109. Doomsday Book. Connie Willis. 1992. Random House. 592 pages. [Source: Book I Bought]
First sentence: Mr. Dunworthy opened the door to the laboratory and his spectacles promptly steamed up.
“Am I too late?” he said, yanking them off and squinting at Mary.
“Shut the door,” she said. “I can’t hear you over the sound of those ghastly carols.”
Dunworthy closed the door, but it didn’t completely shut out the
sound of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” wafting in from the quad. “Am I too
late?” he said again.
Premise/plot: In a world where historians learn their subject
firsthand by time travel, Kivrin, our heroine–one of them–is sent to
the middle ages to learn just “how exaggerated” (according to her
professor/advisor Gilchrist) the accounts of the Black Death were.
That’s spinning it a bit. Kivrin is there to LEARN and OBSERVE and
ABSORB. Technically, she’s to be sent to 1320–the
Advent/Christmas/Epiphany season in OXFORD. But that’s if all goes
according to plan and there are no mix-ups or mistakes.
Mr. Dunworthy,
our hero, has a bad feeling that those in charge of the project are
incapable and incompetent and imbeciles. The book opens moments before
she is sent back in time….it isn’t long before Dunworthy has reason to
panic…But this book isn’t about one man’s panic–his
helicopter teaching, if you will. It is about TWO pandemics. One is set
in the present of 2054. This pandemic requires a quarantine, contact
tracing, mask-wearing, and safety protocols. With it comes toilet paper
shortages–along with soap! The present story line is full of mystery
and action. The other is set in the past–the Black Death. There is a
theme of helplessness in both.
My thoughts: Doomsday Book by
Connie Willis is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite,
favorite books. This is my seventh? time to read and review it. I last
reviewed it in 2023. I love and adore this book so much. It is set
during Christmas/Epiphany. It’s just a book that calls out to me every
year to reread. I am surprised it has never been adapted into a film. The world needs more action Christmas movies.
© 2024 Becky Laney of Becky’s Book Reviews
