Three months ago I saw the movie “Yesterday,” a sort of alternate universe story in which the Beatles never existed. Good movie, great music (ironically, there are Beatles songs throughout). I came away musing that the world would be a sadder place without John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
And so, what if? That’s a question that many of us ask at one time or another. It’s human nature to imagine other scenarios for ourselves, other circumstances for the world in general. Lately I’ve read three books that could be lumped into the “what-if” category, even though they’re very different one from another. These kinds of stories are often called “speculative fiction” because they call for the reader to suspend their preconceived notions and skepticism.
WHAT IF…..you could live your life over? What would you change and what new choices would you make? That’s the premise of “Replay” by Ken Grimwood. Think of the movie “Groundhog Day” but done seriously. Our protagonist Jeff Winston repeatedly dies in 1988 at age 43, only to start reliving his life from the age of 18. He learns over several replays that knowledge of the future can be both a blessing and a curse, and he comes away from his experiences with a newfound appreciation of the uniqueness and unpredictability of each person’s life. Unfortunately Ken Grimwood died much too young, so no more intriguing stories have followed.
WHAT IF…..we lived in a totalitarian society? That’s the premise of “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The story is told from the perspective of Offred, a seemingly helpless handmaid in a theocracy called Gilead, in which women have no rights, choices, or protections. They can only communicate with others through an underground network. Some try to escape to Canada but most are unsuccessful. It’s a stark and scary book. Probably due to the success of the television series based on the book, Atwood has published a sequel. “The Testaments” tells about the underground resistance through the viewpoints of three unrelated women. Even though we can see that the society of Gilead will eventually collapse due to internal corruption, the second book is every bit as suspenseful as the first. The framers of our constitution knew what they were doing when they called for the separation of church and state; a theocracy always leads to one religion persecuting all others (just look at the Mideast). Though the first book was published in the late 1980’s, it’s even more relevant and frightening today. Don’t read “The Testaments” until you have read “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
WHAT IF…..there were wormholes in the fabric of space? That’s the premise of “11/22/63” by Stephen King. King is always thought of as a writer of horror stories, yet he’s capable of doing other genres equally well. Of course the date in the book’s title is self-explanatory. The main character stumbles upon a wormhole that always drops him into a time loop starting a few years before the Kennedy assassination. Each time he establishes himself in a small community near Dallas and begins his mission to stop Oswald. There are two very intriguing ideas raised in the story. The first is that history will fight you every step of the way as you struggle to make a change. The second is that the amount of pushback you’ll get is proportional to the size or importance of the change you’re trying to make. As the story winds down the reader is left with the biggest question of all: If it were possible, would it be wise to muck about with history?
Time travel? Alternate history? Parallel universes? These questions are making my head spin! But once in a while it’s good for us to stretch our brains to accommodate something different. Dr. Sheldon Cooper would be so proud! Happy reading!
