Reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Jun. 17th, 2020 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartI 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.
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.
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Date: 2020-06-18 12:16 pm (UTC)