To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis was a disappointment. Did this actually win a Hugo Award? I can’t see how unless every other novel was written in Pig Latin that year. Okay, that’s harsh. But really, To Say Nothing of the Dog was a rambling, slow, predictable book with one-dimensional characters and little in the way of new thought on time travel.
Perhaps it would be more enjoyable if I’d read Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, of which Willis leans on heavily in the plot. Or maybe if I liked Jane Austen style etiquette and dialog. Yet, I don’t think either of those are the real culprits. I’m not a huge fan of Jane Eyre but I thoroughly enjoyed The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
No. Instead I think To Say Nothing of the Dog is a literary gimmick gone awry.
The story revolves around locating something called the Bishop’s Birdstump in a nearly manic effort to rebuild the Coventry Cathedral. To do so, they send Ned Henry back in time to the 1940s, just before the Cathedral was damaged in a bombing raid.
Soon Ned is pulled off of this dreadful project to help rectify a potential incongruity in the time continuum, caused by bringing a cat (extinct in the future) back from the Victorian era. Predictably, this new mission intersects with finding the Bishop’s Birdstump. At the same time, Ned falls for Verity Kindle, the operative who accidentally saved the cat in the first place.
Yes, it’s contrived. In addition, there’s little to no background or depth to Ned or Verity which leaves the romance absolutely dead on the page. Willis should look to the moving The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger on how to effectively weave romance into time travel.
There is one small theme in To Say Nothing of the Dog that does work and deserves attention. Willis explores the idea that very small things can have large consequences on history. Could indecipherable handwriting have changed the course of history at the battle of Waterloo? While I can’t say that this is a new concept, Willis presents many interesting examples for the reader to ponder.
But that’s not nearly enough to offset the pages and pages of predictable, dull and shallow material. Willis seems to have a good reputation so I may give her another try, but I simply can’t recommend To Say Nothing of the Dog.
