Subject: Review: THE TWO GEORGES by Richard Dreyfuss & Harry Turtledove

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 22:17:53 GMT

THE TWO GEORGES by Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1996 Evelyn C. Leeper

     The cover describes Dreyfuss as an Oscar winner, and Turtledove as a
Hugo winner.  Of the two, the latter is perhaps more germane to the book --
Dreyfuss won as an actor, not a writer.  But Turtledove has said that
Dreyfuss contributed heavily to the dialogue, so perhaps this is a more
equal partnership than last year's team of Gingrich and Forstchen.  However,
this book does have the (apparently) obligatory sex scene.  Mercifully, this
one is shorter.

     The premise of THE TWO GEORGES is that there was no American
Revolution.  The exact details of how this occurred (or perhaps more
accurately, failed to occur) are not spelled out.  This is actually a good
touch, because too often the background is given as a sort of "lump,"
something like, "Fred mused how different the world would be if Queen Mary
had died earlier and her bastard sister Elizabeth had become Queen of
England."  There's actually something refreshing about NOT getting all the
details.

     Of course, Dreyfuss and Turtledove don't entirely avoid this sort of
thing.  There are a fair number of references to what Washington or King
George (the two Georges of the title) did and how that affected the present.
Given that we rarely find ourselves thinking how different our world would
be if there were no American Revolution, at least in our daily routine, this
does feel a bit artificial.  And the main character at one point is reading
THE UNITED COLONIES TRIUMPHANT, an alternate history book about OUR world.

     The book is alternate history but the plot is strictly mystery: the
famous Gainsborough painting "The Two Georges" has been stolen while touring
the North American colonies and just before King-Emperor Charles III was due
to speak in front of it.  The radical separatist group, the Sons of Liberty,
has stolen it and is demanding a ransom for its return, and Colonel Thomas
Bushnell and Samuel Stanley of the RAMP are assigned to recover the
painting, which is a major cultural icon (sort of like the original
Declaration of Independence).

     Turtledove is good at research, so it's hard to find errors per se.
One of my complaints is more a stylistic one: I find it difficult to believe
that two hundred years after the break point we would have any of the same
people as we have in our world, and in very similar positions.  In
particular, I find it difficult to explain how Martin Luther King, Jr.,
would have been as involved in politics in a society with far fewer racial
problems that our own as he was in ours.  I also question whether the Irish
would be as prominent, since a change in politics preventing the American
Revolution might very well have prevented the Irish Potato Famine as well.
Other references that served more as stumbling blocks than stepping stones
were Beethoven writing his Third Symphony to celebrate Napoleon's uprising
against Louis XVI, and the use of "To Anacreon in Heaven" as the North
American anthem.  Language-wise Dreyfuss and Turtledove sick fairly closely
to British English (with references to serviettes rather than napkins, for
example), but do occasionally slip, calling trousers pants, or vests
undershirts.  (I am reminded of the recent report of the British MP who was
found dead in "pants and suspenders."  To most Americans, this doesn't sound
too shocking; however, the American translation is that he was found in
"undershorts and a garter belt.")

     Unfortunately, the mystery part of this novel, which is the main plot,
is not particularly well-constructed.  Clues are telegraphed, and in general
there is a lot of fairly standard stuff going on.  There is also a fairly
standard romance with Bushnell meeting a professional woman with whom he
initially does not get along, and so on.

     I liked the background of THE TWO GEORGES, even with my reservations,
and would recommend it for that reason to alternate history fans.  But it is
the alternate history aspect that makes this book worthwhile.  If that
aspect doesn't appeal to you, you can skip it as a mystery.

%T      The Two Georges
%A      Richard Dreyfuss
%A      Harry Turtledove
%C      New York
%D      March 1996
%I      Tor
%O      hardback, US$23.95
%G      ISBN 0-312-85969-4
%P      384pp

Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked] <==NOTE NEW ADDRESS
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