Subject: Review: The Two Georges, by Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove

From: [email-masked] (Graystreak)
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 20:45:55 GMT

The Two Georges
	by Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove
	Review Copyright 1996 Kevin Lauderdale

The joy in an alternate history novel is in the details, not the high
concept. The high concept behind Richard Dreyfuss' (yes, the actor) and
Harry Turtledove's (the SF writer, most notably of GUNS OF THE SOUTH, a
brilliant almost-alternate history novel about the American Civil War) THE
TWO GEORGES is that the American colonies never broke away from England. And
now, in 1996, they remain part of the globe-circling British Empire. In
order to better cement the bonds between the colonies and England,
Gainsborough's painting, THE TWO GEORGES depicting George Washington
meeting King George III is touring North America. The painting is stolen,
and it's up to Thomas Bushell of the Los Angeles (here, "New Liverpool")
police dept. to retrieve it.

The atmosphere and dialog are decidedly British and occasionally
antiquated. For British readers of this novel, it makes things merely
quaint. For us colonials, it makes things nearly foreign. Along with "boot"
for trunk and all that pre-1970s British currency -- "that'll be seven and
six and a ha'penny" -- we get "jakes" for restroom, a reference at least as
old as Shakespeare. It certainly evokes an atmosphere of an America
dominated by Britain, but it's also so present that after a while it calls
attention to itself.  Thankfully, the book does contain maps of the world,
but a glossary would have been helpful as well.  This is a book that doesn't
require you to know British English, American history, or Los Angeles
landmarks, but it rewards you if you do.  This makes THE TWO GEORGES an
extremely entertaining read for UCLA liberal arts majors, and a slightly
confusing one for everyone else. It's not that the plot hangs on some
obscure element of British history, it's just that a lot of the texture of
the book might be lost if you're not familiar with the likes of King Canute
and Beethoven's Third Symphony.

Fortunately, the names that we need to know are the ones that we will know.
In the world of THE TWO GEORGES, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King are
still alive, but playing much different roles.  In a good alternate universe
story, it's not just what changes, but who.  Richard Nixon has become a
hugely successful used-car dealer.  The painting, we soon learn, has been
stolen by The Sons of Liberty -- COMMON SENSE is their monthly magazine --
but they're not just anti-Crown, they're against anyone who isn't as white
as they are. That makes for better villains than just having them be Thomas
Jefferson and Thomas Paine 200 years later.

Everyday life in the North American Union (NAU) in 1996 looks like life in
the USA, circa 1936.  Apparently the American Revolution only bought us
about 60 years of progress. Women's skirts barely rise above their calves,
and making a long-distance phone call takes forever as you get switched from
operator to operator. You don't fly from one coast to the other in a plane,
you take a dirigible. Irish laborers and "Nuevespanolans" do the dirty work,
and when you come home from your trip, you drive a steam-powered car:
	"He turned the key. A battery-powered sparker lit the burner. A
	 twist of thedashboard knob brought the flame up to high. Then he
	 had nothing to do but wait and watch the pressure gauge."

That's classic Turtledove. He gracefully slips in the details without being
too obvious about it, and there's touch of humor. Bushell, for instance, is
given two months to solve the case. This is a world that moves at a
leisurely pace.

One of the elements that stands out the most is the sense of what police
work and crime are like in this all but non-gun world. "Gunplay twice now,"
says Bushell's assistant, Sam Stanley in amazement.  Only twice in a crime
novel?  This is a far cry from the constant gun play and never-emptying
bullet cartridges we see in many novels featuring the police.  The USA in
this 1996 is like the UK in 1936, where not only did the police not carry
guns because the criminals didn't either, but all they had to do was shout,
"Stop! Police!" and more often than not, the criminal would.

The painting, of course, is merely a MacGuffin which allows the writers to
take us across the North American continent, exploring the many facets of
this alternate America.  But with Turtledove and Dreyfuss, who must have
learned something about story, pacing, and dialog during the 30 plus years
he's been acting, the trip is a pleasure.  The investigation takes us from
California to the Nations' capital, with visits to embassy parties and a
trip down a coal mine in between.  The book is 384 pages of small print, but
it's a fast read.  If you're a casual reader of science fiction or a die-
hard mystery fan, you can safely skip THE TWO GEORGES. You're not missing
out on any brilliant new ideas, nor is the mystery all that mysterious.  But
if you're a lover of alternate worlds, history, or Turtledove, this is for
you.

P.S. I've written an annotated guide to THE TWO GEORGES, and it's available
via the World Wide Web at:
http://camis.Stanford.EDU/people/kxl/2Gannotations.html

Kevin Lauderdale