Yzabel / February 5, 2015

The Mindtraveler by Bonnie Rozanski

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

What woman of a certain age doesn’t sometimes look upon her life and wish she could go back and do it all over again?

With more of her life behind her than ahead, Margaret Braverman, a physicist teaching at a small college, cannot help but regret the things she never quite got right. Most important among them was the tragic ending of her romance with her brilliant colleague Frank, something she has never gotten over. Then there is the prospect of restoring the respect of her colleagues after that unfortunate incident where she set her hair on fire. And, of course, it would be glorious to get even with that mean-spirited, conceited, womanizing Caleb Winter.

Fortunately, after years of experimentation in the back room of her lab, Margaret has finally built a time machine. The key, she discovered, is in teleporting not the body but the mind. And so, at 5:03 p.m. on May 3, 2012, Margaret teleports her mind to her 1987 self.

Though her body is that of a 35-year-old, the narration and point of view is that of her older self. “60″, as she calls herself, feels everything but can’t move a muscle. All she can do is to passively witness what she lived once before, and, until she figures out how to influence things, nothing is going to change.

Review:

(I got a copy from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars. Mixed feelings here.

On the one hand, it was permeated with a mellow, nostalgic atmosphere that I found pleasant. Not because of the events that unfolded in the past—some of those raised serious matters, like destroying a family, the glass ceiling, what it meant to be a woman in a place dominated by a patriarchal hierarchy. Because of how Margaret saw the past through the eyes of her younger self, with the hindsight of 60 years of life. As she was basically a silent passenger in the back of 35!Margaret’s head, she could easily reflect and contemplate on that world she didn’t remember accurately, and relive these memories in a way that would allow her to treasure them (seeing her parents again, for instance).

The ending was in part predictable, in part surprising (the twist with the student, all making sudden sense when you think about it), in part unavoidable, and I liked the latter aspect: I don’t think I would’ve wanted a too well-wrapped ending, with nice ribbons around. The one the author chose to go with seemed to fit Margaret’s character better than a “quieter” one.

A huge downside for me was the “silent passenger” side of the plot. For about 70-75% of the story, 60!Margaret can’t do much more than lift a few fingers, which forces her in an extremely passive role (somewhat reminiscent, though, of what 35 had to go through: “be a nice girl and shut up when it comes to the important stuff”—the echo wasn’t lost on me). It made up for a very awkward transition when she suddenly finds herself doing so much more, and as a result, the last chapters felt disconnected and in a hurry. It would’ve been more seamless if she had gradually started to do more, perhaps while her younger self was asleep/unaware of her “passenger”.

The romance aspect I could’ve done without. It wasn’t a breaker because it was romance, but it tended to obfuscate Margaret as a person who could make a life for herself—as in,” who cares about academic recognition and a whole career, as long as I can have The Man?” (This clashed with Margaret’s views on life, with her way of always deciding for herself, even if that mean making a bad decision, with her aims of becoming a researcher and getting tenure, etc.) This is why, I think, I’m glad the ending was what it was, and I can’t help but wonder what she would do afterwards: enjoy the good or moan about the bad?

As for the characters themselves, mostly they weren’t that enjoyable, unfortunately, either because they were greedy, sleazy or cowards, or just not impressive. This is humanity in a basket, I suppose, but a few more positive people to balance it out would’ve been nice. The mellow/nostalgic side of the novel would’ve made a stronger impression on me, too, if I had had a better feeling for them.

Not a bad novel, all in all, and the concepts and ideas it raised were definitely interesting. Unfortunately, in the end, it remained in the “just OK” category for me.