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By George
In the illustrious history of the theatrical Fishers, there are two Georges. One is a peculiar but endearing 11-year-old, raised in the seedy world of `70s boarding houses and backstages, now packed off to school for the first time; the other, a garrulous ventriloquist's dummy who belonged to George's grandfather, a favorite traveling act of the British troops in World War II. The two Georges know nothing of each other--until events conspire to unite them in a search to uncover the family's deepest secrets.
Weaving the boy's tale and the puppet's "memoirs," BY GEORGE unveils the fascinating Fisher family--its weak men, its dominant women, its disgruntled boys, and its shocking and dramatic secrets. At once bitingly funny and exquisitely tender, Stace's novel is the unforgettable journey of two young boys separated by years but driven by the same desires: to find a voice, and to be loved.
Weaving the boy's tale and the puppet's "memoirs," BY GEORGE unveils the fascinating Fisher family--its weak men, its dominant women, its disgruntled boys, and its shocking and dramatic secrets. At once bitingly funny and exquisitely tender, Stace's novel is the unforgettable journey of two young boys separated by years but driven by the same desires: to find a voice, and to be loved.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
29 people are currently reading
679 people want to read
About the author
Wesley Stace
13 books61 followersWesley Stace also records music under the nom de plume of John Wesley Harding.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
April 20, 2010
Seperti inilah bagaimana seharusnya sebuah cerita ditulis. Sebuah contoh nyata dari keapikan berkisah dan keluwesan pengarang untuk merasakan pahit getirnya penderitaan.Cerita yang bersahaja jika diramu dengan kejeniusan pengarang dan kepiawaian bertutur kata, maka semuanya nyaris menjadi kisah yang sempurna.-- Mirip lagunya So7-- :D
Semula saya mengira bahwa buku ni adalah kisah misteri detektif (si penerbit mencantumkan kata 'genre misteri'). Yah, meski gak sepenuhnya salah juga sih, tp kayaknya pelabelan kata genre misteri terlalu menyempitkan isi buku. Isi bukunya jauh lebih dari itu. dan jelas amat memikat.
Buku ini menceritakan tentang kisah sebuah keluarga yang eksentrik, di mana keluarga tersebut secara turun temurun mendalami profesi di bidang pertunjukan boneka ventrilokis (seni pertunjukan boneka bisa bicara, mirip Susan ma Ria Enes itu lho). Cerita berpusat pada dua karakter utama yang sama-sama bernama George.
Goerge kesatu, George Fisher yang merupakan tokoh nyata, seorang ventrilokis Inggris terkenal pada masanya (masa-masa perang dunia) karena kehebatannya dalam memainkan si boneka, yang bernama George juga. Dia juga keturunan langsung dari Echo Endor, sang legenda ventrilokis. Bahkan George Fisher bertugas untuk menghibur para tentara di medang perang agar mereka tidak stress dan menjaga semangat juang mereka. Tragisnya, dia justru hilang dalam salah satu pertempuran. mayatnya tidak pernah ditemukan. dan sebenarnya, kisah dialah yang memercikan api misteri pada kisah ini.
George yang kedua, juga bernama George Fisher. Tapi dia adalah seorang anak sekolahan. seperti kebanyakan anak lainnya dia juga cukup bandel dan nakal. bahkan dia pernah dikeluarkan oleh sekolah. Tapi hidupnya berubah jungkir balik ketika dia menemukan sebuah boneka usang. dan boneka yang bernama George itu lah yang menghubungkan kedua George Fisher.
Tapi, malangnya, generasi terakhir keluarga Fisher yang tersohor itu harus hidup di mana dunia ventrilokis mulai mendekati titik sekarat. pertunjukan hiburan yang lainnya seperti teater dan film bioskop membuat orang-orang menjadi tidak tertarik lagi dengan keanehan sebuah boneka yang bisa bicara. Mereka mencoba mengais-ngais remah-remah ketenaran leluhur di tengah-tengah gempuran perang dan modernitas. Lagipula, saat perang, siapa yang mau menonton sebuah boneka saat panggung pertunjukan hancur terkena ledakan bom? siapa yang mau melihat boneka yang bicara jika televisi bisa berbicara lebih cerewet lg?
Ketenaran leluhur tidak bisa memberikan jaminan kesuksesan bagi generasi sesudahnya.
berbagai teka-teki berkelindan sepanjang cerita ini. kita dipaksa untuk memikirkan apa hubungan antara kedua George ini. dan siapa mereka? untuk sementara pembaca pasti bingung bagaimana membedakan antara satu Goerge dengan George lainnya. Inilah daya tariknya, kita mesti menyatukan puzzle yg terlepas menjadi rangkaian cerita utuh. makanya tidak salah jika disebut novel misteri. namun, misteri bukanlah daya tarik utama novel ini. Nilai moral kemanusiaan, tragedi, humor, sejarah, mitos, dan kejutan akhir cerita, sanggup membuat kita terpana. kecerdasan humornya sanggup membuat kita tertawa terbahak-bahak. tapi di bagian lain, getirnya kisah yang disampaikan sanggup menguras air mata. tidak banyak buku yang sanggup memberikan sensasi kuat dan mampu mengocok emosi pembaca seperti buku ini.
Apalagi tokoh-tokoh ceritanya, benar-benar loveble. Kadang kita dipaksa untuk mencintai dan membenci para tokohnya sekaligus. dan, sang juru dongeng, Wesley, secara cerdas, berhasil menyembunyikan misteri hubungan kedua (tiga kalau disertakan si boneka) Goerge sampai halaman terakhir. Akhir ceritanya benar-benar sebuah masterpiece, meski mungkin kita akan terkejut karena ending yang tak sesuai harapan. Dengan kemampuan 'Agatha Christie', Stacey dengan licin berhasil menyembunyikan misteri ketiga George. Ternyata generasi keluarga Fisher itu menyimpan sebuah misteri yang kelam. Misteri suram yang sanggup menguburkan kesilauan popularitas leluhur mereka.
Lantas, dengan kehebatan kisah itu, mengapa saya memberi bintang 4, tidak 5? Ah, ini masalah klasik. saya membaca buku ini hasil terjemahan. Tampaknya sang editor perlu bantuan.
cmiiw.
Semula saya mengira bahwa buku ni adalah kisah misteri detektif (si penerbit mencantumkan kata 'genre misteri'). Yah, meski gak sepenuhnya salah juga sih, tp kayaknya pelabelan kata genre misteri terlalu menyempitkan isi buku. Isi bukunya jauh lebih dari itu. dan jelas amat memikat.
Buku ini menceritakan tentang kisah sebuah keluarga yang eksentrik, di mana keluarga tersebut secara turun temurun mendalami profesi di bidang pertunjukan boneka ventrilokis (seni pertunjukan boneka bisa bicara, mirip Susan ma Ria Enes itu lho). Cerita berpusat pada dua karakter utama yang sama-sama bernama George.
Goerge kesatu, George Fisher yang merupakan tokoh nyata, seorang ventrilokis Inggris terkenal pada masanya (masa-masa perang dunia) karena kehebatannya dalam memainkan si boneka, yang bernama George juga. Dia juga keturunan langsung dari Echo Endor, sang legenda ventrilokis. Bahkan George Fisher bertugas untuk menghibur para tentara di medang perang agar mereka tidak stress dan menjaga semangat juang mereka. Tragisnya, dia justru hilang dalam salah satu pertempuran. mayatnya tidak pernah ditemukan. dan sebenarnya, kisah dialah yang memercikan api misteri pada kisah ini.
George yang kedua, juga bernama George Fisher. Tapi dia adalah seorang anak sekolahan. seperti kebanyakan anak lainnya dia juga cukup bandel dan nakal. bahkan dia pernah dikeluarkan oleh sekolah. Tapi hidupnya berubah jungkir balik ketika dia menemukan sebuah boneka usang. dan boneka yang bernama George itu lah yang menghubungkan kedua George Fisher.
Tapi, malangnya, generasi terakhir keluarga Fisher yang tersohor itu harus hidup di mana dunia ventrilokis mulai mendekati titik sekarat. pertunjukan hiburan yang lainnya seperti teater dan film bioskop membuat orang-orang menjadi tidak tertarik lagi dengan keanehan sebuah boneka yang bisa bicara. Mereka mencoba mengais-ngais remah-remah ketenaran leluhur di tengah-tengah gempuran perang dan modernitas. Lagipula, saat perang, siapa yang mau menonton sebuah boneka saat panggung pertunjukan hancur terkena ledakan bom? siapa yang mau melihat boneka yang bicara jika televisi bisa berbicara lebih cerewet lg?
Ketenaran leluhur tidak bisa memberikan jaminan kesuksesan bagi generasi sesudahnya.
berbagai teka-teki berkelindan sepanjang cerita ini. kita dipaksa untuk memikirkan apa hubungan antara kedua George ini. dan siapa mereka? untuk sementara pembaca pasti bingung bagaimana membedakan antara satu Goerge dengan George lainnya. Inilah daya tariknya, kita mesti menyatukan puzzle yg terlepas menjadi rangkaian cerita utuh. makanya tidak salah jika disebut novel misteri. namun, misteri bukanlah daya tarik utama novel ini. Nilai moral kemanusiaan, tragedi, humor, sejarah, mitos, dan kejutan akhir cerita, sanggup membuat kita terpana. kecerdasan humornya sanggup membuat kita tertawa terbahak-bahak. tapi di bagian lain, getirnya kisah yang disampaikan sanggup menguras air mata. tidak banyak buku yang sanggup memberikan sensasi kuat dan mampu mengocok emosi pembaca seperti buku ini.
Apalagi tokoh-tokoh ceritanya, benar-benar loveble. Kadang kita dipaksa untuk mencintai dan membenci para tokohnya sekaligus. dan, sang juru dongeng, Wesley, secara cerdas, berhasil menyembunyikan misteri hubungan kedua (tiga kalau disertakan si boneka) Goerge sampai halaman terakhir. Akhir ceritanya benar-benar sebuah masterpiece, meski mungkin kita akan terkejut karena ending yang tak sesuai harapan. Dengan kemampuan 'Agatha Christie', Stacey dengan licin berhasil menyembunyikan misteri ketiga George. Ternyata generasi keluarga Fisher itu menyimpan sebuah misteri yang kelam. Misteri suram yang sanggup menguburkan kesilauan popularitas leluhur mereka.
Lantas, dengan kehebatan kisah itu, mengapa saya memberi bintang 4, tidak 5? Ah, ini masalah klasik. saya membaca buku ini hasil terjemahan. Tampaknya sang editor perlu bantuan.
cmiiw.
October 20, 2008
The best book I have read all year - in a year of great books.
Better than Hanif Kureshi and Something to Tell You. Better than Edwyn St Aubyn's Some Hope. I fell in love with this book - in fact, I fell in love with the characters in this book and genuinely did not want it to end.
Stace does not redefine English literature with this novel. It's subject matter, dealing with an eccentric family at the wrong end of English Show Business in the tacky and amateur period of mid-century Britain is not the most appealing of subjects or periods, and the premise, that half of the story is told by a ventriloquist's dummy, all adds to the impulse to walk on by when you see this book on the shelf. Please don't.
OK, the Dummy. I am not spoiling it here, but just to get it out the way, this is not some form of magical realism or a cheap trick. It is in fact the autobiography of the ventriloquist himself and his terribly tormented life - he expresses himself as if his dummy was writing. So there.
If you've ever laughed at a Carry On film despite yourself, if you grew up in the 70s or 80s, or indeed in the 20s or 30s, if you remember fondly all those matriarchs from your childhood that seemed to populate the whole country but have now died and moved on - then this is the book for you. And if you are after the most agreeable and fantastic escapism a book could ever give you - then buy this book. I adored it. You will too.
Better than Hanif Kureshi and Something to Tell You. Better than Edwyn St Aubyn's Some Hope. I fell in love with this book - in fact, I fell in love with the characters in this book and genuinely did not want it to end.
Stace does not redefine English literature with this novel. It's subject matter, dealing with an eccentric family at the wrong end of English Show Business in the tacky and amateur period of mid-century Britain is not the most appealing of subjects or periods, and the premise, that half of the story is told by a ventriloquist's dummy, all adds to the impulse to walk on by when you see this book on the shelf. Please don't.
OK, the Dummy. I am not spoiling it here, but just to get it out the way, this is not some form of magical realism or a cheap trick. It is in fact the autobiography of the ventriloquist himself and his terribly tormented life - he expresses himself as if his dummy was writing. So there.
If you've ever laughed at a Carry On film despite yourself, if you grew up in the 70s or 80s, or indeed in the 20s or 30s, if you remember fondly all those matriarchs from your childhood that seemed to populate the whole country but have now died and moved on - then this is the book for you. And if you are after the most agreeable and fantastic escapism a book could ever give you - then buy this book. I adored it. You will too.
July 9, 2023
This is a really rare novel that had me turning the pages to find out what would happen next. I rarely care what happens next! I wholeheartedly enjoyed the novel—so engagingly written, and with characters in two different timelines whose stories intersected and resonated in satisfying ways.
August 22, 2022
The best book partially narrated by a ventriloquist dummy I have ever read.
October 18, 2009
by George was for me a wonderful reminder of what great fiction is all about. This story of two Georges - one a real boy coming of age in 1970s England and one a ventriloquist's "boy" or dummy entertaining the troops in WWII - is beautifully told, with the two main voices clear, distinct from one another as they relate their lives - often telling the same stories from different perspectives. Stace links the two stories from the beginning with loose ties that gradually become sturdier, tightening the two stories into one by the end. He avoids placating the reader in the end with a sticky-perfect family "reunion" (I speak not of the Georges themselves, but much more - read it...), preferring to stay with the realism that permeates the whole novel. Simply - I loved this novel and wish I hadn't read it, so I could be picking it up and starting it anew.
Want to read
January 13, 2008I've started reading this book and have liked it so far, but something has been holding me back from putting it on the top of my reading list. I finally figured it out the other day: I bought this book at a great book-and-music event at Fearrington Village in NC, and now what I really want is for Wes (the author) to read the book to me. No, I don't want an audiobook version...I want Wes in my house, sitting next to me, reading it to me, maybe with the dummy there too.
January 21, 2008
(My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:].)
Within long-form fiction, there is a particular thing that I happen to really love, something maybe a little difficult to explain but that I bet a lot of CCLaP's readers enjoy too; and that's when an author will pick a seemingly quirky topic, something that doesn't appear at first could be tied to a number of different periods of history, and then proceed to precisely tie the topic to a number of different periods of history, accidentally telling a Grand Story about society in general while along the road of the Quirky Story you originally thought they were going to tell. Maybe the best (or at least most well-known) example I can think of is Alan Moore's 1985 comic series Watchmen; the way he takes a supposedly niche subject like masked superheroes and instead tells a sprawling saga that lasts from the 1930s to the 1980s, showing how in fact each of the generations in those decades has had their own unique way of looking at the so-called "niche," which in turn says something unique about each of those generations and each of those time periods as well. The reason people go so nuts over Watchmen is not for the surface-level action-based plot of the story's latest generation of characters (although it is awfully inventive and entertaining, don't get me wrong); it's because Moore paints such a deep and incisive portrait of America itself through the various past generations of superheroes in his fictional world, tying together their similarities and differences into one giant uber-plot-engine that propels the story along as explosively as it does.
And hence do we come to by George, the second and latest novel by celebrated author Wesley Stace (Misfortune), who for those who don't know has already had an entire other celebrated artistic life as a musician under his stage name John Wesley Harding. (A cross-media genius; ah, how I do love featuring people like that here at CCLaP!) It is one of these stories like I'm talking about, in this case focusing on the topic of ventriloquism; a story you're led at first into thinking is going to be a quirky "indie-lit" one about an individual strange child, but then elegantly expands into a grand saga over the course of its plot, eventually reaching back into the footlights world of the Victorian Age itself. It's a book that holds untold complexities, a plot filled with sly cross-references that only slowly reveal themselves, an infinitely smart thriller which doubles as a deep character study which then doubles as a historical drama; a book I'm eternally grateful now that I picked up, in that this was yet another in a recent string of completely random novels I've recently checked out from my friendly neighborhood library, done for no other reason than because of simply liking the cover art (and in this case, the music of John Wesley Harding as well).
And indeed, this is probably the best place to start; that unlike someone like, say, Ethan Hawke (whose books in my humble opinion mostly get unfairly maligned, but that's a whole other essay), Stace is a cross-media artist who doesn't stick out as one, who doesn't need excuses from his fans like, "Yeah, but you should hear him sing!" In fact...
Within long-form fiction, there is a particular thing that I happen to really love, something maybe a little difficult to explain but that I bet a lot of CCLaP's readers enjoy too; and that's when an author will pick a seemingly quirky topic, something that doesn't appear at first could be tied to a number of different periods of history, and then proceed to precisely tie the topic to a number of different periods of history, accidentally telling a Grand Story about society in general while along the road of the Quirky Story you originally thought they were going to tell. Maybe the best (or at least most well-known) example I can think of is Alan Moore's 1985 comic series Watchmen; the way he takes a supposedly niche subject like masked superheroes and instead tells a sprawling saga that lasts from the 1930s to the 1980s, showing how in fact each of the generations in those decades has had their own unique way of looking at the so-called "niche," which in turn says something unique about each of those generations and each of those time periods as well. The reason people go so nuts over Watchmen is not for the surface-level action-based plot of the story's latest generation of characters (although it is awfully inventive and entertaining, don't get me wrong); it's because Moore paints such a deep and incisive portrait of America itself through the various past generations of superheroes in his fictional world, tying together their similarities and differences into one giant uber-plot-engine that propels the story along as explosively as it does.
And hence do we come to by George, the second and latest novel by celebrated author Wesley Stace (Misfortune), who for those who don't know has already had an entire other celebrated artistic life as a musician under his stage name John Wesley Harding. (A cross-media genius; ah, how I do love featuring people like that here at CCLaP!) It is one of these stories like I'm talking about, in this case focusing on the topic of ventriloquism; a story you're led at first into thinking is going to be a quirky "indie-lit" one about an individual strange child, but then elegantly expands into a grand saga over the course of its plot, eventually reaching back into the footlights world of the Victorian Age itself. It's a book that holds untold complexities, a plot filled with sly cross-references that only slowly reveal themselves, an infinitely smart thriller which doubles as a deep character study which then doubles as a historical drama; a book I'm eternally grateful now that I picked up, in that this was yet another in a recent string of completely random novels I've recently checked out from my friendly neighborhood library, done for no other reason than because of simply liking the cover art (and in this case, the music of John Wesley Harding as well).
And indeed, this is probably the best place to start; that unlike someone like, say, Ethan Hawke (whose books in my humble opinion mostly get unfairly maligned, but that's a whole other essay), Stace is a cross-media artist who doesn't stick out as one, who doesn't need excuses from his fans like, "Yeah, but you should hear him sing!" In fact...
February 22, 2021
What an amazing tale! I loved this right from the first page and my enjoyment and fascination lasted right through to the last. This reminded me so much of Stace's "Misfortune", another fabulously bizarre and quirky-lovely family saga. This story, as told by George the Boy and George the Dummy ('dummy' as in ventriloquist's partner), has so many facets and mysteries and intrigue, and the writing of it is superb. George the Boy's family - biological and otherwise related personages - are quite famous artists/performers, and their individual lives and goings on are amusing asides to George's life. George is a typical young boy, learning his way and himself amidst the raucous daily life he shares with Frankie, Echo, Reg, Queenie, Sylvia, Desmond, Bobbie, etc. The secrets of each person's life and how they manifest the revelations throughout the narrative are beautiful and touching, and tragic at times. The funniest and most imaginative parts of the book are when George the Dummy takes center stage, pun intended. It is hard not to see him as an actual human person, the narrative is done so convincingly. All the cornball repartee, dialogue, and performance pieces are stupid awesome. Loved them all. This was such a superbly crafted and wonderfully involved story. I wish Wesley Stace would write more books. He is truly an artist.
December 5, 2008
This is the story of two boys named George.
The first George is an eleven-year-old schoolboy named George Fisher. He is the son of actress Frankie Fisher, grandson of ventriloquist Joe Fisher, and great-grandson of Echo Endor, ventriloquiste extraordinaire.
The second George is also named George Fisher. He is Joe Fisher's dummy. He is also a schoolboy, as that is the style of the dummies produced during that time period.
Together, the Georges will tell the story of the Fisher family. We will learn of the Fisher family's rise to fame, and we will also learn the many secrets of this extremely complex family. And we will be amazed.
This is a great novel. I actually laughed out loud several times, and I really didn't ever want to put it down once I had started reading. The narration is clever, the story is engaging, and both Georges will hold your attention from the first page to the last.
2/3/08
The first George is an eleven-year-old schoolboy named George Fisher. He is the son of actress Frankie Fisher, grandson of ventriloquist Joe Fisher, and great-grandson of Echo Endor, ventriloquiste extraordinaire.
The second George is also named George Fisher. He is Joe Fisher's dummy. He is also a schoolboy, as that is the style of the dummies produced during that time period.
Together, the Georges will tell the story of the Fisher family. We will learn of the Fisher family's rise to fame, and we will also learn the many secrets of this extremely complex family. And we will be amazed.
This is a great novel. I actually laughed out loud several times, and I really didn't ever want to put it down once I had started reading. The narration is clever, the story is engaging, and both Georges will hold your attention from the first page to the last.
2/3/08
November 7, 2008
I found this book very hard to get into. It didn't pull me in the way books normally go, and I would find myself going days at a time without reading a page (which is unusual for me). However I was determined to finish it and with about 100 pages to go the story seemed to pick up for me. I really enjoyed the last portion of the book and the ending held a twist that I really enjoyed.
May 13, 2009
I really tried hard to stick with this one. I loved the premise, a story told from a ventriloquist dummy from the 20's and a young boy from the 70's. The dummy belonged to the boy's grandfather and he finds a book describing his grandfather's life. But it got really tedious and I couldn't get through it.
August 11, 2021
Quite enjoyable. Four stars instead of five because, as with many stories, I liked the set up better than the pay off: I was captivated by the voice and the stories at the beginning, and intrigued by the two different strands of narrative and learning how they related to each other. Also, much of the first part of the novel is a boarding-school story, which can be a lot of fun when done well, and the other genre in the bones of the novel is a backstage story, which is also a lot of fun. But, again, I was a tiny bit underwhelmed by the ending. All the revelations weren't as interesting as the build-up, and the character of George (the human one) went on an emotional journey that I also found a bit uncompelling. But overall quite a good read and a very inventive story.
July 7, 2018
This story about two Georges, one a ventriloquist dummy and the other a schoolboy, was enchanting from beginning to end. The Fishers, a family of stage performers in England, performed on and off the stage, leery of facing the inconvenient facts.
Told in alternating chapters by the two Georges, Stace very skillfully created two voices. Not until the final chapters did the two voices come together, and as the mysteries of the novel were unravelled, you wondered who was telling the story and did they speak for each other.
I loved the way Stace portrayed the world of the stage with such verisimilitude and the mysterious intrigue he created at the boarding school.
Told in alternating chapters by the two Georges, Stace very skillfully created two voices. Not until the final chapters did the two voices come together, and as the mysteries of the novel were unravelled, you wondered who was telling the story and did they speak for each other.
I loved the way Stace portrayed the world of the stage with such verisimilitude and the mysterious intrigue he created at the boarding school.
May 16, 2024
An interesting novel, well written, about a family of entertainers. There is a long tradition of ventriloquism in the family and the young schoolboy, George Fisher finds a dummy, also George Fisher, which had been used by his deceased father. Inside the legs of the dummy, George finds a document, ostensibly the memoirs written by the dummy. So the novel is essentially told by the boy and by the dummy. Quite enjoyable. This is the third of Wesley Stace's novels that I have read. Each one has a different style and each is well worth reading.
October 9, 2024
Such a beautiful book. The story of George’s grandfather really stole the show and the whole thing with the ventriloquist dummies was such a clever and magical touch. Cried so much after the letters part. There were a few elements I would have liked to be different, like trope-y-ness of having the mysterious depressed genius man have extroverted women fall into his lap, and the general lack of depth for female characters, but the book is still really good.
January 13, 2024
Es un libro algo lento. En ocasiones se pone interesante pero luego pesa mucho el leerlo.
Quizás porque no soy amante de largas descripciones.
Igualmente debo decir que al terminarlo quedé con una buena impresión de él. Una historia en dos tiempos que luego se conjunta en una y se hace una historia entretenida.
Quizás porque no soy amante de largas descripciones.
Igualmente debo decir que al terminarlo quedé con una buena impresión de él. Una historia en dos tiempos que luego se conjunta en una y se hace una historia entretenida.
January 14, 2020
Very compelling story about family and unexpected twists and turns along the way.
June 9, 2010
Well. This one certainly changed direction on me.
I picked "By George" up at the library on impulse. It wasn't on the long list of books I've been slowly conquering and I wasn't planning to add anything new to the list, but the cover intrigued me. And when I read the blurb, it intrigued me too (part of me, I think, hoped something magical would happen with this dummy, though the other half thought of those murdering dummy movies and was understandably weary but curious . . .), and then I came onto Goodreads and saw its acceptably good rating. So despite its fair length, I decided to go for it.
It was hard to get into at the beginning. I read maybe 25 pages and then forgot about it for several days. Once I did get into it though, I liked it more and more. The characters were all very unique and interesting and there was this air of whimsicality to it as the story passed between the narration of a dummy in the 1930s and the narration of a young boy in boarding school, both named George Fisher. I kept reading and finished the remainder of the book very quickly, in maybe two and a half days. But as I kept reading, the whimsicality faded away. George the boy was growing up and his coming-of-age story was not what I expected or hoped for him. It was depressing to read about his depression (obviously) and I wished his younger, innocent, playful but tricky self would return.
And then there's the story of his family and their past, which is full of secrets that some know and some are being protected from. It was so hard, when reading about the Fishers, to know who to like and who not to like. I get the feeling that the author was hoping his readers would fall for young George's primary family (Frankie, Queenie, and Evie), but once I learned more about their past, I found myself very annoyed with Queenie and Evie and I could never get over it, even at the end. I don't think the reader is meant to like Joe Fisher, but I did. A lot. I felt like he was simply misunderstood and that his mother had been playing with him like a puppet his entire life. But he was talented and while he did forsake his family's feelings, he was only doing it so that he could find some happiness and independence, something he'd never had before. He was selfish, but so were they and I understood his side of it more than theirs.
All the revelations at the end didn't work for me either. Some had been fairly obvious to me all along and others I just didn't care so much about (or I didn't agree with the way the characters reacted to them). The story began so well that I was truly hoping it would end well too. Despite the semi-optimistic ending, I felt like the George at the end was still a miserable, depressed youth who would never trust his family again and who would return to his much-older "girlfriend" in London and never really aspire to much else beyond the little sound system company.
It was just depressing. Intriguing beginning concept but an upsetting climax and finale. Maybe my unshakeable love for Joe just ruined it for me. I don't know. Whatever the explanation, I don't think I'm having the expected reaction to the book. Oh well. I'll still give it 3 stars for the good parts.
Find more book reviews at A Quick Red Fox.
I picked "By George" up at the library on impulse. It wasn't on the long list of books I've been slowly conquering and I wasn't planning to add anything new to the list, but the cover intrigued me. And when I read the blurb, it intrigued me too (part of me, I think, hoped something magical would happen with this dummy, though the other half thought of those murdering dummy movies and was understandably weary but curious . . .), and then I came onto Goodreads and saw its acceptably good rating. So despite its fair length, I decided to go for it.
It was hard to get into at the beginning. I read maybe 25 pages and then forgot about it for several days. Once I did get into it though, I liked it more and more. The characters were all very unique and interesting and there was this air of whimsicality to it as the story passed between the narration of a dummy in the 1930s and the narration of a young boy in boarding school, both named George Fisher. I kept reading and finished the remainder of the book very quickly, in maybe two and a half days. But as I kept reading, the whimsicality faded away. George the boy was growing up and his coming-of-age story was not what I expected or hoped for him. It was depressing to read about his depression (obviously) and I wished his younger, innocent, playful but tricky self would return.
And then there's the story of his family and their past, which is full of secrets that some know and some are being protected from. It was so hard, when reading about the Fishers, to know who to like and who not to like. I get the feeling that the author was hoping his readers would fall for young George's primary family (Frankie, Queenie, and Evie), but once I learned more about their past, I found myself very annoyed with Queenie and Evie and I could never get over it, even at the end. I don't think the reader is meant to like Joe Fisher, but I did. A lot. I felt like he was simply misunderstood and that his mother had been playing with him like a puppet his entire life. But he was talented and while he did forsake his family's feelings, he was only doing it so that he could find some happiness and independence, something he'd never had before. He was selfish, but so were they and I understood his side of it more than theirs.
All the revelations at the end didn't work for me either. Some had been fairly obvious to me all along and others I just didn't care so much about (or I didn't agree with the way the characters reacted to them). The story began so well that I was truly hoping it would end well too. Despite the semi-optimistic ending, I felt like the George at the end was still a miserable, depressed youth who would never trust his family again and who would return to his much-older "girlfriend" in London and never really aspire to much else beyond the little sound system company.
It was just depressing. Intriguing beginning concept but an upsetting climax and finale. Maybe my unshakeable love for Joe just ruined it for me. I don't know. Whatever the explanation, I don't think I'm having the expected reaction to the book. Oh well. I'll still give it 3 stars for the good parts.
Find more book reviews at A Quick Red Fox.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2016
By George is a multi-generational chronicle of a family in a very unusual line of work. It is focused primarily on the lives of two Georges: one a ventriloquist’s dummy created in the 1930s, the other a real boy, the son of a ventriloquist, born in 1962. This family saga is likely to appeal to anyone who enjoyed Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Like that book, it flits about in time, alternately following the adventures of each of the Georges until they gradually converge in the 1970s.
Stace has populated his story with some beguiling characters, many of whom make all too brief an appearance. I would have loved to spend more time with Headmaster Hartley, his son Don, and the transvestite ventriloquist Bobbie Sheridan, for a start. The family dynamics of the eccentric and dysfunctional Fisher clan are a source of humor as well as drama. Interestingly, the Fisher family is a matriarchy, and within the family it is acknowledged that women are the strong ones, the decisive ones, the enduring ones. While gender issues are not central here, there are certainly echoes of those raised in Stace’s first book, Misfortune.
I am a big Dickens fan, so I enjoyed the David Copperfield-esque opening of chapter one, as well as Stace’s observation that “If all novels are ventriloquism, Dickens was clearly the greatest ventriloquist of all: you never see his lips moving.” There is also a wonderfully funny tribute to another author I admire: Arthur Conan Doyle. As young George Fisher opens a package left for him at school, he imagines he is Sherlock Holmes, deducing facts about the package’s origin from clues in its wrappings.
It was fascinating to learn that Wesley Stace had a maternal grandfather, Cliff Townsend, who was actually a professional ventriloquist. Although they never met, Stace is now in possession of his grandfather’s dummy whose name is—George! As a performer turned author, Stace (who performs his own music under the name John Wesley Harding) obviously finds parallels between the art of ventriloquism and the art of the writer. Both give life to a lumber byproduct (dummy, book) with the collusion of their audience. Obviously the artist must have skill, but equally important is the willingness of the audience to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. I think this analogy is an apt one, and that Cliff Townson would be proud to see what a fine ventriloquist his grandson turned out to be.
Stace has populated his story with some beguiling characters, many of whom make all too brief an appearance. I would have loved to spend more time with Headmaster Hartley, his son Don, and the transvestite ventriloquist Bobbie Sheridan, for a start. The family dynamics of the eccentric and dysfunctional Fisher clan are a source of humor as well as drama. Interestingly, the Fisher family is a matriarchy, and within the family it is acknowledged that women are the strong ones, the decisive ones, the enduring ones. While gender issues are not central here, there are certainly echoes of those raised in Stace’s first book, Misfortune.
I am a big Dickens fan, so I enjoyed the David Copperfield-esque opening of chapter one, as well as Stace’s observation that “If all novels are ventriloquism, Dickens was clearly the greatest ventriloquist of all: you never see his lips moving.” There is also a wonderfully funny tribute to another author I admire: Arthur Conan Doyle. As young George Fisher opens a package left for him at school, he imagines he is Sherlock Holmes, deducing facts about the package’s origin from clues in its wrappings.
It was fascinating to learn that Wesley Stace had a maternal grandfather, Cliff Townsend, who was actually a professional ventriloquist. Although they never met, Stace is now in possession of his grandfather’s dummy whose name is—George! As a performer turned author, Stace (who performs his own music under the name John Wesley Harding) obviously finds parallels between the art of ventriloquism and the art of the writer. Both give life to a lumber byproduct (dummy, book) with the collusion of their audience. Obviously the artist must have skill, but equally important is the willingness of the audience to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. I think this analogy is an apt one, and that Cliff Townson would be proud to see what a fine ventriloquist his grandson turned out to be.
March 13, 2010
Here we have a multi-generation story about a family of ventriloquists, with two narrators. George is a young boy whose mother, grandfather and great-grandmother have all had their fame and success in music halls in England, beginning in the early 1 900’s. Alternating chapters are told by another George, the dummy who tells the back story of his life with the real George’s grandfather. George the boy does not know who his father was, and his grandfather apparently died during World War I. However George the boy is close to his mother and his great-grandmother. Neither does George the boy know about George the dummy, but he is very interested in learning about ventriloquism. At boarding school, which he hates, he befriends the groundskeeper, who encourages his interest. Eventually all the pieces come together; George meets the dummy and discovers a diary his grandfather had kept during the war, which lays bare all the family secrets. This is an unusual book, and I found it a refreshing change from other reading I have done recently.
April 2, 2011
This delightful novel tells two intertwined stories, one set in the 1940s about a ventriloquist and his dummy named George (told in first person from the dummy's point-of-view, intriguing in itself); the second story, set in the 1970s, tells the story of the ventriloquist's grandson, named George (after the dummy) and his quest as a schoolboy to become a ventriloquist and performer in his own rite. I really liked how Wes played with the whole concept of point of view and storytelling throughout the book. I was intrigued and somewhat confused by the family of characters, many of whom appear in both time settings of the novel, though occasionally under different names, and viewed through different lenses by the two Georges. This is not simple fiction. Beyond the intrigues of the storytelling voice, the story itself was very riveting. I found myself constantly changing my mind as to which George’s story I liked more as Wes switched back and forth between the two eras. A very interesting and worthwhile novel; makes me want to read Wes' other works (he has two other novels out).
September 21, 2008
What do you do when you discover that there’s someone else out there with the same name as you? In this charming story about two Georges, you will find out. First there is George, a ventriloquist dummy and than there is George an eleven-year old boy. This story is really told and narrated by George, the puppet as told by his memoirs that he experienced as a dummy and all the travels and people he meets along the way.
I thought it was refreshing as well as unique to see everything through a ventriloquist dummy’s point of view. The situations George, the dummy had to deal with were pretty amusing. As much as I liked gaining a different prospective I did have some trouble staying focused all the way through this book. There were some dry spots. Even with this being a factor I would still read another book by Mr. Stace. I definitely thought that Mr. Stace brought a lot of creativity to By George.
I thought it was refreshing as well as unique to see everything through a ventriloquist dummy’s point of view. The situations George, the dummy had to deal with were pretty amusing. As much as I liked gaining a different prospective I did have some trouble staying focused all the way through this book. There were some dry spots. Even with this being a factor I would still read another book by Mr. Stace. I definitely thought that Mr. Stace brought a lot of creativity to By George.
November 9, 2013
By George is a wonderful, Dickensian novel which tells two tales that are brought together by the book's conclusion. The first follows the British vaudeville family the Fishers, and centers primarily on a somewhat rebellious and innovative ventriloquist named Joe Fisher, and his dummy George, as they take their acts to the front lines of WWII. The second story follows Joe's grandson George Fisher and his coming of age in various British boarding schools, slowly learning the truth about the colorful vaudeville family he was born into.
This is a great book, with wordplay and visual richness galore. The amazing thing Wesley Stace (aka rock musician John Wesley Harding) has accomplished with this novel is reminiscent of the very best work from John Irving. A family saga that spans generations, with an understanding of the importance of eccentricity and individualism.
I loved this book. Five stars.
This is a great book, with wordplay and visual richness galore. The amazing thing Wesley Stace (aka rock musician John Wesley Harding) has accomplished with this novel is reminiscent of the very best work from John Irving. A family saga that spans generations, with an understanding of the importance of eccentricity and individualism.
I loved this book. Five stars.
May 23, 2013
I love the way this was written. Wesley Stace did a fantastic job intertwining the lives of George the "boy" and George the schoolboy. What a great story.
I just finished it this morning, so it's all fresh in my head and I wouldn't know what to say I liked more. The style or the story, perhaps both equally? I loved the movement of the characters, how he made it seem like life, you become attached to someone and then you drift away. All in a narrative that never bored me for a moment. While there are allusions to what will happen next, they aren't so prominent that you can definitely pin them down, there's always a sense of doubt (the same experienced by George the schoolboy).
The mystery of the family, the fantastic tales during the war, the ultimate conclusion, this book just had it all in my eyes.
Chance of recommending: 100%
I just finished it this morning, so it's all fresh in my head and I wouldn't know what to say I liked more. The style or the story, perhaps both equally? I loved the movement of the characters, how he made it seem like life, you become attached to someone and then you drift away. All in a narrative that never bored me for a moment. While there are allusions to what will happen next, they aren't so prominent that you can definitely pin them down, there's always a sense of doubt (the same experienced by George the schoolboy).
The mystery of the family, the fantastic tales during the war, the ultimate conclusion, this book just had it all in my eyes.
Chance of recommending: 100%
January 24, 2015
Bravo! By George grabbed me by the brain and didn't let go until its conclusion. I was not counting on this title to be as good as it was, surpassing my expectations. It's fascinating the way Wesley Stace oscillates between two story lines, which on the surface seem destined to be totally unrelated. George, the boy dummy and Geroge the boy tell the story of their colorful lives and how their family directed, controlled, and cajoled them into the beings they became. I really had no idea how the story would end and was heart-struck during the final pages. How else could it have concluded?
If done right, an amusing screenplay of By George could be written featuring Stace's vibrant well defined characters. The two storylines are clear and written with purpose. They come together well.
I'm so happy I took a chance on By George!
If done right, an amusing screenplay of By George could be written featuring Stace's vibrant well defined characters. The two storylines are clear and written with purpose. They come together well.
I'm so happy I took a chance on By George!
June 12, 2016
Finally got around to reading this and I am not disappointed. Wesley Stace continues to be a favorite writer of mine. His prose flows, his humor shines. In this story told 'by' George, in alternating points of view, we follow an 11 year old boy and his eccentric matriarchal family as he grows up in a family of entertainers and is sent to Upside Boarding School. Here he learns to survive, but never really fits in until he befriends a groundskeeper who takes an interest in him. So begins his interest in ventriloquism. The other narrator is George--the dummy of a ventriloquist who entertains the British troops during WWII. Their stories entwine beautifully. I won't go into the relationships and how Stace weaves the two tales together. Just trust that this author is careful and thoughtful, and I never regret a minute spent reading his work.
July 20, 2016
This was such an amazing book, I'm sad that so few people have heard of it or of Wesley Stace the writer. I had no idea, until I went to see him at a storytelling show, that Wesley Stace is John Wesley Harding the musician. I fell a little bit in love with him that night, this attractive, intelligent, funny man with a lovely accent who is also a talented singer/songwriter and wrote a book that I loved. I need to read his other books. His new one just came out and you can bet I'll be going to at least one of his appearances around town to promote it. Apparently it's about writing kid music, and one of the events is with Dan Zanes, King of All Kid Music. I am looking forward to it. Meanwhile, you have to read this book!
January 14, 2012
Had I not found this book on a NPR's list of best books 2012, I would not have chosen it based on its subject matter. It is about a family of entertainers who have careers in vaudeville, ventriloquism and "voice-throwing". All of these acts require managment of what people pay attention to while creating an illusion. Form follows subject matter in this novel. It is not always clear if you are seeing what you think you are seeing. This is sometimes a lot of fun and sometimes just confusing. I got frustrated with it and created a family tree of the characters based on what I had read and what I found from an online review. With this in hand, I was able to enjoy the twists and turn quite a lot, though there was exactly one too many for my tastes. Still it is very fine reading.
May 23, 2012
While I didn't enjoy this book as much as I liked Stace's debut novel, Misfortune, this one was good too. The ventriloquist dummy as narrator was an interesting technique, but...a little weird. And at times confusing, since the character can't be expected to know as much as the reader would like about some things. The other George, the teenaged narrator, was a much more compelling storyteller in my opinion, and I enjoyed his perspective on being a part of a fairly mixed-up theatrical family. The "insider" looks at the backstage life of the successful performers in the family was strangely uninteresting to me, especially since I love theater and have participated in it, and I had been looking forward to those portions of the book. Still worth reading.
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