Farthing (Small Change, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Oct 09, 2010 Hirondelle (not getting notifications) rated it it was ok

Shelves: sf

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The cover blurb "if Le Carré scares you, try Jo Walton" makes more sense after one reads the book. Though instead of "scares you" I would put it "if Le Carré depresses you and you like it, then you will like this". It is the same sort of effect, and while I admire the ambition, the comparison does not flatter Farthing, who does not stand on strong foundations.

The plot is described accurately by the blurb above. The same cover compares this to Fatherland and The Plot Against America - I had read The cover blurb "if Le Carré scares you, try Jo Walton" makes more sense after one reads the book. Though instead of "scares you" I would put it "if Le Carré depresses you and you like it, then you will like this". It is the same sort of effect, and while I admire the ambition, the comparison does not flatter Farthing, who does not stand on strong foundations.

The plot is described accurately by the blurb above. The same cover compares this to Fatherland and The Plot Against America - I had read neither, this is my first alternate history fascists-won-ww2 book ( not counting Swastika Night Swastika Night, which I guess does not count, being set centuries and centuries in an alternate future), so I would give Farthing the advantage that the idea is fresh to me.

But I have many problems with everything else. The mystery plot, nominally the focus of the novel, is wrapped up rather fast and ridiculously ( hearsay by old Lady Thirski and servants blurbing like computer game clues) and we must assume that some of the plotters (all, except Daddy) are totally evil and remorseless (only Daddy has a hint of conscience, not that it matters). Worse almost, to my mind, is the betrayal of the mystery genre, in that clues dropped through the narrative come to nothing, mean nothing, have not their correct context explained. We know from the start Mummy was involved, since she was in the corridors at 6 am dressed and imperturbable, but we find no good reason for her to be there at all! What does Angela melodramatically reciting the poem and being embarrassed later mean? Surely Daphne´s grief was real, and oh the wasted potential there, what would she do when she finds out, or not, about the plot. But we get nothing on that, just some extremely fast and contrived explanation of what was supposed to have happened (not that it makes much sense. I mean really a bad shot not trying to hit, manages to hit by accident two people with presumably just two shots?). The mystery plot gets short changed and steam rolled in the way for a depressing alternate history ending and a tragic LeCarré-ish ending. But the writing, universe, plotting is not rigorous, serious enough for me to take it seriously.

A lot of the character interaction seems a bit unlikely or heavy handed. I think it statistically unlikely that almost all the main characters are gay or bissexual, up to it being almost a joke ( seriously the tea thing seems to be the new oysters or snails. Or perhaps more correctly maybe the China tea is a signal of anti-fascist leanings and general "modern" tolerance). Characters seem almost stereotypical, the aristocrats, the faithful old servants, the rabid antisemitic housekeeper coming out of nothing. Even the jewish husband is too perfect, inventing micro-financing all by himself. Our characters get an escape and small revenge (the diamond) in ways which seem rather random and lucky - of course the one character to which we had had several random references before would turn out to be involved in a secret railway scheme and be able to send them to safety. Of course she would. And while I liked Lucy´s chapters and narration, her instant knowledge of conception suspends my belief quite badly.

And then there are the details. Some of them conceivably could have happened in a parallel universe though unlikely : couturiers introducing makeup lines much earlier, or Twinings inventing Lady Grey Tea many decades early. Others seem just sloppy or lazy: for example: titles. I do not undestand how Thirskie could be a baronet with a living legitimate nephew son of an older brother. Surely the nephew would have had the title, perhaps even the estates! Sloppy - and more instances around when things are not quite right.

Lots of ambition but floppy and fuzzy around the corners. ...more

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Sep 22, 2015 Jaylia3 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015

Deftly blended, this combination of an alternate world history with an English country house mystery opens in 1949, but it’s not exactly the 1949 or England we know. Eight years earlier a group of conservative, anti-semitic politicians known as the “Farthing set” made peace with Nazi Germany, securing Britain’s borders after most of continental Europe had fallen to Hitler. The Germans continue to fight the Soviets, the American president is isolationist Charles Lindbergh, and the Jews left in Eu Deftly blended, this combination of an alternate world history with an English country house mystery opens in 1949, but it’s not exactly the 1949 or England we know. Eight years earlier a group of conservative, anti-semitic politicians known as the “Farthing set” made peace with Nazi Germany, securing Britain’s borders after most of continental Europe had fallen to Hitler. The Germans continue to fight the Soviets, the American president is isolationist Charles Lindbergh, and the Jews left in Europe are living a nightmare.

Against this background, the aristocratic, politically powerful Farthing set comes together for a country weekend. The daughter of one of the couples, Lucy Kahn, is deeply in love and happily married to David, a Jewish man, so she’s surprised that her parents have invited them to join this gathering at her old family home. If it was up to her they’d skip it, she doesn’t like this group and they see her as a race traitor, but David thinks the invitation is a gesture of reconciliation so they go. But when they wake up the first morning they discover that a powerful politician has been murdered in his bed, and it quickly becomes clear that whoever did this is trying to frame David.

The story alternates between two very different voices. Lucy’s chapters chat to readers in the first person, while the point of view of Inspector Carmichael, sent by Scotland Yard to investigate the crime, is told through the third person. Carmichael is a principled, thoughtful man who has secrets of his own--he’s a homosexual. Though he’s working diligently to uncover the truth, he’s being pressured by his superiors to just arrest David and close the case.

Jo Walton’s versatility amazes me. The first books I read by her involved a simulation of Plato’s Republic, set up by the goddess Athena on the ancient island of Atlantis, but this is obviously a very different book, and she’s written it from two highly contrasting points of view. Tightly plotted, the tension builds quickly and continuously in Farthing, so by the time I was 80% in my heart was pounding and the book was impossible for me to put down. It’s the first book in a trilogy that I look forward to continuing once my adrenaline comes back down to normal levels.
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Mar 25, 2009 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, speculative-fiction, alternate-history, mystery

My local library system has three copies of this book, at three different branches. One branch files it under science fiction, one branch files it under fiction. At my library I tracked it down in the mystery section. What is it, then? Like Jasper Fforde's Tuesday Next books, it is set in an alternate England in which certain wars went another way than in real life. Also like Tuesday Next, the protagonist's brother was killed at war, and she married his best friend. That's where the similarity e My local library system has three copies of this book, at three different branches. One branch files it under science fiction, one branch files it under fiction. At my library I tracked it down in the mystery section. What is it, then? Like Jasper Fforde's Tuesday Next books, it is set in an alternate England in which certain wars went another way than in real life. Also like Tuesday Next, the protagonist's brother was killed at war, and she married his best friend. That's where the similarity ends. Where those books are exercises in absurdity, this one feels gut-wrenchingly real.
Jo Walton has created a world in which Hitler's march on Europe went unchecked. A group of politicians known as the Farthing Set brokered an agreement with Germany that allowed England to remain autonomous. The US, under President Lindbergh, is increasingly isolationist, and has closed its doors to Jews. Europe's Jews live with yellow stars and ration books and ghettos and camps. England's Jewish population is free, but faces strong prejudice. This alternate history is the only SF aspect of the book, which otherwise reads as political mystery and social commentary (on the British class system, justice, anti-Semitism, and homophobia).
A few months ago a friend suggested that I try reading Dorothy Sayers, but warned me that her books could be read as somewhat anti-Semitic. I found that in those cases I could dismiss it as a product of the time; not so with this book. I found the treatment of the Jewish characters in this system of casual ingrained bigotry to be absolutely gutting. The author really managed to make me feel that things could have as easily gone this way as the way they did. Walton is an excellent writer: I found it hard to put the book down. Her style feels breezy and effortless in a way that takes an enormous amount of work to achieve. The main characters feel real, and the split narrative (alternated first and third person chapters) works in a way that such things often do not.
The only reason I'm rating this book four stars instead of five is the somewhat "to be continued" ending. Luckily, the second book is at my library (filed under literary fiction). ...more

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Sep 03, 2010 Nicky rated it really liked it

Shelves: queer, dystopia, welsh-writing, historical-fiction-alternatehistory, crime, mystery

Farthing is set in an alternate-history world where Britain made peace with Hitler instead of continuing to fight. Jews are still tolerated in Britain, although they're not precisely loved by the aristocracy, and probably not by the regular people either -- though we see less of those. At the start of the book, that doesn't seem very important, perhaps, to the story. It's a country house murder mystery, with a multitude of people with motive and secrets they're keeping. There's some red herrings ...more

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Apr 28, 2014 Nicky rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction-alternatehistory, queer, speculative-fiction, favourites

Halfway through rereading this, I stalled for a moment, thinking about the ending. See, the book starts out seeming pretty fun, despite the dark threats in the background: there's plainly loving pastiche of Dorothy L. Sayers going on, and Lucy Kahn's narration is lively and silly. All of that disguises, for a while, how serious the themes turn -- and when they do, when the bottom of Carmichael's life drops out, you'll feel it too. I quoted Dar Williams' song Buzzer when I first reviewed this, an ...more

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Aug 22, 2008 Sandi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, cross-genre

“Farthing” by Jo Walton is an engaging murder mystery with a style and setting that reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel. The twist is that it’s set in a 1940’s Britain that negotiated a peace treaty with Hitler in 1939 to stop the Blitz. Hitler agreed to leave Britain alone and Britain agreed to let Hitler have the entire European continent. Now, it would be very easy for this alternative history novel to fall into a “Gee, look how different this is!” mode. However, “Farthing” works because i “Farthing” by Jo Walton is an engaging murder mystery with a style and setting that reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel. The twist is that it’s set in a 1940’s Britain that negotiated a peace treaty with Hitler in 1939 to stop the Blitz. Hitler agreed to leave Britain alone and Britain agreed to let Hitler have the entire European continent. Now, it would be very easy for this alternative history novel to fall into a “Gee, look how different this is!” mode. However, “Farthing” works because it treats the alternate history as normal. It also works because it takes place in England, not the Continent; because it takes place only a few years after the novel’s history diverges from real history; and because the mystery surrounds the people who were responsible for the treaty with Hitler. Because of the involvement of the characters with the setting’s history, the divergent setting can be revealed without a lot of awkward exposition.

As engaging as I thought the story was, I did have a couple of issues with “Farthing.” First, this novel seemed to have a lot more homosexual characters than you would find in a typical real population. There were at least 4 major characters that were gay or lesbian out of approximately 20 characters. (I am counting Lucy’s brother, Hugh, because he is mentioned frequently.) The homosexual angle probably wouldn’t have bothered me if it really had anything to do with the plot. It was pointless, but it was brought up over and over again. I also found Lucy’s silly euphemisms for the other character’s peccadilloes to be tedious and off-putting. For the record; gay males are Athenians, gay females are Macedonians. Committing adultery is going to Bognor, but two women going to Macedonia aren’t going to Bognor even if one of them is married. (???) The whole thing gets quite ridiculous.

If we had half stars, this book would be a 3-1/2. I really enjoyed it with the exception noted above. And, the ending surprised me a little. Carmichael does solve the murder case, but the outcome was unexpected. Sadly, it probably went down the way it would have in the real world. I would really like to read about Lucy and David’s life after this story ends and I think Inspector Carmichael is one of the finest detectives since Hercule Poirot.
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Jul 20, 2008 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, fiction, ebooks, alternate-history, detective

Farthing is a somewhat odd book. It's a fairly straight-forward murder mystery...that takes place circa 1950, in an England where Britain and Nazi Germany came to a peace accord in 1941, meaning that Hitler rules the mainland (although still at war with the USSR) and the USA never entered the war (and in fact, is currently governed by President Lindbergh)...and has a rather surprise ending (quite different from the common murder mystery twist) which many will find very unsatisfying. After an ini ...more

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Sep 11, 2018 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, alternate_history, mystery, rereads, ebook, book_club_irl

This may be a perfect time to read Farthing. I picked it up a few years ago, on the rave reviews of my online book club (of which Jo Walton is our patron saint), but bounced off of the affected girlish voice and British aristocracy. This time, though, it gripped me right out of the gate.

2018 started with Churchill and Dunkirk as Oscar contenders, both of them detailing Britain's defeats at Nazi hands, the pressures to halt the war, and the cost of fighting on. The pair of intense portraits of WW ...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Paula rated it really liked it

Shelves: read_in_2010, bought_in_2010

Just when you think actual history was bad enough, Jo Walton tosses out an alternate history that is so much worse. Peace is made between England and Hitler, which allows Hitler to stay in power and leaves him the continent, but saves England. However, there is so much in the way of discrimination (of all kinds) that you realize the all out war was so much better in the long term.

This mystery was set in 1949, and while the author doesn't delve too deeply into the actual alternative history bit, ...more

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Aug 26, 2010 Ryandake rated it did not like it

Shelves: stuff-i-couldn-t-finish

WWII books of any stripe are never my favorite (can we just get over WWII, already???) but this one hit a new low. couldn't even finish it... couldn't even get halfway thru it.

the characters totally reminded me of those stand-up cardboard cutouts you see in movie theaters. really, dahling, they just couldn't have been more cliche, oh do shut up. i wanted a G&T and a pith helmet. plus i don't think people in the 40s were that 40s-ish, you know? they had depth and range and contained surprises... ...more

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