Customer Reviews

by George: A Novel

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This is a family history told by two Georges - one a ventriloquist's dummy named George and the other by a boy (who grows into a teen) named George after the dummy.

The family is in entertainment, starting with the matriarchical great grandmother, Echo, down through her son, his wife, grandaughter and then the now-living George. The wooden George belonged to the son who died in WWII, entertaining the troops with his ventriloquism until his death. He narrates part of the story. As strange as this seems, it is fitting and does not go over the top (he even makes a snide reference to the dummy in Goldman's book of the '70's which is very funny).

The story line follows the family, including George-the-living, through its history. Every generation has its conflicts, ghosts and skeletons in the closet. Therefore there is some tension from the outset. However, the tension builds and builds as the family's revelations come to light. Everyone older than George, including George the dummy, has secrets they reveal. The final secrets are brought out of the closet by the living George.

This is a terrific story following several generations in the entertainment business in England; starting in vaudeville, going through entertaining troops in WWII and all the way into television. The telling is sprinkled with humor. There is something reminiscent of "Water for Elephants" in that it is most of all a very good story in interesting settings. The revelations in every generation are startling, yet believable. The characters, including the supporting cast, are all interesting and have depth. The writing is very good as well. Highly recommended for a very good and entertaining family saga.

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.

Reading by George was like eating candy. In the very best of ways. The pace is fast, the characters are real, the writing is both dickensian and contemporary. It's about vaudeville, a topic that didn't interest me but that Stace developed so well, I found myself looking forward to each foray into his fictional vaudevillian world. One thing by George did was to make me want to race back and re-read Stace's debut novel, Misfortune. Both books have a redeeming warmth and a sophistication that's remarkable in contemporary fiction. Check them out. They're both really good. Stace is really good.

I love the layout of books like this one; one chapter is written in the voice of an eleven-year-old boy, and the next is written in the voice of a ventriloquist's made-to-order dummy (who warns that he should be called "boy" rather than "dummy.") The chapters are separated by forty-three years, so the back and forth can get a bit confusing; however, I enjoyed being forced to pay attention. No reader will quickly scan this book--nor would one want to!

The characters are all a bit quirky--much like real people. Nonetheless, I found myself looking forward to reading the "boy's" chapters. I learned a great deal about ventriloquism, along with bits about magic tricks and show business from the 1930s through 1980s, which made this an interesting read. The story is a complex family tale. I loved it!

There is some profanity.

Loosly based on author Wesley Stace's grandfather, this novel is a meticuously researched and vibrant account of the immensely popular art of ventriliquism and the accompanying variety acts that proliferated throughout Britain during the 20th century. Alternating between the early 1930's and the mid 1970's, with much of the action taking place through World War 11, By George is a coming-of-age-story, an irreverent memoir, and also a witty melodrama drama where family secrets are buried for years under the weight of so much anguish and pain.

The novel centers on George Fisher, son to the glamorous Frankie Fisher who has made a lucrative career out of English Pantomime and who later became known as a popular television personality. George is also grandson to the secretive Joe "Death Wish" Fisher, who once fashioned a ventriloquist act and ended up entertaining the troops throughout the Middle East during the War, even as he faced the derision of his diva-like mother Echo "Evie" Endor, who was royalty in a bygone era of music hall and variety entertainment and one the last great stalwarts of the British stage, and who also wowed audiences with her show which included "boy" Narcissus.

But there's also another George that's a part of this story, that of Joe's trusted friend and confidante, the dummy Gorgeous Garrulous George, who partially narrates this tale, and who was made by the great Joseph Romando and then given to Joe from Echo as a present on his twenty-first birthday. Like many divas that have made their living on the stage in the pre-war years, Echo Endor brims with her own agenda as she plots to think how she can build her son's career and help him through the early heartbreak as he pays his dues.

Swept away by her own ego, and perhaps also inflated opinion of her self (after all, she is a "ventriloquiste" of old-time variety), Echo hopes to pass on the benefit of her years of experience, even if she's determined to hide many of the real secrets of her success from him. Joe wants to develop an act centered around "polyphony," the art of making voices appear from nowhere, Echo, however, automatically shoots him down, telling him it's a nice idea, but that he'll never find a producer or an audience.

Determined not to have her life's work belittled by an amateur, even if he is her son, Joe becomes a part of the show called the Fol-de-Rols where this clash between mother and son ends up becoming a battle of wills and popularity. Suddenly it's George against Narcissus and Joe against Echo as Echo pretends to offer Joe one hand while all the while pushing him down with the other.

Meanwhile, in 1973 the poor eleven-year-old George is resentfully sent away to the Upside School for Boys. Echo is now in her early nineties and she still retains a fierce control of the household even though she can no longer leave her bed. Cast aside by the too busy Frankie who is constantly working, George is unable to live with his officious grandmother Queenie, or of course, his great-grandmother, and is consequently thrust into a new world of school with its unimagined customs and codes.

So begins the solitary life of this reclusive and lonely boy, forced to sleep in a dormitory that feels like a hospital ward, "on rough sheets in a dark, thin dungeon of whining bedsprings, grumbling matresses and the foreign creeks, coughs and groans." There is no room for pleasure and even reading is discouraged, but when Evie gifts him an ornately designed Victorian book called The Lfe and Adventures of Valentine Fox the Ventriloqiest, about a boy, a ventriloquest, who can throw his voice and make fun of people by pretending to be another voice, George sets his heart on cultivating his own weired gift and avenging all those wrongs and injustices that have roused his indignation.

Gravitating between the lives of George and Joe, the author makes his pages come alive with the worlds of ventriloquism, pantomime and variety entertainment as he follows the Fishers through the War with it's blackout restrictions and the closure of the threatres and cinemas which end up putting the entire entertainment profession out of work over night, and onto the 1950's and the onset of television where where variety began to die a slow death, ending with the 1970's where the once sacred art of ventrilolquism has become a creepy nostaglic act with what was once the chirpy dummy, now party trick "on a par with juggling, surviving only on a pier and at the children's party."

Of course the Fisher Family soldier on. When Evie inevitably dies family secrets are revealed and George becomes ever more obsessed behind finding out the truth his grandfather's life and the true nature of his relatship with the flashy, drag artist Bobbie Sheridan, whose act includes performing with a female doll named Belle and whom the dummy George ends up being attracted to.

So many questions remain: Why have Frankie and Evie idolized Joe over the years, regularly refering to him as "our war hero" when he answered his country's call as an entertainer for the troops? What is the real relationship between Queenie and her chauffeur Reg? What connection does the enigmatic Upside handyman and groundsman Donald have to the Fishers, and more specifically to Frankie? Donald certainly doesn't say much and he gives the impression of being perfectly content working at Upside. And what of the resentful and embittered Aunt Silvia, who suddenly vanished from the family fold years ago and who now lives a reclusive life on the Coast?

George is often driven by blind faith in the world of his family and his love of theatre and of a hope and longing that has made him demand more of the world than at first it wanted to give him. It is only through these qualities that he can finally discover the ultimate truths that mysteriously surround his beloved grandfather Joe, even when his assumptions prove to be so mistaken. Weaving together the mysterious forces of memory, spirit, desire and regret and imbedding his narrative with a heavy sense of the nostalgic, Stace has written a book that will undoubtedly delight Anglophiles, lovers of the world of the English stage, and also admirers and devotees of the great art of ventriloquism. Mike Leonard October 07.

Wesley Stace has fashioned his second excellent novel in "by George." The book creates a world probably little-known to most Americans, the English music hall of the 1920s and 1930s, a special vaudevillian milieu in which ventriloquism could thrive as a major fine art and broad entertainment. That's half the book. The other is a more contemporary story about a teenage scion of a great family of the music hall, coming to understand the family business and secrets and their effect on his own family life. Surprisingly rich psychologically for a book in which a major protagonist is made of wood, "by George" uses the ventriloquist's art of misdirection to cast light on one very entertaining storyline while allowing a richer and more resonant thread to take the reader by surprise.

I recommend "by George" as well as Mr. Stace's previous book Misfortune.

Wesley Stace is a very good author who deserves to be better known. I was so impressed with his latest novel, "Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer," that I rushed to read his previous book, "by George." While not as good as "Jessold," Stace's characteristic plot creativity and meticulous research, lead to a very interesting story of four generations of English ventriloquists, who comprise as mixed-up a family you'll find anywhere, but who are strangely affecting. The book covers English theatrical history from the music hall, the variety show, Vaudeville, and into the TV era. The heart of the story is the role that the dummy George plays in the life of the real life George, a teenager, and his grandfather, both ventriloquists. Stace's writing is both literary and contemporary, and his characters are both novel and fascinating. Having now read, in reverse order, two of Stace's three novels to date, I will turn next to his debut novel "Misfortune."

I usually don't bother with leaving reviews, but I just finished reading this book last night and I can't recommend it enough. All I can add to what was already written, is that it is a truly excellent, enjoyable, well written story.

Other reviewers have done a wonderful job of explaining the structure and plot, but I wanted to briefly add my praise. This is a very British novel to my American eye, interesting in its historical details, and fascinating in its description of the show biz life, vent figures, and even a bit on foley work for the movies later on in the novel. I found the characters three-dimensional and fascinating. Lots of engaging pathos here. I'm catching up on reviewing today, and while some of the books I read six months ago, I remember exactly nothing about, the world of this book is still vivid in my mind. Read it!

Simply put, Wesley Stace is one of my favorite contemporary authors. If you love to read, please please PLEASE read By George or Stace's first book (another complete pleasure) Misfortune.

In By George, Stace's beautiful writing and language, captivating characters, emotional and intellectual depth, and constantly intriguing plot provide utter joy, leaving readers like me wishing for more. I will skip an explanation of the plot to leave the satisfaction to you in the hopes that you will read this amazing novel.

And Wesley Stace, please keep writing!! I'm already waiting in anticipation for your next book!