New 09.07.03

I went off to Fort Collins, Colorado, in early June to "read" Advanced Placement exams. In this case "reading" is a euphemism for grading. Just under 12,000 students took the exam for comparative government and politics. Just under a dozen of us read their answers to a question about political participation in China. (Three dozen or so other people read the answers to the other three questions asked on the exam.) We began our workday at 8:00 AM and finished at 4:45 PM. There were evening seminars and social hours, but there's only so much of that organized activity any one person can tolerate. So, I ended up -- like I have in the past -- spending an hour or so most evenings reading. I grabbed two books to take with me that Nancy had liked. They were mysteries by Sujata Massey. She writes mysteries set in Japan. Her main character is an American whose father is Japanese. This young woman lives in Tokyo making a living as an English teacher and antique dealer. Turns out she also finds herself in the middle of murders as well. If that sounds unlikely, you should read the stories. I read about 75 pages of The Salaryman's Wife and another one I can't remember (and don't even want to look up). Unlikely things began happening. The young antique dealer/English teacher began taking it upon herself to solve criminal mysteries and right the world's wrongs. I can't suspend my disbelief enough to spend my time reading about stupidity and incredibly unlikely events. So, I went to the Colorado State University bookstore (which had a tinier selection of fiction than the Carleton College bookstore) and bought a science fiction novel. If I'm going to suspend disbelief, I'm going to do it about technology not human behavior. I don't read science fiction much any more (Vonnegut, Bradbury, and Varley have pretty much spoiled me). But I picked up To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. I remembered reading Willis' Remake a few years ago. I liked that book and disregarded my experience with Uncharted Territory. Suspend disbelief about time travel. Once that is done there's great shaggy dog story to enjoy. If you put this story on the little screen, it would be like a Fawlty Towers mystery. Silly people, slapstick comedy, and a mystery involving the paradoxes of time travel. Rather like an Einsteinian thought experiment done by John Cleese. It really was delightful even though crucial scenes took place during the World War II bombing of Coventry Cathedral. The story is set in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The dog in the title plays a small, but significant role in the 19th century events. The other people in my household (AKA Nancy and David) will be delighted to know that 21st century time travel is able to reestablish a population of domestic cats after they went extinct. (See it's absurd already. Who'd want to reestablish cats?) A note courtesy of my editor: The title of this book is the subtitle of Jerome K. Jerome's book, Three Men in a Boat. Jerome, two other men, and a dog appear briefly in the story told by Willis. And Willis' main character is mentioned in Jerome's book. Talk about literary time travel. Thanks, Nancy. It's a good book. Connie Willis gets a positive review from me. I finished the book too quickly. So I went back to the CSU bookstore and decided on another of her books to get me through the week (and the plane ride home). To Say Nothing of the Dog seemed like an exercise for working out the logic and logistics of her hypothetical time travel technology. In fact, it was written 5 years after the book I read next. The second book was The Doomsday Book. There is some humor in the book, but it's deadly serious -- as you might guess from the title. The original Doomsday Book was the record kept for William the Conqueror after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This one involves an historian's time travel to medieval England. Her goal is to evaluate modern understanding of the medieval period and the language of the "contemps," the people living in the 14th century. There's also a 21st century story of the people "left behind" by the historian. One of the reasons I like the science fiction of Vonnegut, Bradbury, Varley, and now Willis, is that it's good story telling about people. I don't enjoy science fiction that stars technology and theory. All these authors treat those things respectfully, but they write stories about people. The people of The Doomsday Book are the stars of the stories. Some vaguely described time travel technology may have sent a young undergraduate back to the 14th century, but the story is really about how someone deals with an alien and horrific environment. Willis could have set the story in China. Her young British historian could have found herself in the midst of the SARS outbreak as well as in the midst of an outbreak of plague in southern England. Had she done those things, her second story about the people left behind would have been very different and perhaps not had as much power. The story of those 21st century academics is nearly as powerful as the story of the historian stuck in the 14th century. The stories are about people, not technology or scientific theory. There's some comic relief in the 21st century story. Willis is good at that. But the stories here are well told and powerful. The characters are more than mere props to decorate the plot. I really liked this book. I may even go looking for others by Connie Willis. She may get me to think, grieve, laugh, cower, and enjoy some more. Anyone else have reactions to Connie Willis' fiction? Once again, I'd like to hear what someone else has to say. You can find Nancy's reviews of Bellwether and Remake at the ReadingOnTheWeb site if you want some other takes on Willis' fiction.

• Christina Shulman's review of To Say Nothing of the Dog at Epiphyte Book Review
• John Clute's review of To Say Nothing of the Dog at Excessive Candour
• Jayme Lynn Blaschke's review of The Doomsday Book at The Rambles
• Danny Yee's review of The Doomsday Book
• An interview with Connie Willis at SciFi.com