frumiousb

I'm sitting here today on this overcast Sunday and thinking about why it is that I have never really found a way to appreciate historical fiction. So many of my friends online who enjoy genres of all sorts seem to have historical fiction in common. I feel like I must be missing something.

(Note: For the purposes of this post, I am defining historical fiction as fiction which purports to take place more than 100 years before the date of writing and I generally intend it to mean works by contemporary writers. I have no idea if this is the official definition or not, but it is my definition. So there you go.)

I haven't liked it even from my youngest days. There was certainly the occasional exception. For instance, I loved The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare). But mostly (and still) historical fiction made me itch, and now I'm trying to figure out exactly why.

I think that it has to do with my obsessive ideas about truth, and how that appears in novels. I generally don't like historical fiction because it pretends about the truth. And I hate it when it gets details wrong, and historical novels so often gets the details wrong. It also kind of offends me when authors write characters who could have walked out of a club today-- as though all that separates us from the past are powdered wigs and funny clothes. I think that it sends a bad message, as though everything can be understood through the filter of our own time. And, you know, I don't believe that it can be. I don't mind fantasy or science fiction because the setting is clearly made up-- no pretense at truth to bother me or disagree about.

Lately, I've tried reading some more alt.history novels, largely because I loved Tim Powers and I heard that he is a great example of the genre. But I haven't liked any alt.history since. Or not very much, at any rate. Too much of it feels too glib-- generally making some kind of political point dear to the heart of the author. It nearly always feels too easy.

So what about you, dear reader? What do you think about historical fiction? Which authors would you recommend? What do you like, or dislike about it as a genre?

*****

Anyhow, part of why I have been thinking about this is the experience of reading Samarkand by Amin Maalouf (translated by Russell Harris). I loved it, and the historical fiction part of the book didn't bother me. And I can't really figure out why.

Samarkand tells the story of Omar Khayyam and the writing of his Rubaiyaat. It crosses that biographical story with the story of an American scholar who discovers the real book later, in the midst of a journey to the Middle East.

Samarkand breaks nearly every rule that I have for myself about what kind of historical fiction I dislike. It name-drops famous people (characters sail on the Titanic. Khayyam is close to Hassan-i-Sabah and their stories intertwine, etc.). It makes historical characters modern. It indulges in fancy dress and exotic places. But still, that didn't really bother me. Perhaps that is because in the character of the student it seems Maalouf turns the camera back on himself. By giving a young, well-intentioned but ultimately callow character the role to interpret not only the past but the culture of the present, the reader is reminded that such things can not be so easily understood. Maalouf seems to remind us that their is no such thing as an omniscient narrative. And then somehow, just like that, I forgive him the rest of the devices in his book.

Samarkand is not perfect. The latter half, in particular is a little bit clunky. There is something not quite right about the structure. It may be the translation, but I am not completely sure. Still, a worthwhile read. A good use of time. (And now I have to run out and re-read the Rubaiyaat, which I will confess I did not take as seriously as I ought.)

This is the second book that I have read by Maalouf, the first being the magnificent Crusade Through Arab Eyes. I'm definitely going to keep reading in his body of work.

( click for more historical fiction that I didn't hate )