Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

I have been a fan of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. since I read Slaughterhouse Five when I was 12 years old. Most people said that a 12-year-old is too young to read and understand this book. Maybe it’s true and I have been badly warped by exposure at too young an age to the world of Vonnegut, but I must say I have enjoyed it immensely along the way.

Timequake is Vonnegut’s “last” novel, written in 1996 while his brother Bernard was dying of cancer. Vonnegut, now 83, has kept his promise and not published any more novels. Timequake could be the great writer’s swan-song and it serves the purpose well.

This book only very loosely fits into the category of alternate history, but Vonnegut’s writing has always defied genre. He is usually lumped in with science fiction writers, but what he writes about is the human heart and human memory.

Vonnegut says Timequake should really be called Timequake Two and he says that it is based on a long novel he had been writing for several years. This novel, if it ever existed, refused to be written and turned into a jumble of meaningless words and punctuation marks. In the new version of the book Vonnegut says he has filleted the story and given us the choicest pieces.

What we get is a rambling and sentimental elegy to Vonnegut’s family and the last part of the life of the great unpublished science fiction writer Kilgore Trout. Trout, who you may remember from Breakfast of Champions among others, is Vonnegut’s alter ego -- the writer as failure. In the 60s Trout had some stories and several novels published as parts of pornographic magazines. He also had a series of novels published with pornographic illustrations.

By the 1990s Trout is a derelict living in a homeless shelter “way the hell and gone” on the Eastside. He continues to write science fiction stories daily and he deposits them directly into a trash can on the corner near his shelter.

On February 13, 2001 a Timequake occurred that zapped the planet back in time to February 17, 1991. Now for a decade everyone is forced to relive their lives day by day. They can’t change anything, but they are very aware that they are reliving events. If horrible things happened to you in the 90s, then they would happen again just as before. All mistakes, all accidents, all crimes and triumphs happen again just as they did.

When the date reaches February 13, 2001 again, then suddenly free will comes back. Everyone is free to do or say whatever they want. The problem is that everyone is so used to sleepwalking through their lives that first it takes them a while to even realize that things are no longer the same. Second most people have no idea what to do with their free will and many people just don’t care.

If you are a Vonnegut fan you will enjoy this book. If you haven’t read his work yet, I suggest that you don’t start with this book. You could start with one of two novels that he wrote as a mature writer at the height of his power: Hocus Pocus or Bluebeard. Or you could go back to the classics of his youth: Slaughterhouse Five; Cat’s Cradle; Sirens of Titan; Mother Night. Definitely read Vonnegut.

In the end Vonnegut’s work could be boiled down to one sentence. It is the disclaimer for his last novel: All persons living and dead are purely coincidental.

Liverpool Fantasy by Larry Kirwan

What if the Beatles had broken up in 1962? Maybe not the most burning question of history, yet Larry Kirwan creates a bleak picture of the world without the Beatles. Kirwan does two things very well in this book: he captures the voices of the Beatles beautifully, especially John Lennon, and he writes about music as only a musician can.

The book opens with a scene from 1962 in the recording studio. Brian Epstein is pushing for the release of Till There Was You a sentimental ballad from the Broadway show The Music Man. The song is about as far from the raw sound of the early Beatles as you could get. John is pushing for the release of Please Please Me as the follow up to their first hit Love Me Do.

In the heat of the argument John walks out of the studio and Ringo and George go with him. Paul stays and that is the end of the Beatles.

We pick the story up 25 years later in 1987. John Lennon is an alcoholic unemployed musician in Liverpool hanging out with Gerry Marsden (of the Pacemakers) and Billy J. Kramer, Ringo and the other has-been-that never were stars of the defunct Mersey Beat. England is in turmoil as the street toughs, including Julian Lennon, of the Fascist National Front challenge the government for power.

Paul McCartney, now known as Paul Montana, is one of the biggest draws in Las Vegas and has a hit prime time TV show, but things are starting to slip. About to marry his fourth wife, an ex-prostitute, Paul has a string of ex-wives including Nancy Sinatra and Cher and a $50,000 monthly nut to make. When his TV show is canceled Paul decides to return to his roots in Liverpool.

George Harrison a parish priest, recovering form a nervous breakdown, quits the ministry and returns to Liverpool to try to recapture what might have been. Meanwhile, Ringo remains faithfully beside his friend John, and uses his allowance from his hair salon owning wife, Maureen, to support their drunken escapades.

The politics and history are a very minor part of the book. The British turn toward Fascism is the most important point. In America Spiro Agnew seems to be President and America has been in a long-time war in Iran.

The story focuses on the meeting of the old friends on an evening in Liverpool. In the drama that ensues Kirwan explores the vagaries of friendship and fame, along with the power of the moment. This is the essence of alternate history, the moment when things can change. If we take this action, one thing will be, if we fail to take this action the other thing will be.

In the tragedy of John Lennon we see the power of that moment and its elusiveness. Kirwan seems to say that once the moment is past it is gone forever. Maybe he is right, because once the moment is past the world as it was no longer exists, but maybe every moment is the moment.

Liverpool Fantasy by Larry Kirwan

Drive to the East by Harry Turtledove

The second book in Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series tells the story of the American Stalingrad which takes place in Pittsburg, 1942. This is the third trilogy to spin off from Turtledove’s novel How Few Remain, telling the story of how the Confederate States achieved their independence in 1863.

I love Turtledove. For a long time it seemed like he was the only writer working in the alternate history genre. Now there are a lot of good writers dabbling in the alternate history. It’s great to get back to basics. Turtledove has a knack for spinning a multigenerational yarn on the thread of solid alternative history research.

All of the elements and many of the characters from the earlier series are here. There is the McGregor clan of bombers resisting US occupation of Canada. Yanks go home, eh.

There is Scipio the ex-slave who now works in a fancy restaurant in Augusta, GA. Afraid his past as a Red Rebel during the Great War will catch him and trying to keep his family safe as the Freedom Party commits genocide against the Blacks.

As usual some of the best liked characters die in this book, but if you read Turtledove you just get used to that. There are also interesting appearances by historic figures; notably Jimmy Carter’s tragic-comic cameo. But can anyone tell me why General Macarthur’s name is Daniel?

Turtledove has a real feel for military scenes, especially dealing with naval combat and armored warfare. Personally my favorite character in this series is Sam Carsten who began as a young sailor during the Great War series, rose up through the ranks and became an officer during the American Empire series and now has command of his own ship – a destroyer escort fighting the British in the North Atlantic.

Another favorite character is Clarence Potter, battling whig veteran of street fights with the emerging Freedom Party, who is now a General in charge of Intelligence for the Confederate Army. All he every wanted to do was hurt the Yankees. He’s very effective at it in this book and is starting to make plans for the Confederacy after Jake Featherston.

I hope Turtledove has at least one more trilogy to come from this. I would enjoy reading of the post-War world. After the Holocaust in the Confederacy I think the African-Americans deserve an independent state ala Israel. Cold War tensions moving toward a unification movement as the world approaches the millennium.

I read somewhere on the web that Harry Turtledove had sold his soul for success and believes that if he writes enough books he can get his soul back. I think it was written by someone who was a little jealous of Turtledove’s success. I say keep writing Harry.

Settling Accounts: Drive to the East is a great read, but you will enjoy it more if you know the series. That’s a lot of reading, but well worth it.

Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes

Steven Barnes uses the alternative history novel as a way to explore issues of race, slavery and liberty in this imaginative and well written novel. I always love to find a good new writer and it is especially good to find someone in my favorite region of the country, the Pacific Northwest. Barnes lives in Longview, WA. Just up the road from Portland.

Barnes creates a world in which Socrates escaped to Egypt in 400 BC instead of drinking hemlock. This leads to a rebirth of Egyptian culture. Barnes stretches the rules slightly by having Alexander survive his conquests and become Pharaoh of Egypt, but I won’t quibble.

The story begins in the mid-nineteenth century. Abyssinia and Egypt rule the world in grand imperial style. Europe is the dark continent where civilization never really got a foothold.

North America is dominated by the Aztec Empire in the southwest, the Egyptian colony of New Alexandria on the east coast and Abyssinian New Djibouti on the Gulf coast. The Viking colony of Vineland dominates the St Lawrence River and supplies European slaves to the aristocratic African colonists.

The story follows the life of Aidan O’Dere son of the chieftain of an Irish fishing village. At the age of ten, Aidan is kidnapped along with his mother and his sister by Viking slave-traders.

Aidan and his mother are sold into the service of the Wakil of New Djibouti. The Wakil is liberal on the “slave question” allowing his slaves to keep the remnants of their culture and religion. He is also a conservative advocate of independence from Abyssinia. Aidan becomes the personal servant of the Wakil’s 10-year-old son, Kai.

Aidan and Kai grow to manhood together and develop a deep, brotherly relationship, which is highly complicated by its master-slave nature. As young men their friendship is forged in the fire of war with the Aztecs and battle at the distant mosque Al-Amu.

What I loved about this story is that you come to really care for the characters. In some ways this is an inverted Gone With the Wind. By the end of the book the ante-bellum generation is gone and the next generation has inherited the shambles left to them.

Steven Barnes has the added benefit of being a good teacher. Along the way I learned quite a bit about African history and culture and Islam. There is at least one more book in this series, you can bet I will be tracking it down.

Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
Zulu Heart by Steven Barnes

alternative historiography

i admit that i am fascinated with alternative history fiction. i love the idea of one small change having large rippling effects. i like the challenge of getting across historical and cultural information within the context of the story and the mystery of figuring it out. i love fiction with historical characters and i like to see familiar faces coping with different problems.

these are the reasons that i love this literature. in addition there are some good writers working in this field. i will post here from time to time with reviews of books i am reading, or have recently read [current-Drive to the East -- Harry Turtledove, recently finished -- Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes and Rivers of War by Eric Flint].

but who knows where it might develop from there? i have played around a little with alternate timelines myself and i might want to explore some of my ideas here. i might even indulge in a little fiction of my own now and then. i guess we will have to see.