Reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog

[white_hart]

I tried reading Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog about thirteen years ago and bounced off it very hard (mostly due to Americanisms and geographical inaccuracies in Willis's depiction of Oxford), but I always had a sneaking suspicion that I'd done it a disservice and, having picked up a secondhand copy last year, thought I'd give it another try.

In fact, I barely noticed the geographical inaccuracies that had bothered me so much this time round. Maybe years of watching Lewis and Endeavour have inured me to the kind of liberties fiction takes to the geography of Oxford. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a comic time-travel romp which also pays homage not only to Three Men In A Boat (as is fairly obvious from the title), but to Golden Age detective fiction in general and Lord Peter Wimsey adn Harriet Vane in particular. It was entertaining and charming, and I particularly loved how well it evoked the lower Thames valley in glorious June weather.

I did think that it felt quite old-fashioned (it was published in 1998, which doesn't really feel like it's that long ago though I suppose it is really); mostly in the lack of diversity of the characters, although Willis's 2057 Oxford also felt oddly dated, with all the senior posts held by men and characters addressing each other formally rather than using first names (and I couldn't understand why no-one seemed to have a doctorate). Also, for a historian, the narrator appears to know startlingly little about history (to be honest, he knows startling little for a member of the general public). But it was a fun, light read when I really didn't want anything too demanding or difficult, and I'm glad I finally read it.

Comments

[white_hart]

I've been told that one of the others has, among other things, characters waiting for a Jubilee Line train during WW2 (they'd have had a long wait given that the line didn't open until 1979). So I think it is a general problem.

[callmemadam]

Hah! Connie Willis is not alone in making these howlers. I can't remember the book title or the author, but characters caught a train at Blandford Forum years after the station had been closed in the Beeching cuts. It drives me mad, so perhaps Connie Willis is not for me.

[white_hart]

I suppose it depends a bit on how well you know the places concerned!

[legionseagle]

In Doomsday Book you can see London from near Oxford.

[white_hart]

A reflection on the likely increase in urban sprawl over the first half of the 21st century?

[legionseagle]

No: you can see London from near Oxford in 1348

[white_hart]

*facepalm*

[legionseagle]

This provoked me to pull out this on Doomsday Book from 2015

[ankaret]

I nearly sent a train to Southampton Central when it should have been going to the docks in Anna Chronistic 1, and even though I have the cop-out of parallel universes I still go cold when I think about it.