Doomsday Book by Connie Willis Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Doomsday Book
Book Review: A little emotion, please?
Summary: 3 Stars
Yet another Connie Willis book that plods along, piling clever detail upon clever detail. Cleverness alone makes for tedious writing. As E.M. Forster commented in his "Aspects of the Novel," 'The novelist who betrays too much interest in his own method can never be more than interesting.' I'm more than 300 pages into this book, still waiting for something to happen, and I still haven't found a character I can care about. It is emotion that really moves a story forward. Literature succeeds by depth, by going INTO the Human heart - and that is something Willis utterly refuses to do.
Writers who want to stay at a superficial level substitute plot (suspense) for character. Think of Sheharazad - the desire to know "what happens next" keeps people awake at night. This "and then, and then, and then" style of writing is also what drives most bestsellers. (It's the kind of cotton candy writing that makes you keep turning the pages, but you feel cheated at the end when you realize that really there was nothing there to get your teeth into.) If that best-seller style is what Willis is aiming for, she's doing it wrong. Not only does she not include enough emotional depth to make you care, she also doesn't substitute enough suspense to make you forget you don't care.
I liked her "Bellwether," because it was short enough to sustain the narrowly developed characters, and was able to function as a lovely little thought experiment. But "Bellwether" is not really a novel, it's more like a novella. I gave up on "What About the Dog" after 100 pages of being bored to tears by her incessant cleverness.
I keep hacking away at "The Doomsday Book", hoping it will get better, but I am finding myself starting to skim whole paragraphs and pages, which is something I can't remember ever having done in my life before. I think this will be the last time I pick up a Willis book.
Book Review: A little emotion, please?
Summary: 3 Stars
Yet another Connie Willis book that plods along, piling clever detail upon clever detail. Cleverness alone makes for tedious writing. As E.M. Forster commented in his "Aspects of the Novel," 'The novelist who betrays too much interest in his own method can never be more than interesting.' I'm more than 300 pages into this book, still waiting for something to happen, and I still haven't found a character I can care about. It is emotion that really moves a story forward. Literature succeeds by depth, by going INTO the Human heart - and that is something Willis utterly refuses to do.
Writers who want to stay at a superficial level substitute plot (suspense) for character. Think of Sheharazad - the desire to know "what happens next" keeps people awake at night. This "and then, and then, and then" style of writing is also what drives most bestsellers. (It's the kind of cotton candy writing that makes you keep turning the pages, but you feel cheated at the end when you realize that really there was nothing there to get your teeth into.) If that best-seller style is what Willis is aiming for, she's doing it wrong. Not only does she not include enough emotional depth to make you care, she also doesn't substitute enough suspense to make you forget you don't care.
I liked her "Bellwether," because it was short enough to sustain the narrowly developed characters, and was able to function as a lovely little thought experiment. But "Bellwether" is not really a novel, it's more like a novella. I gave up on "What About the Dog" after 100 pages of being bored to tears by her incessant cleverness.
I keep hacking away at "The Doomsday Book", hoping it will get better, but I am finding myself starting to skim whole paragraphs and pages, which is something I can't remember ever having done in my life before. I think this will be the last time I pick up a Willis book.
Book Review: A lovely, engaging read
Summary: 4 Stars
Fans of "Star Trek" type fare, look elsewhere. Everybody else, here's a wonderful book, absorbing and suspenseful and intelligent and even funny. "Doomsday Book" has a well-researched tour of the middle ages, enjoyably snarky commentary on university life, and a race-to-the-finish-line plot, all in one neat package. (Also does for the CDC what "Slow River" did for sewage treament.) If you're the kind of reader who must have dragons and spaceships, skip it, you'll only be confused. Those who prefer a little less convention and a little more craft should be very pleased. (I feel the same way about most Gibson, Nicola Griffith's "Slow River," and the first three-quarters of Peter Hoeg's "Smilla's Sense of Snow," if you want a baseline to judge these comments by.)Book Review: A magnificent presentation by a skilled author.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is the winner of the 1992 Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of the year and cowinner of the 1993 Hugo Award. The History Department of a University (in or near Oxford) in the mid-21st century (I believe the year is 2048) sends its historians back in time to study peoples and events. A young historian is supposed to be sent back to 1320 England to study the customs of the Middle Ages. However, she is accidentally sent to 1348 just in time for the Black Death to arrive in England. The book depicts the effects of the plague magnificently and shows people at both their worse and their best. I really enjoyed reading it. As you can tell from a number of the earlier reviewers, there are readers who didn't care for the book too much. Some commented on the rather dark ending. Of course, that was the point. Whole towns were wiped out by the plague. There was no escape. Others suggested that there was very little science, even though time travel is crucial to the story. However, if one reads any time-travel novel or short story in which the characters travel to the past, one will typically see the same level of science as is presented in "Doomsday Book." In addition, don't forget that epidemiology is also a science. There are even critics who suggest that the book has little relevance for modern readers. I find that hard to believe when the world is now experiencing a new epidemic, albeit not as fast moving as the Black Plague. Let us all hope that we don't have the experiences of our ancestors.Book Review: A must read for lovers of historical fiction!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Students in my English IV class could not believe I cried over literature. They laughed at me when I said I could not finish reading Doomsday Book during school for fear of weeping too loudly! Well, maybe a few of my hardcore student readers understood, but the masses cackled maniacally. Several comments: this is fantastic literature! I became a tad aggravated during the 21st century sections, but really came to admire Mary and Mr. Dunworthy. The medieval portions of the book are something else. I was utterly and completely moved by Father Roche and Kivrin; these 2 people are not cardboard characters in the least! It is too bad that some of the complainers about this book never made it to the conclusion; it moved me as much as any literature I have read within the past 5 years, and believe me, I read a ton. I will never forget "you are here in place of the friends I love." I am sure other devotees of Doomsday Book won't either. Please readers, give this wonderful novel a chance. I did and will never regret it!