To Say Nothing of the Dog

[jack]

Have you all read Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K Jerome) yet? Do so! It's the funniest book I've ever read, bar none. Three late-nineteenth-century young men take a boating holiday up the Thames, with many digressions, but the simplest things are described in such a way to leave you literally gasping for breath. Does anyone else agree or disagree?

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a time-traveling homage to that book, by Connie Willis. I love the set-up, with people madly running round half-cocked trying to achieve unlikely things and being impelled into Victorian boating holidays, and all of the echoes of TMiaB are well done; lots of touches and attitudes make me smile.

Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy the book as a whole. It -- inevitably -- didn't capture a lot TMiaB's humour, and the style, while nice, never really made me laugh. The characters were pleasant, but I never really cared about them. So all in all, a nice book but a slight miss for me. However, I might try another book by Willis: I get the impression it could all come together very well if things were just a bit different.

Comments

[bouteillebleu.livejournal.com]

I have a few more of Connie Willis's books if you'd like to try another one.

There's Passage, about a researcher into near-death experiences, somehow involving the Titanic; Bellwether, about a researcher into fads who manages to get funding for a project involving sheep; and Doomsday Book, which I believe involves the same time-travelling system as To Say Nothing of the Dog, but a different main character, and is set during the fourteenth century. (It's the only one of those three I've not read.)

I liked Three Men in a Boat, but read it after To Say Nothing of the Dog and thus enjoyed it for different reasons. And my favourite part of To Say Nothing of the Dog was the time-travel system, rather than the characters or the plot.

Something I noticed in Passage and Bellweather is that the male secondary characters/romantic interests were characterised in almost exactly the same way (both books have female main characers). Willis has lots of interesting ideas, but I'm not sure that her characterisation is as good.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I have a few more of Connie Willis's books if you'd like to try another one.

Thank you! I may come back to her at some point, currently I have other things more urgent to read :)

And my favourite part of To Say Nothing of the Dog was the time-travel system, rather than the characters or the plot.

That was quite nice. It felt just a bit fudged to me, but it was an interesting and effective system.

rambling

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I have a collection of her short stories, Impossible Things, which ISTR was quite fun, though evidently not as memorable for me as, say, Egan's, Niven's or Harrison's shorts.

(Actually, the collection isn't really mine; it was lent to me by one of the organisers of the Eastercon where Willis was a guest of honour - Wikipedia helpfully reminds me that this was 1998. However, since the lender in question has since moved to the States and we've pretty much lost contact, I guess it's mine by default :-)

(That reminds me, I have an even older loan that I never managed to return. The Pooh Perplex was lent to me by one of our team in the IMO that was held in Russia - Wikipedia helpfully reminds me that this was 1992 - when he and I were friends as undergrads. I didn't give it back because we had a drunken encounter after our matriculation dinner, and were too embarrassed to speak to each other afterwards...)

Re: rambling

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

LOL. I know the feeling. I still keep books not really mine separate, but I know that's going to break down eventually.

[fanf]

I think Willis is better at shorter lengths: her thin characterization and monotonous hilarity irritate me less.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

LOL. Harsh, but could be wise -- that sounds plausible, I may choose that if I return.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

I adore Three Men in a Boat. It is just hilarious. :-)

As for Connie Willis, I think I like Bellwether better than To Say Nothing of the Dog, and indeed than anything else of hers I've read.