Pills with strange powers allow a dying doctor a chance to revisit
and perhaps alter his past.Musso's tale of time travel comes up
flat. When his protagonist, 60-year-old doctor Elliott Cooper, on a
humanitarian mission to Cambodia, operates and mends a child's
cleft palate, a village elder asks the doctor to name his greatest
wish. Cooper replies that he wants to go back to the '70s and save
the life of a woman he loved. The elder hands Cooper a blown-glass
bottle containing ten golden pills. The pills take Cooper where he
wants to go, though he's never sure if they're just inducing
dreams, however vivid. And though he tracks down Ilena, his lost
love, Elliott, in his trips into the past, must also confront the
taunts of a nearly derelict man dying of lung cancer. The man turns
out to be Elliott in the present. Saving Ilena raises complications
involving a child Elliott fathered and his lifelong friendship with
another friend, Matt. Musso's premise and the question it raises -
can one revisit the past and alter the present and future? -
produce a modicum of suspense. But even if read as a treatment for
a screenplay, the narrative is thin and unsatisfying. As
characters, Elliott, Matt and Ilena are virtually ciphers, defined
by notes on their careers and by brief physical sketches. Dialogue
is stilted and the prose offers more than a few howlers: "a
fingerprint is a unique work of art that takes place in the months
before birth"; "he'd thought this whole time traveler business was
trouble."A wearying commute through time. (Kirkus Reviews)
To all appearances, Eliott's life has been a success. At 60, he is
an esteemed surgeon with a daughter he adores. The only thing
missing is Ilena--a beautiful, generous-hearted girl who died 30
years ago. But when he is given an extraordinary opportunity to
revisit his past, Eliott suddenly finds himself in 1970s San
Francisco searching for the passionate young doctor who has yet to
lose the love of his life. What ensues is a story full of
intelligence, hope, and humor about making the right choices and
trying to keep what we most desire.
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