Review: To Say Nothing of the Dog

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One tends to be afraid of reading series out of order. You never know what important things you'll miss, but it is very likely that you'll miss key points. Not here. The first novel (but not first story) set with the Oxford Time Travelers is Doomsday Book, but it gave you just about as much info going in as this one does. Read away, order irrelevant.

At any rate, the story is about nothing. It's practically a Victorian Seinfeld. I mean, there is a plot, something to do with a lady obsessed with rebuilding Coventry Cathedral to its exact condition the day it was destroyed in the firebombings in WW2. But it's not what it's about but how it gets there. It almost feels like a Vonnegut novel in the utter ordinariness of the characters, how even with the weirdest circumstance, people are just fundamentally focused on their own needs and wants. (Obviously, I suppose). But it's so pointless. So inconsequential.

DOesn't sound like a recommendation, does it? Well, it is. Read it.

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