Why hast thou forsaken me?

There is a scene in Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog that has stayed with me. Our intrepid historian, Ned, accidentally travels back to the Middle Ages for a short time and witnesses a scene that is repeated in the book in three different historical moments – a woman is asking a man why he hasn’t done a thing she asked him to do and the man is making excuses.  Ned cannot understand the words the woman and man are speaking, because English changed significantly between the Middle Ages and the Late Victorian era, and the near future. The scene is so familiar to Ned that he understands what is happening, because while language has changed, people have not.

Doomsday Book continues this theme. In 1348 and 2054 people react in much the same way to the plagues with which they are faced. Some people persevere, some look for someone to blame, and authority figures are looked to for salvation and comfort. Whether we put our faith in a deity, science or other people, most of us will live through a time when our faith is tested. In Doomsday Book, illness overwhelms the protagonists and the societies in which they are present. God could do nothing for victims of the Black Plague. Science is slow to catch up with the influenza plaguing 2054, and in both times people fail each other, sometimes through fear, sometimes through no fault of their own.

Connie Willis is a wonderful writer. She creates two very different worlds and populates them with distinct characters without ponderously explaining them to us. To Say Nothing of the Dog was a frothy delight. I held off reading Doomsday Book because I knew it was heavier. And yet, it was still a delight to read. I look forward to the Book Club discussion on June 1st. There’s a lot of material worth chewing over in this book.