Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Book clubbing in November

It's that time of the month again...

My book club's November selection was To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.

Winner of the 1999 Hugo Award for Best Novel, To Say Nothing of the Dog is a time travel story set in England, primarily during the 21st Century and the Victorian era.

Publishers Weekly says of it: "Willis effortlessly juggles comedy of manners, chaos theory and a wide range of literary allusions [with a] near flawlessness of plot, character and prose." Personally, I thought the novel was overly long. I think some editing to make it shorter and more concise would yielded a much better endproduct.

I was a little disappointed in the romance between the two main characters (I liked how it concluded, but I think that there wasn't as much build up as I would have liked). One the other hand, I did enjoy the story and its premise. The time-lag was an especially good touch (so amusing to see its effect on the characters). And, being a cat lover, I appreciated the role that Princess Arjumand played in the comedy of errors.

3 comments:

  1. Soooo... if I liked Time Traveler's Wife, should I give this one a shot? Hmmm... yeah, like I need another book on my list.

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  2. It's really nothing at all like _The Time Traveler's Wife_
    It's very much a Victorian comedy of errors with some time travel stuff thrown in, but you may like it.
    I can send you my copy if you'd like ;)

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  3. Karen, this sounds pretty good. I read a Connie Willis book sometime ago and didn't care for it, but I think I'll put this on the list.

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