Reviews
Praise for Spring Forward : Just in the nick of time comes novelist Michael Downing with Spring Forward , a lively history aimed at debunking the ‘uncanny idea of falsifying clock time' . . . As the perceptive Mr. Downing observes . . . stripped of its bogus efficiency arguments, Daylight Saving Time amounts to an extra hour for shopping and golf . . . Spring ahead and fore!" — Wall Street Journal Downing's examples of the ravages of keeping time compete with one another for the most zany . . . [He] shows how Daylight Saving Time factored into the low-grade rural-urban civil war that began with industrialization and is today more commonly known as red versus blue . . . [Downing] performs the valuable service of forcing some realism into considerations of what Daylight Saving Time can actually accomplish." — The New Republic Michael Downing's merry new book, Spring Forward, tells the story of America's odd and chaotic movement to change time. . . . [You] can't talk about daylight saving without laughing, because the history is so wacky." — Boston Globe " Spring Forward offers not only a history of time in the United States (and, for that matter, in much of the world) but also a wryly humorous look at the perennial clash over the usefulness of Daylight Saving Time . . . Fortunately for readers, he presents both sides of the case with wry skepticism . . . It's entertaining, informative and—yes—as light as 8 p.m. in the last week in June." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch Spring Forward won't help you understand the wisdom of the practice, but it may help you laugh, especially as all the things you have been told over and over about daylight-saving time are revealed to be fiction. Downing's book won't make daylight-saving time more sensible, but it sure makes it more fun and hip to think about." — Sacramento Bee Tufts University lecturer Michael Downing asserts in his new book, Spring Forward that profit, not patriotism motivated some of the Daylight Saving Time backers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big department stores led the charge . . .'Whenever Americans turned ahead their clocks,' Downing writes in his book, ‘somebody turned a profit.'" — Cleveland Plain Dealer This short, jam-packed account by Downing rights the often misunderstood history . . . Downing brings it to life by dramatizing politicians and various industries pitted against one another in absurd, often hilarious debates. It's a colorful story of something we all take to be fundamental but through history has been maddening, divisive, and baffling." — Publishers Weekly Stirring us from our chronological complacency . . . Novelist Downing writes gracefully, with a penchant for the strange detail, and he draws much mirth from the facts about Daylight Saving Time and its amorphous benefits." — Booklist, "Downing's latest work combines art, art history, and Italian allure into a cerebral romance channeling love, loss, and the complexities of emotional closure . . . Line drawings, photographs, blueprints, and some exceptionally witty prose and banter complement this affecting story . . . vividly entertaining." -- Publishers Weekly "Downing's rich descriptions of the chapel in Padua and fastidious art lectures are reminiscent of the work of Dan Brown, but the mysteries here are mostly of the heart. This story of life after loss delivers equal measures of history and hope."-- Booklist " The Chapel is a rich and rewarding novel, by turns comic, thoughtful, nostalgic, and exuberant. I only put it down to browse airfares to Italy." --Valerie Martin, bestselling author of Italian Hours and Property "It's moving, funny, and memorable: a tale of the baggage we all travel with, a portrait of grief and regeneration, and a bittersweet love story in which the beloved is a 700-year-old work of art." --Joan Wickersham, bestselling author of The News from Spain and The Suicide Index "There are art lessons, history lessons, and life lessons here, and the amazing and original thing is how all the entanglements sustain the possibility of romance. Downing gives us a witty female narrator with the smarts to make us trust her story. It's bumper cars with biscotti and Prosecco."--Dennis McFarland, bestselling author of Nostalgia and The Music Room "At last, a love story for adults - wrapped in a sophisticated mystery about art, religion and the fragility of the human heart."-- Elizabeth Benedict, bestselling author of Almost and The Practice of Deceit "Clever, acerbic Liz is both terse and obliquely flirtatious with the many men she meets who tend, surprisingly, to be voluble, kindly and sometimes sexy . . . playful and erudite " -- Kirkus Reviews