over who gets to control their corner of the world (while the women are left home to wait and wonder if they're going to make it back.) It's easy to get desensitized to just how violent human beings can be, but that's the ultimate nugget that I've been chewing on since I finished the book. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
If you want a story that's strong in swoon-worthy romance, that's not this read. I found it a little difficult to connect emotionally with these characters, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of the book. If you want something with lots of drama, angst or action, that's not this read. But if you like philosophical questions about human nature (like in the movie, Dark City), I think you'll enjoy this story. While there's no dramatic climax, when Eleanor confronts those who have been playing with their lives, life and time flow forward (with a small change of plans). If you're looking for something more character-driven, you've come to the right place. You may find that the character you examine most just might be your own.
4 stars.
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