To Say Nothing of the Dog

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a lighthearted romp through time. The first part is an homage to Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. The later part contains many many allusions to Agatha Christie's and others' mysteries of the nineteen thirties. The butler did it. There are a thousand little loose ends which all get tied up into an opaque knot in the end. The primary loose end is the bishop's bird stump. I had no idea what this was, until finally I figured it out about two-thirds of the way through. There really is such a thing as a bird stump. Google it.

I'm not a big fan of Connie Willis's signature style of story telling. When someone asks a question, there is an interruption, a distraction, a mind-wandering -whatever, but the question isn't answered. Conversations are disjointed. There are frequent misunderstandings. People don't pay attention to what others are saying. Nobody ever finds out what they want to know because their questions are answered with non sequiturs. It's cute, in small doses, but in To Say Nothing of the Dog, as well as in most of Willis's other novels, it goes on and on for 500 pages. (Doomsday Book is an exception to this. It is more somber in tone, and also Willis's best effort.)

It took me forever to read this book. It would have made a nice novella. I finally got into it about two-thirds of the way through. It was pleasant enough and I can't say I didn't enjoy it. But, now that I've read all of her best known books, I expect this will be my final Connie Willis novel.