Constantly Moving the Bookmark

Imagine walking down the street in 1988 San Francisco, seemingly lifting your foot to take a step … and when you put that foot down you have been transported to 1897 Vienna. This is exactly what happens to Stan “Wheeler” Burden. While in Vienna he has encounters with the current mayor and just-stirring anti-semite Karl Lueger, the artist Klimt, and finds himself taking room and board with Sigmund Freud. Add to this mix his grandparents (could he really fall in love with his grandmother? … hmmm, Freud’s Oedipal complex personified?) and his deceased father, who died in a WWII prison camp. Obviously his father has some very strong feelings about Adolf Hitler, who in 1897 happens to live less than one hour outside of Vienna and is 9 years old.

I found this book an interesting read. BUT – like all time travel books, which I find thought-provokingly frustrating but which I continue to read - it led to a lot of “what would I do” type questions about the pros and cons of changing history.