I’ll start with what I didn’t like about the book:

  • It was a bit repetitive, in that sort of cloying, choose-your-own-adventure way

  • It’s just so English that I bet even the Queen herself couldn’t quite stand it

  • The culmination of the book is that most trite of historical counterfactuals, what-if-someone-shot-Hitler

All that said, I enjoyed the book a great deal.

  • The pastoral scenes are delightful and the characters very sympathetic. I like to think of Izzie as the rich American aunt from Downton Abbey.

  • Keeping track of all of the junctures on the historical decision tree is sort of amusing and an interesting challenge.

  • Some of the repetitive imagery (the teacups and the dresses and all that) are quite nice if a little oddly chosen.

  • There are just so many bears and foxes running around. It is sort of adorable.

I am not sure what I think of the philosophical love-of-fate philosophical name-checking going on in the person of Dr. Kellet. It seems a bit superficial and silly - whatever its strengths, this book is no Oedipus Rex. On the other hand it is a somewhat more interesting way to think of this book than through the tired old prism of basic time travel and do-overs.

On the whole the book is entirely engaging and quite enjoyable. But it leaves me, as it were, grasping for straws. Because there really is no fate in this story, there is no tragedy, and therefore there is no catharsis. Perhaps that’s the point of the story though, it’s like a backhanded English compliment to the whole idea of fate and its trappings.