ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (02/09/86)
RELATIVES by Geo. Alec Effinger
Harper & Row, 1973, $6.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Yes, this is YAAH (yet another alternate history)--everyone has their
favorite sub-genre, so why should I be an exception? Similar to Russ's
FEMALE, MAN and Finch's INFINITY'S WEB, this novel follows the same
character through different alternate universes. Ernest Weinraub lives in a
dystopian future New York (a la 1984). Ernst Weinraub lives in the one city
in Africa in a world in which Europe never colonized the New World or Africa
and civilization is crumbling. (Anti-space-developers, take note.) Ernst
Weintraub lives in a world in which Germany won World War I (yes, that's
right, "I", not "II").
Effinger is more consciously "literary" than most authors of alternate
histories. On reflection, I found the novel unsatisfying because Effinger
has really written three novellas rather than a novel. The characters never
interact between worlds, so that (possible) unifying thread is lost. Had he
published them as three novellas it would have been an interesting concept;
interleaving them into a "novel" adds a level of confusion that left me less
than enthralled.
Evelyn C. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl
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