To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at… (1998)

Six-word nonreview: Donated it to the library unfinished.

Extended nonreview:

Two days ago I posted on another thread that I was a third of the way through To Say Nothing of the Dog and wondering why I didn't quit. It's not that it lacks charm, I said, but it's so inflated with excess and repetitive verbiage that it's like trying to make a meal out of popcorn. Halving the words might have doubled the worth.

I decided to put it aside and start something else, just to see if I had any urge to come back to it and find out what happened.

I didn't.

Today I dropped it into the library's donation box along with Doomsday Book. I hope they'll both wind up in the hands of a potential fan who'll love them for all they're worth and not be bothered by all the vacuous verbosity.

There'll be no more of this author for me.

(not rated)

This was my second time travel novel by Connie Willis, and I found it much more entertaining than the previous one I read, Doomsday Book, even though I found its Victorian setting much less compelling than the medieval, plague-filled one of the earlier book. However, this one was put together much better, with less that seemed extraneous, and I was impressed both by Willis's characterization and with the way she wove together various time periods.

The book works on various levels as Ned Henry is sent back to Victorian era Oxford to attempt to fix an "incongruity," essentially the transport of something from the past to the present (2057, in this case) (or vice versa) that doesn't belong there and that can alter the course of history, and a whole mess of complications ensue. The plot gives Willis the opportunity to satirize various aspects of Victorian (and contemporary) society, including class relationships, sexual hypocrisy, spiritualism, and jumble sales; set characters to arguing about what drives history, individual actions or impersonal events; discuss the Battle of Waterloo; illustrate the relationship of the bombing of Coventry Cathedral by the Nazis with British determination to keep their ability to decipher coded German military orders a secret; analyze several decades worth of British mystery novels; and observe various romances in progress. What pulls all of this together, and makes the book a page turner, are her wonderful characters (both two-footed and four-footed), her lively and often funny writing style, the meditations on the little things that change the course of history, and her pacing. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998) by Connie Willis is the third work in Willis’ time-travel series, all following the exploits of the “historians,” i.e., University of Oxford history students from the future. Her first Oxford time-travel work was a short story entitled Fire Watch (1982), followed by the novels: Doomsday Book (1992), To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998), Blackout and All Clear (both 2010). All four of the novels won Hugo Awards, and all but To Say Nothing of the Dog also won Nebula Awards. I must say immediately that I have read all four of these time-travel novels and I liked all of them very much. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a very good yarn that focuses on two Oxford “historians” from 2057. Ned Henry travels back to the site of Coventry Cathedral (England) just prior to and after it was destroyed by Nazi bombs in 1940. Ned is researching, trying to get a look at, and to determine the current status (whereabouts) of a flower container from the cathedral called “The Bishop’s Bird Stump.” If located, it (or a facsimile) will be used in a newly built recreation of the old cathedral. Unfortunately, the bird stump is not found in the cathedral, requiring Ned to go further back in time attempting to find it. Verity Kindle, who is researching another time and place in Victorian England accidently brings something from 1888 back to 2057, which may cause potentially serious incongruities in the flow of time, i.e., history could change. It is feared that these incongruities might result in different outcomes for British and German troops during WWII. Ned and Verity eventually work together in Victorian England to try to resolve the time incongruities and to stabilize the course of history. Like Willis’ other time travel novels, the reader is immersed in other times and cultures, meets many interesting characters, and tours English locales. In addition, the reader enjoys many twists of plot and shares the characters’ frustrations, hardships, and dangers in addition to their joy and happiness. Willis also includes humor in this novel, and I must say that I could have done without most of it, although I found it mildly amusing at times. I also found the Victorian English society portrayed in this book to be irritatingly pompous and silly. However, I plowed through those lengthy chapters and was rewarded during the compelling last 25% of the book. I enjoyed the way Willis enmeshed the time incongruities and the search for the “Bishop’s Bird Stump.” Overall, I thought it was another very well-written and enjoyable time-travel book by Connie Willis. BTW: The title of this book comes from the subtitle of Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog (1889). ( )

I finished this book about five minutes ago. I've been practically unable to put it down since I picked it up yesterday morning (screw all your practical reasons for not reading like work, socializing, food... I mean, who really needs to sleep, anyway?).

Basic premise: In the year 2057, a domineering aristocrat has financed the reconstruction of Coventry Cathedral to its prior glory (it was decimated in a Nazi blitz in 1940). To make the cathedral historically accurate, she's shanghaied every historian in the UK to search out the artifacts. As historians, each is prepped in his or her scholarly field, then sent through time to observe history in the making. Unfortunately, the safeguards fail and a historian accidentally brings something back from the Victorian era, potentially altering the space-time continuum and putting the threads of reality dangerously close to paradox.

Enter Ned, a time-lapse sufferer, who, under Lady Shrapnell's insistence, has made far too many time jumps in too short a timeframe and come close to a nervous collapse. He disappears into the Victorian era to hide from the shrill matron and try to set right the fabric of time. On the way, he meets an affectionate bulldog, a bumbling Oxford don, a proprietary pussycat, and prevents a Classics major from meeting his One True Love. The historians try to fix time and find the lost artifact (the bishop's bird stump) before the universe implodes.

That, and there's a lot of adjustment to Spiritualism, Victorian manners, and jokes about Jeeves, Lord Peter Whimsey, discussion on the nature of a good mystery (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayrs, Wilkie Collins, et. al), and a few church bazaars with the dreaded jumble sales.

The writing is phenomenal. I can't believe I hadn't read Connie Willis before now! This book had me laughing aloud and wishing there was more so that I wouldn't be done yet. I'm definitely reading some of her other stuff. I figured out the twists partway through, but that's mainly because I've read a lot of mysteries. It didn't hamper my enjoyment at all. In fact, I liked knowing more than the heroes (though, to be fair, I am not time-lagged and hallucinating. I am merely an insomniac). To say nothing of the cats (or the dog, who was quite lovable) and the time-traveling historians. TIME TRAVELING HISTORIANS.

So yeah. This is a great book. Go read it. ( )

Great fun! No skimming here - didn't want to miss the delightful turns of phrase. ( )