Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: William Morrow & Company / HarperCollins
Release Date: April 13, 2004
ISBN: 0060523867
Awards:  
Format Reviewed: Hardcover
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Genre:   Fiction – Historical – Action and Adventure
Reviewed: 2004
Reviewer: Kristin Johnson
Reviewer Notes:  Reviewer Kristin Johnson is the author of CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING, co-written with Mimi Cummins and ORDINARY MIRACLES: My Incredible Spiritual, Artistic and Scientific Journey, co-written with Sir Rupert A.L. Perrin, M.D.
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The Confusion 
The Baroque Cycle, Vol. II 
By Neal Stephenson

    Is Peter Jackson bold enough to make a movie trilogy of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle? If so, are there any people in New Zealand left to thank in an Oscar speech?

    With the twistings of history (Was Isaac Newton involved in a homosexual affair with von Leibniz?) that Stephenson executes in The Confusion, the second volume, perhaps Oliver Stone might be persuaded to helm the project. Or you could save the development hell and utter butchering of the book, because studio execs are bound to think audiences won’t go for a wry, sometimes serious, sweeping adventure story in which much of the action resembles a cross between The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Wall Street, with a bit of Master and Commander and The Three Musketeers thrown in. True, there are pages and pages of scientific discussions, as well as hints of building a computer, plus more financial dealings than Donald Trump could keep track of. There’s also a tender and globetrotting love story that reminds one of a tragicomic Cold Mountain, as well as more gutsy, educated, daring women than can be found in either Tolkien or Jordan. There’s Eliza, the female protagonist who makes Martha Stewart look like a homemaking hobbyist, the Satanist Duchess of Oyonnax, the brilliant precocious Princess Caroline, the pirate queen Kottakka and let’s not leave out Jack Shaftoe and his gutsy band of slaves turned entrepreneurs.

     To try to describe the plot in this review does the book an injustice. The battle scenes supply grit, blood and guts galore, the political and financial intrigues make our dot-com fueled stock market look tame and Bush and Kerry’s economic plans straightforward. There are failed and successful invasions, battles over lost love, worries over budgets and currencies, battles on the high seas, and women and men seducing each other for king and country, and sometimes for love. There’s even a custody battle. As the French say, plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose.

    Although I had not read the first volume, I found The Confusion not confusing, but a delightful linguistic and suspenseful alchemy by a master.