This Time Tomorrow-A Novel, Emma Straub, author; Marin Ireland, narrator
Alice works in the same private school she attended, ironically as an Admissions Officer. She has a boyfriend Matt, but she is not sure he is right for her forever. She carries a torch for a high school crush, Tom. On her fortieth birthday, Alice (from a privileged background), meets her best friend Sam (black female with male nickname), for dinner. She is called away when her husband, (implication incompetent babysitter, women are better), calls to tell her that her son might need stitches after a fall. Alice proceeds to eat the rest of the meal alone and then goes to a bar she used to frequent as a teen, with a false ID (not a good role model), and gets very drunk. Instead of going to her place, she walks to her dad’s. When she can’t get in, she falls asleep in the empty guardhouse, and so begins her odd journey through time. Alice is single, most of her friends' lives have moved in different directions. Could she have made better choices that might have given her a fuller life, with children? Time may tell!
When she wakes up the following morning, she is no longer in the guardhouse, but instead, she finds herself in her old bedroom, in her dad’s place. She has no idea how she got there. Soon she discovers that she is no longer 40. She is now about to have her Sweet Sixteen party! Each morning, when she wakes anew, she finds herself in another moment in that teen-aged time. As she time travels, will she discover anything about her real feelings for Tom? Does he care for her? Is he really Mr. Wonderful? Is she going to be able to help her dying father by making some small changes in his life, during each day she time travels, or is it too late? She is very close to him and filled with grief at the thought of his passing. How will she cope? How does anyone cope with loss? Will she be able to change her own life by making some little changes in her own choices? Does she have regrets?
Can she remain in these different time zones? Is she able to see the results of her choices and change herself? Do the little changes she has made alter the lives of others permanently, as she goes forward, or do things simply revert back when she wakes up to what they were originally? When it begins, she is alone caring for her dad, an only child of a divorced dad who had custody of her because her mom wanted her own life. Her mom marched to the beat of gurus, with curative crystals, et al. In the end, though, her father has a wife, Debbie. Was she real or a figment of her imagination or a result of time travel? Will these trips through time change her, as they changed her dad? If she keeps time traveling, can she keep her father alive and keep seeing him, preventing the impact of his death? Ursula, the well-loved cat, seemed to be the one constant that did not change as she traveled through time, one day at a time.
During his seventy years of life, late into his thirties, Leonard Stern began his career as an author. He had written two best-selling books separated by two decades. One was called Time Brothers and the second was Dawn of Time, Dawn being a person and not daybreak. In it, does Alice see a great deal of her own experiences? Was this book written in her time, or was it written because of changes she made as she time-traveled? Was she able to inspire him, help him to be happier and more successful? Could she make her own life more fulfilling?
*** disclaimer: The parenthesis above refer to emphasis on progressive issues in the book that did nothing to enhance the novel, but simply distracted me. The author included LGBTQ+ characters, multi-racial casts on TV, and electric cars, as well. Most of these facts were extraneous and unnecessary to the point of the story which seemed to be less about politics, and more about our choices, how we handle grief and move forward, and how we maintain our own state of being and happiness. Is it possible to recognize our own errors and correct them or relive them, even without time travel? As Alice travels largely between the memories of her 16th birthday and her current fortieth, is she able to make any permanent changes? Does she grow? As she relives the moments of her life between her 16th and 40th birthdays, and makes some different choices, is anything really resolved? Would this book be more appropriate for the Young Adult?

GreAt way to look at life