Hail! Hail!

This novella is a bit of an oddity. Turtledove got it into his head to take four of the Marx Brothers (Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo) from 1934 and dump them in the village of Nacogdoches in east Texas in 1826, at the time of the first abortive attempt at Texan independence from Mexico; which was actually achieved ten years later.

The resulting story is not really a comedy: the situation is taken quite seriously by the characters and the author, although it comes with the sort of humorous dialogue you expect from the Marx Brothers. We find out what Texas and its inhabitants were actually like at that time, and the author tries to imagine how the Marx Brothers would react to Texas, and how Texas would react to them.

The mechanics of time travel are pretty simple: apparently you just go out in a thunderstorm and get struck by lightning. All four of you at the same time.

I'm not sure what the point of this story is, or whether it has one. Apparently the author just got this idea into his head and wanted to write it down to get it out of his system. It's quite well done and mildly entertaining, both as alternative history and as Marx Brothers fan fiction; although I don't know the Marx Brothers very well, so I can't comment as an expert.

As a massive Marx Bros. fan, this book seemed like an automatic buy for me. Harry Turtledove has a long history of doing some interesting alternate reality works, and taking the frantic foursome and tossing them back in time the Fredonian Rebellion was a neat take on the brothers Marx.

It was weird to see them referred to by their birth names, though. Only real fans would be able to keep them straight in their heads. The book was also not nearly as humorous as the Marxes were. At first, I was a little distracted by that, but having read enough biographies of the brothers, it was much more reflective of the melancholy and angst the brothers suffered offstage.

I liked this book, but I will be the first to tell you that it's probably not everyone's cup of tea.

Julius, Leonard, Arthur, and Herbert go to Texas

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Hail! Hail! by Harry Turtledove

This is an inventive and educational story that shows Harry Turtledove at the top of his form. This story is substantially longer than a short story but not quite as long as a novella. It is an easy, amusing and engaging read that manages to mix in so much history in what turns out to be both a time travel and an alt-hist story.

The protagonists are the brothers Julius, Leonard, Arthur, and Herbert, better known under their stage names Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Gummo Marx. The story starts in 1934 as the brothers are about to travel to New Orleans by train. Duck Soup has been recently released to disappointing box office. On the way to New Orleans they stop off at Nacogdoches, where they performed in 1912. It was during that performance that they discovered their gift of comedy. The brothers get out to visit the play house, but, improbably, they get involved in a lightning strike that throws them back to Nacogdoches in 1826, which is on the eve of the historic Fredonia Rebellion.

You say you have never heard of this event? Not to worry, Turtledove does, and it is fascinating to learn that this was a real event that presaged the Texas Revolution by a decade and involved Stephen Austin on the side of the Mexicans. From this point on the Marx Brothers are delivering japes and puns like they, well, the Marx Brothers in the real, authentic, smelly west, throwing their lot in with the Fredonia rebels.

I enjoyed the characterization of the Marx brothers, albeit most of the attention was given to Julius/Groucho than the others. Turtledove sprinkles his story with accurate details about the brothers, 1930s Hollywood, and Texas in the early 19th century.

All in all the story is delightful and worth the read, particularly if you are a fan of time-travel or Turtledove.