The Michigan Review

Fry's History Needs a Deeper Look

by Kristina Curkovic

In his two previous books, author/actor Stephen Fry delved into frivolous and hilarious topics ranging from British boarding schools in The Liar to pseudo­miracles in The Hippopotomos, the latter being the better of the two and still better than Fry's latest novel, Making History. The three books together show us that Fry finds a better­fitting niche in frivoloty than he does in any serious undertaking in studying history's worst moments.

In Making History, those worst moments concern World War II, and the man who seemingly started it all Adolf Hitler, the topic of narrator Michael Young's intense study. He is a doctoral student at Cambridge, and has just finished what he calls his "Meisterwerk," a thesis on those early years of Hitler's life that led to the dictator's intense nationalism and hatred of Jews. Michael soon meets an elderly professor of physics, Leo Zuckerman, who becomes very interested in Michael's work. They agree to discuss it later. In the mean time, Michael makes up with his estranged girlfriend, who is a scientist working on a male sterilization pill, an experiment that becomes important later in the book.

Meeting with Zuckerman, Michael learns of the older man's obsession with the Holocaust and Hitler. Michael assumes the obsession comes from Zuckerman's Jewish roots and experiences, but in one of the book's best moments we learn that Zuckerman's fixation comes not from anger, but from guilt. His real name is Axel Bauer and his father was not a Holocaust victim, but a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz.

Michael, moved by Leo's passion and guilt, suggests that they use the physicist's amazingly convenient time machine (that's right, a time machine) and Michael's vast knowledge of Hitler's family background to make sure that Adolf Hitler was never born, convinced that Hitler was the catalyst of all the terrible things that happened in Europe during the first half of the century. Having accomplished their mission through the usual let's­use­the­time­machine­for ­good storyline, the book abruptly changes course as history itself changes.

And this is where Fry encounters some problems. While he creatively and extensively looks into the roots of the Nazi party and German nationalism after the first world war, Fry's analysis of the present­day situation is limited. We do learn that things aren't a lot better around the world; in fact, they are a lot worse for many minority groups, even in the U.S. and especially in Europe. But the change in social atmosphere is barely touched upon and only hinted at. Michael studies the history of the past 50 years and discovers that the Nazi party is alive and kicking, controlling all of Europe and at constant odds with the U.S. Even worse, Michael's clever attempt to change history has critically backfired, and caused a tragedy as great as the Holocaust itself.

But Fry's alternative world leaves the reader wanting. Why is it that the U.S., while such an enemy of German Europe, should be as racist and discriminatory? How is it that Michael is Jewish in the alternative world and not in the real world? And how is it that Michael is more comfortable discovering his sexuality in the respressed alternative world? Many things go unexplained, including what it is that makes Michael so interested in Hitler and the Holocaust. Fry's cursory glance at an alternative, repressive world needs deeper analysis to capture his readers.

On the other hand, Fry does go into deliciously crucial information about Hitler's family and army background. Fry proved his ability to make O'Henry­type connections in The Hippopotomos, and he takes advantage of that ability in this book to give it some valid and substantial moments to show that the the tremendous tragedies of WWII were not enacted by one man's whim and zeal alone.

Fry tells his tale through a variety of mediums, jumping back and forth from the present to the past, using screenplay format and including many extensive pseudo­historical texts to bring the book's alternative world almost to life, providing the reader with a variety of emotional levels. But taking a humorous author like Stephen Fry and mixing it with dead serious topics like Hitler and the Holocaust creates a book that can't seem to make up its mind about how it feels about the subject matter. These are questions that have to be answered with more deliberation and insight not only into history, but humanity as well. MR

This article was published in the 22 April 1998 edition of The Michigan Review (Volume 16, Number 10).
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