This is my third book of the year. 72 to go!
This novel, involving time travel by three generations of the Burden family, begins in 1898 Vienna, then touches on every major event of the first half of the 20th Century. The story is told by the mother of Wheeler Burden. He is a bit of a cardboard character, as are the others: scholar, incredible athlete, rock star, a perfect character following in the footsteps of his perfect father, who was also a war hero who died at the hands of the Gestapo. Wheeler leaves 1969 San Francisco and suddenly finds himself in 1898 Vienna. The concept, that the Burden family affected almost every historical event of the time, is interesting but at times a bit strained. I found it hard to follow the debates between Wheeler and Freud. I don't want to be a spoiler but Wheeler Burden's love affair was very disturbing, even creepy. But in spite of all that, I really enjoyed the book and couldn't put it down. The author's description of fin de siecle Vienna is fascinating. The plot is very clever and I thought he dealt with the details of time travel, how it can affect the past and the future, very well.
I have not heard of this book before. Would you say it was a SciFic type of book? I have recently read several books taking place in Vienna, a place you never saw as a location much at all. It's nice to have new cities to 'explore' thru books. "A Death in Vienna" by Frank Tallis was very well written, I should check and see if he has another one now, that one was from a few years ago I think. But I can't remember another one I liked a lot more.
ReplyDeleteAt library I work at, we are 'challenging' our patrons to complete the list of 50 Best Books for Our Times from Newsweek. (You should see the list, it's quite terrible :( ) Some are old and some are brand new books. 50 in one year is a lot for most people.
Thanks for your comments. Even though this involves time travel, I wouldn't really describe this as SciFi. I am not a big fan of SciFi even though I've read some of the "classics". I think the author uses time travel to set up a situation to explore what a hero is, how the actions of some people affect a much broader sphere that you would expect. I would really recommend this to your readers. It is very thought provoking. And you're right about Vienna not being explored much. I had recently read The Proud Tower about events leading up to WWI and I think the historical accuracy of this book is very high. I'll check out the Frank Tallis books.
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