Many Meetings, To Say Nothing of the Dog

[dr_tectonic]

I am FINALLY done with all the damn meetings at work. After getting back from a trip to California for meetings, I had two meetings (at the same time, because I am stupid and can't keep track of my appointments)on Monday afternoon. Tuesday was a meeting with people from a federal agency ALL DAY LONG, most of which wasn't really relevant to me, so thankfully I still had the laptop and was able to multitask. Wireless intarweb is teh awesome. And then yesterday was part two of the ALL DAY MEETINGS. That was much better, though, because it was all interesting and relevant, my presentation was easy and exactly as long as it was supposed to be, and we got to demo the game afterwards.

Today I actually got to write code, and it made me happy.

More importantly, I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis, and I can report to you, dear reader, that it is a great book that you should read. Very funny! It's pretty clever, because it's a nod to (sendup of?) a famous British comedy (Three Men In A Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome, subtitled "To say nothing of the dog"), a comedy of manners, AND a mystery novel. Oh, and there's time-travel, so it's technically science fiction. Mostly, it's a lot of fun, and the author does a really good job of keeping the reader just a few steps ahead of the characters, thereby deriving much humor and suspense, without making the characters dumb.

I had read a number of Connie Willis books before, and they were well-done, but not much fun, so I wasn't really sure why she was so acclaimed. Now I get it.

Comments

[eto-theipi.livejournal.com]

Great book. It's too bad that most of her other books dwell on such depressing subject matter.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

[...] does a really good job of keeping the reader just a few steps ahead of the characters, thereby deriving much humor and suspense, without making the characters dumb.

Ah: now I understand. To me, that felt like she was stringing me along, just as much as she was stringing the three characters along. I liked the puns, I liked many of the jokes, especially the horrendously named "Bishop's Bird Stump" and time-travellers scavenging the knickknacks of the ancient past... But ultimately, I didn't like To Say Nothing, and I was perplexed as to why the book got reasonably good reviews by others.

It isn't that I generically don't like mysteries, since I love Donald Westlake, whose mysteries share many of Willis's other qualities. (Though I suppose his might be classified as capers rather than mysteries?).

However, I did enjoy Bellwether by Connie Willis. Its radio adaptation on the CBC kept me good company last summer, the week I was painting our living-room.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

And dr tectonic should DEFINITELY read Bellwether, as it's more or less set in his vicinity.

I love Connie Willis. She's the only person I've ever read who can describe characters you want to climb into the book and strangle. (Doomsday Book in particular.) I would never have called To Say Nothing of the Dog a mystery, but again, I think she might lean a bit more toward "caper" as well.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Doomsday Book was wonderful. And i agree that some of the characters are worthy of strangling. Maisy (sp?) comes to mind from that one, for example.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Oh, right; I'd forgotten where Bellwether was set.

"She's the only person I've ever read who can describe characters you want to climb into the book and strangle."

Heh. Also Douglas Adams, maybe...?

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

There's this whole Agatha Christie homage subplot in TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG, too, which I think adds to its mystery feel.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I agree. I read Doomsday book along time ago, and it was okay, but To Say Nothing of the Time delighted me and entertained me in the midst of a difficult time. I also recommend Bellwether. It's "oh-so-90s," but very funny.

I also prefer her humor to her more serious books. Of course, humor is much harder to write.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

With the exception of PASSAGE (which I still found to have lto sof signature Willis humor moments) and her early books like LINCOLN'S DREAMS, I recall almost all of Willis' books as being more funny than not, but then my favorites of hers as BELLWETHER, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG, and MIRACLE AND OTHER STORIES.

All of Willis' collaborations with Cynthia Felice (PROMISED LAND, LIGHT RAID, etc.) are romantic comedies, and are fun enough reads.