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4.0étoiles sur 5
Searching For A Better Alternative, Nov. 18 2001
Ever since the American Civil War ended in victory for the South, the Northern states have been a poor, backward region, largely populated by impecunious yokels. Hodge Backmaker is a country boy with less practical skills than his fellows; someone more at home with books than the outdoor, workaday environment.In "Bring the Jubilee" Backmaker recounts his life, describing his move from Wappinger Falls to a squalid New York, where he works in a book shop for a few years. After some uncomfortable dealings with an underground army he then becomes involved with the intellectual thinktank at Haggershaven, where his fascination for history eventually leads to academic prestige. Ward Moore has written an interesting scenario here. Along with the rewrite of American history, passing references are made to men like Carl Jung and Picasso, their destinies skewed by the differences that make alternate worlds possible. While taking part in the first experiments in time travel, Hodge Backmaker will unwittingly change their lives when he makes a field trip to Gettysburg in 1863... There's no doubt that alternate histories are a fascinating subject for writers to tackle. So many of them have fun changing history, usually making our world look like the better one. Maybe it helps us forget the reality of our own problems; taking solace in the fact that there's always someone worse off than ourselves. A number of people have compared "Bring the Jubilee" with "Pavane", the praise for both books being fairly equal. It's hard to say which is better, since they deal with two different periods of history. Like most novels, they both have their share of romance, which almost seems a requirement for the protagonist. Nevertheless, they both come highly recommended.
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de C. M Kornbluth
