or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last Oxford Time Travel, #2
Mass Market Paperback, 493 pages
English language
Published Dec. 14, 1998 by Bantam.
Ned is suffering disorientation, maudlin sentimentality and a tendency to become distracted by irrelevancies: classic symptoms of excessive time travel. And no wonder. Oxford's history department has just pulled him out of World War II and Ned's barely had time to wash off the gunpowder when he has a straw boater shoved on his head, a carpetbag in his hand and is thrown straight into Victorian England. For a holiday.
But an impossible accident makes it hard to relax. Ned's holiday becomes a mad struggle to put together a historical jigsaw puzzle involving a cat, a diary, young lovers and the mysterious bishop's bird stump. If he can't make all the pieces fit it could mean the end of history itself.
To Say Nothing of the Dog is a delightful and intriguing mystery spanning almost two centuries.
I did not expect much from this book. A Victorian comedy of manners? Not my usual fare. But it promised time travel, so I had to check it out, and I was richly rewarded in more ways than I expected. This book is so many things, but above all, extremely funny. A welcome change after all the dark apocalyptic dystopias I read in recent years. I want more.
This is just a really, really fun book. This isn't clear for the first few pages, which are, for some reason, the weakest part of the book, but once it gets going it's pretty amazing, funny, imaginative, clever. It's also intriguing, in that it delves deeply into the past but tells you very little about the present (there are apparently other related books, so perhaps one of them explains the modern world).
While it's not crucial, I'd say it's worth reading 3 Men in a Boat first just so you can catch a few clever references. Also you should read it because it's a really good book.
But you won't really miss anything if you skip that. The important thing is, you should read this book, because it's just really, really fun.
DNF
What ages would I recommend it too? – Fourteen and up.
Length? – A couple of days read.
Characters? – Memorable, several characters.
Setting? – Real World, past, present, and future.
Written approximately? – 1998.
Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Ready to read more.
Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? Perhaps. Some of the dates that are supposed to be in the past/future are fast approaching.
Short storyline: A fun and complicated time travel story full of adventure, history, and finding a way to fix the future without breaking the past.
Notes for the reader: Some repetition. I enjoyed learning the way this author makes time travel work.
My first experience with Connie Willis is her novel Doomsday Book, which is one of my all time favourites. Since To Say Nothing of the Dog is set in the same universe, I was expecting something similar. It wasn't, but that doesn't mean this book isn't still a great read. I loved the quirky humour that was splashed throughout the novel. And without trying to spoil anything, how everything tied together in the end was fabulous, thinking back to what had happened in the book, everything works and starts to fit into place. This is definitely a book to read multiple times.
This was an excellent merging of genres. Light tone, good humor, and still a good mystery/scifi/victorian romance that moves steadily. I didn't realize when I started that this is a companion volume to Willis' Doomsday Book. It stands alone quite well, but I'll have to read that first novel now.
I have probably passed this by several times because of the Victorian era setting, I get enough of that in mystery novels not desirable in my SciFi.
I did enjoy the book, with a well thought out unpredictable time travel plot.
A marrow is a sort of squash; imagine a zucchini. I mention this because you may otherwise be distracted from the delightful opening of this book. I wouldn't spoil you on the mystery of Mr. Spivens. When you discover it, you will feel delighted at having been deceived. But I'm fairly certain there was not meant to be any mystery about the marrows.
To Say Nothing of the Dog is my favourite novel written by Connie Willis. I love almost everything she writes, so this is not faint praise. The back piece says it is "at once a mystery novel, a time-travel adventure, and a Shakespearean comedy," which I feel is putting it fairly well. The title warns you that the author is fond of Jerome K. Jerome, and that there will be literary allusions. This is putting it mildly. Each chapter is headed by a quote; from Alfred Lord …
A marrow is a sort of squash; imagine a zucchini. I mention this because you may otherwise be distracted from the delightful opening of this book. I wouldn't spoil you on the mystery of Mr. Spivens. When you discover it, you will feel delighted at having been deceived. But I'm fairly certain there was not meant to be any mystery about the marrows.
To Say Nothing of the Dog is my favourite novel written by Connie Willis. I love almost everything she writes, so this is not faint praise. The back piece says it is "at once a mystery novel, a time-travel adventure, and a Shakespearean comedy," which I feel is putting it fairly well. The title warns you that the author is fond of Jerome K. Jerome, and that there will be literary allusions. This is putting it mildly. Each chapter is headed by a quote; from Alfred Lord Tennyson, Jerome K. Jerome, Lewis Carroll, and persons I have not heard of. The first chapter begins:
"It would have been nice to start fresh without those messy old ruins," she said.
"They're a symbol, my dear," said her friend.
Mollie Panter-Downs
CHAPTER ONE
A Search Party -- Wartime Headgear -- The Problem of Nepotism -- Royal Headgear -- The Bishop's Birdstump is Missing -- Jumble Sales -- A Clue to Its Whereabouts -- Astronomical Observations -- Dogs -- A Cat -- Man's Best Friend -- An Abrupt Departure.
I adore this, but if it bothers you, it's easily skipped.
The story is a bit reminiscent of an Elizabeth Peters mystery. The mystery is really more of a clotheshorse to hang the characters on, and unless you are serious about your mysteries, I don't think you will mind. If you are serious about your mysteries, you may mind, because I'm not sure that the author plays fair with the reader: knowing the solution, I don't really believe there was any way to derive it from the evidence presented.
Connie Willis is an author who, in my opinion, just keeps on getting better. This is good news for her readers, and also means that if you pick up some of her earlier work, you may be, as I am, somewhat amused.
