Book Review: The Revisionists

I don't think I would have read this book if it weren't a book club selection.  For one thing, it is long (435 pp.).  For another, it is about time travel (not that I am against time travel books, per se, but I don't seek out time travel books) and I expected it to be somewhat political in nature, for some reason.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I enjoyed the book.

In a future perfect society (ha!) they have mastered the art of time travel.  Some historical agitators ("hags") have chosen to use this knowledge to go back in time and attempt to alter bad scenes from history.  The main character, Zed, is an agent sent back to ensure that history plays out just as it did, so that the perfect society will be achieved just as it was.  (O.K. - the perfect society bit is hard to swallow and how could altering the bad episodes, like the holocaust, really endanger the arrival of this supposed perfect society?)  Zed is determined to protect events that lead up to something called "The Great Conflagration" (never quite sure what that means).  This means he must take out quite a few hags, while trying not to alter things too much by his very presence in our present.

Zed ends up getting intertwined in the life stories of several contemporaries (the present day people): a former CIA agent doing some espionage work, a Washington lawyer trying to piece together more information about her slain military brother, and an oppressed nanny for a foreign diplomat who is key to the events leading up to the "Great Conflagration."  These characters, and their side stories, are woven through Zed's own story as he comes to grips with his mission and with his past and future.

If Mullen hadn't been a great storyteller, my interest would have waned.  He manages to pull together the divergent pieces slowly, without losing the interest of the reader.  He gives the reader much to think about (race, politics, religion, fate). In the end, most of the characters are likeable and the future looks hopeful, despite Zed's own shift in understanding of his role in history.

The story was far more lighthearted than I had expected. While I am curious to know what the other group members thought of this novel, I'm not sure I'll end up attending this month's book club meeting because it takes place the night before my husband and son are due to travel to Arizona for a family wedding.  Glad to have read the selection anyway.