Review: To Say Nothing of the Dog

Title: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Year of Publication: 1998
Genre: Science-Fiction/Humour
Length: 493 pages
Rating: 4.5/5 – Worth paying full price

Review:

To Say Nothing of the Dog starts off in the 1940s, in a rather unsafe version of the 21st century’s Coventry Cathedral. There, a bunch of historians, one of which is named Ned Henry, are looking for a particular artifact by the name of the Bishop’s Bird Stump, thinking that they may find it amidst the chaos of the building. But there are fires, broken glass and debris everywhere, and it’s hard to find, let alone positively identify. For most of the book even, the reader isn’t really sure of what the Bishop’s Bird Stump is, or what it looks like.

The reason he’s there in the first place, however, is because his boss, Lady Schrapnell, is trying to renovate the Coventry Cathedral to it’s former, pre-bombed glory, and for her having the Bishop’s Bird Stump is critical. It’s a part of history, and a part of the cathedral, so she nearly forces Ned and the other workers to go back in time, looking for it. Unfortunately for Ned, going back and forth in time a lot causes problems both mentally and physically, and since Ned has been time traveling far too much, he ends up disoriented and in a state not unlike being drunk sometimes, just after a switch.

Ned ends up being stuck in the 1940s because of this disorientation, where he messes up a “simple drop-off” that he was supposed to make, bringing the contents of a basket back to it’s proper time. He ends up traveling by boat with a man, Terence, and his large, eccentric and at first very intimidating dog, Cyril. Here, there are some references to Jerome K. Jerome’s “Three Men in a Boat, to Say Nothing of the Dog”, which is also where the title comes from.

Because Ned is still having a terrible time in the past, he also inevitably takes Terence off-course from his own natural destiny – or at least, Ned thinks he did – and has to find a way to get him away from his attachment to Tossie, a small-minded girl from a rich family, and back to the woman he ends up marrying.

Another important character in the book is Verity Kindle, who also works for Lady Schrapnell and is the reason that Ned had to go back in time in the first place. She brought a cat back to the future, where they are extinct, and ends up playing Tossie’s chaperon and cousin undercover as she and Ned try to solve their ever-growing and complicating problem.

Overall, the book has a great writing style and interesting plot, blending science-fiction, history and comedy in a way that’s not often seen. An excellent book for when real life is too serious or boring.