A few months ago I went to prepare some blind-date-with-a-book packages for a store event, and while pulling up some keywords to describe George Falls Through Time by Ryan Collett, I found myself unable to resist flipping through it.
What I found was not at all what I expected. The book presents itself as nothing but a silly time travel novel. From the cover you think you’re in for a sweet little adventure, only it is somehow also a meditation on the profound discomfort of living.
George is a neurotic and self-obsessed young man deeply trapped in the misanthropic malaise of millennialhood. He is so unhappy, in fact, that he opens up a portal in time and dumps himself straight into the Middle Ages. The journey that follows is utterly unpredictable. He loudly declares himself a time traveler, falls in love, befriends a dragon, and while he doesn’t at any point become less neurotic and self-obsessed, he becomes a character I can’t help but adore.
No matter how I try to describe this book, I can’t quite capture the beautiful writing and unexpected twists. I found it so wonderful that I couldn’t help but pull out a pencil to underline passages and soon found myself fully annotating it. It won’t be for everyone: It’s a bit too weird for that. But it is a book for anyone who’s ever felt lost in a place they know well or alone in a crowded room. This strange and stunning book is a perfect portrait of the human heart, and easily my favorite book of the last year.
H Rooker is the Assistant Store Manager at Still North Books and Bar, and a lifelong New Englander.
