Corrupting Dr Nice by
John Kessel
hbk out July 98
Published by Gollancz
at £16.99
CORRUPTING DR. NICE is an odd hybrid of a novel: a science fiction
screwball comedy. Kessel grafts the plot of Preston Sturges' THE
LADY EVE onto a time travel conceit lifted (as acknowledged by the
author) from the delightful Bruce Sterling/Lewis Shiner short story
"Mozart in Mirrorshades." The result is a generally amusing, if
slightly overextended, examination of cultures in contrast, which
suffers some from being neither fish nor fowl.
In Kessel's world of 2063 time travel has been well-established
and various versions of the past colonized by multinational
corporations like so many theme parks to be enjoyed and abused at
will. The past can be visited and revisited and historical figures
brought back to the present without risk of changing the world as we
know it (Kessel plays out some assumptions of the "Many Worlds"
interpretation of quantum physics). The result is a giddy mix of
ancient eras with automobiles and machine guns, and a present (i.e.,
2063) in which various versions of Jesus, plucked from different
pasts at different ages, can vie with other for media attention. In
short, a great premise for comedy.
Wealthy Dr. Owen Vannice, Kessel's naif scientist protagonist, has
snatched a dinosaur from the Cretaceous period for study. He then
gets stranded in Jerusalem in 40AD, where he falls prey to Genevieve
Faison and her father, a pair of time travelling swindlers out to
steal the dinosaur by pretending to steal Owen's heart. But in the
spirit of screwball, fake love becomes true love as the plot gets
ever more complicated amidst mistaken identities, slapstick antics
and (bizarrely) a courtroom denouement in which justice is meted out
by computer according to public opinion. Kessel throws in not only
the kitchen sink, but the fridge, dishwasher and electric can opener.
The problem is that screwball comedy doesn't work on the page the
way it does on the screen. Kessel is a clever writer, but for all
the madcap to-ing and fro-ing, he doesn't quite capture the frenetic
pace and chaotic interchanges that typify the films he so obviously
loves (and the directors to whom he has dedicated the novel).
Literature is simply too leisurely a medium to impart the kind of
kinetic chaos which makes the likes of BRINGING UP BABY, HIS GIRL
FRIDAY or THE PALM BEACH STORY so charming. Films can get away with
a flightiness of plot that drags novels down. "Mozart in
Mirrorshades" worked so well precisely because it was just a short
story. The plot here is a little too flimsy and haphazard to hold
reader interest for close to three hundred pages. And without a
Cary Grant or a Katherine Hepburn or a Barbara Stanwyck to bring the
characters (and dialogue) to life, they sit somewhat flatly on the
page.
CORRUPTING DR. NICE is certainly not a bad book; indeed, at times
it is very witty, and offers a neat variant on time travel tales.
Kessel is obviously an engaging and playful writer, and DR. NICE is
an entertaining enough read, but one suspects that the author is
capable of a good bit more. If Kessel's goal was to achieve the
quality of THE LADY EVE, he has only managed the equivalent of THE
SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK. Sturges fans will understand.
(
Jay Russell
- one of the greatest talents the horror industry has produced for some time… (Black Tears))
Corrupting Dr Nice by
John Kessel