Message-ID: <125@ahuta.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Nov-84 20:30:03 EST
Article-I.D.: ahuta.125
Posted: Tue Nov 27 20:30:03 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Nov-84 05:03:04 EST
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               JOB: A COMEDY OF JUSTICE by Robert A. Heinlein
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
                         Ballantine, 1984, $16.95.

     This one starts out with more promise than other recent Heinlein novels
(NUMBER OF THE BEAST and FRIDAY, in particular), but about halfway through
Heinlein once again reverts to his stock characters and the novel loses
steam.

     The premise is intriguing.  Alex (that's Alexander Hergensheimer) is on
a cruise in an alternate world to ours in which the Moral Majority would
seem positively decadent.  He walks through a fire in Poynesia (on a bet)
and finds himself in an alternate world (to his) which is far more free.
There he meets Margrethe, a stewardess on the cruise ship, who has been
having an affair with Alex Graham, Alex's alter-ego in her world, and
conveniently decides to fall in love with Alex.  (If her name sounds like a
literary allusion, it's no accident.)  If this isn't confusing enough, some
gangsters are after Alex Graham for the million dollars he has in his lock
box on board, and in the confusion that follows, Alex and Margrethe end up
in yet another world.  This is just the beginning--they jump from world to
world, usually with nothing more than the clothes on their back (sometimes
less).

     Now, I liked all the alternate world stuff, but that's my particular
thing.  I don't think Heinlein does it particularly well, but then he has an
out--but that would spoil some of the plot.  He's done this sort of thing
before (in NUMBER OF THE BEAST), and it wasn't all that great there either.
But the different life-views are interesting, even if all the consequences
are perfectly worked out.  Alex is a born-again Christian (of course--but
would the phrase 'born-again' have arisen in *his* world?); Margrethe believes
in Odin.  Together they conclude that someone (some deity, actually--Loki?
Satan?) has it in for them, and that's why their world keeps changing.

     Unfortunately, somewhere around world #8 (give or take a couple of
worlds), they meet a couple a lot like Robert and Virginia Heinlein (one
presumes) who live in an amazing house (luckily we are spared precise
descriptions of the plumbing, which up until this novel seem to have been a
Heinlein mainstay) and have very liberal and radical ideas.  There's a lot
of talk about nudity and sex (another Heinlein staple--I wouldn't mind it so
much if he did it well) and the usual philosophical speeches before Alex and
Margrethe once again jump somewhere else.  It's also about here that Alex
and Margrethe start talking like stock Heinlein characters.  A pity--they
were interesting up to this point.

     Then about three-quarters of the way through, Heinlein does an abrupt
left turn and the novel becomes something else entirely.  Unfortunately,
what it becomes is not nearly as interesting as what it was.  (Telling what
would ruin the surprise, which is about all it's got going for it.) The
novel just sort of trickles out, with a very unsatisfactory conclusion.

     JOB is better than other recent Heinlein novels (everything since TIME
ENOUGH FOR LOVE), but it's not up to his earlier work by any means.  It will
probably be nominated by a Hugo (it seems that any novel by Asimov, Clarke,
or Heinlein is), but it's a nostalgia nominee.  (Strangely enough, it seems
remiscient of Silverberg's UP THE LINE, though I can't pin down why.)

					Evelyn C. Leeper
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