Making History

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Especially the literary level was very low: weakly portraited, one-dimensional characters, an occasional exciting moment but a lot of very boring moments, especially in the passages that have been written as a film script, and a really really dull final. In fact, Michael and Zuckerman have replaced Hitler with a Nazi leader who was even more charming, patient, and effective, and as committed to the Final Solution as Hitler had been.Young and Leo Zuckerman - the young British historian and the elderly German physicist at the centre of the story - are engaging, believable, and well-rounded characters, and the situations into which they are thrown are, as I said, thrilling and involving and page-turning stuff.

With the young man's detailed knowledge of Hitler's early life, the physics professor's project becomes much easier. On one level, the narrative just seems to take umbrage at Michael’s ego and conviction that he can make history better. Michael Young is a brilliant young history student whose life is changed when he meets Leo Zuckermann, an ageing physicist with a theory that can change worlds.They decide to send the pill back in time to the well in Braunau am Inn so that Hitler's father will drink from it and become infertile, with the result that Hitler will never be born. The book started well enough, young chap at Cambridge (Fry's alma mater) immersed in the history of Hitler, working towards spending his life at Cambridge in a paid capacity, is having a tough time with his hard-nosed scientist girlfriend who finally leaves him (I found her more interesting than our hero, stronger, and more capable of carrying a story, and was sorry to see her go). In a rather circular, roundabout way, Fry makes the point that cultural conditions result in so many things that the removal of one person won't necessarily mitigate the development of some particular outcome. And, yet, despite the sensitive subjects that Fry brought up, there is an overarching tone of hope for humankind, even if the book focuses on the balance between the good and the bad that comes with every action. Probably my favorite fiction book by the wonderful Stephen Fry - when you have read his autobiography, my suggestion is to go for this one!

He realises that his plan was successful, history has changed, and for some reason his parents must have moved to America. Inevitably, given the sub-genre, the narrative timeline is speckled with flashbacks which are ably handled. Much like the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, the humor serves as a glass shield, only temporarily deflecting thoughtful and terrifying implications. Although this is the only novel of Fry's that I have read that uses extremely simplistic language (an unusual choice considering the characters are: a student writing his doctoral thesis in history, a professor of physics, and a student at Princeton), the premise keeps it in the realm one would expect from the genius Fry. For someone who is a PhD candidate in history at Cambridge University, his inability to see that removing Hitler from the picture would not change the disastrous situation in Germany after the First World War, and that of course some other leader would emerge, was frankly unbelievable, despite his immaturity.Barely two stars, one being for the alternate outcome for Europe that Fry imagined and described well and succinctly. The action immediately speeded up as I witnessed a major emotional confrontation spool through in this script mode – feeling completely unconnected to the characters. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Unfortunately it was a bit too late and it didn’t redeem itself, so I was pretty disappointed with this one.

The implications on changing the past have been visited many a time before, with better end worse results. They succeed, but what they did not know is that the world may had been better off with Hitler, than without Hitler. But tinkering with time lines is more dangerous than they can imagine, and nothing - past, present or future - will ever be the same again. In 1939, France, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and the Benelux nations capitulate, although Britain rebels in 1941, leading to the execution of several dissidents, among them the Duke of York (the historical King George VI) and George Orwell.The imagination is helped along at times by the clever use of almost a screenplay type script, very cleverly used to aid communication between author's minds and the readers. Making History is funny, moving, romantic and told with Stephen Fry's characteristic skill and brilliance. While he did a great job illustrating, in a small way, how some small changes would result in a world that is more or less racist/bigoted or homophobic. Fry is good at writing minor characters memorably and the flashes of humour helped alleviate what could have been a grim read, given the subject matter. Granted, it drew a nice parallel, but those bits were so dry and boring compared to Young's POV, and that was a bit disappointing.