Parallel Lives
Review of novel by Richard Seltzer
I am the author.
The story, which begins in an assisted-living facility in New Hampshire, leads to 18th century Boston and London, where there may be unfinished business that residents, through mirror selves, must take care of. As Abe, Mercy, and their friends come under the influence of forces they don’t understand, they adopt antique attire, get drunk on two-hundred-year-old wine, and become experts in the lives of their other selves. In their alter egos, Mercy is Mercy Otis Warren, playwright and historian from Massachusetts at the time of the American Revolution; and Abe is Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, the general who at Saratoga lost the battle that led to England losing the war and who then became one of the most popular playwrights on the London stage.After dreams of what their other selves did and could have done, Mercy and Abe discover a tunnel in the basement that leads to other places and other times, where they could accidentally or deliberately change the course of history.
From romance in a New Hampshire nursing home to scenes in London and Boston that determine the outcome of the American Revolution, this tale moves quickly and smoothly from realistic present to time-travel fantasy, with historical insights. The turns of phrase, the motley assemblage of characters and the fast-paced action carried me along, made the impossible seem plausible, even probable. Most memorable? A life-drawing class for seventy-year-olds, an alternate history where Mercy Otis Warren was elected the first woman president in 1808, and the delicate balance between fate and free will, where changing why someone does what he does, but not changing the facts, gives new meaning to a patriot’s life.
