Wesley Strace’s new novel, “by George” is an enthralling, multi- layered exploration of what it means to communicate. On the surface, it all seems so simple: we open our mouths, words emerge, thoughts are focused and then we await the results, the reply, and hopefully we savor the connection made.
      If only it were so uncomplicated. With both great skill and imagination, Stace takes the reader on a journey through the “variety” or live theatrical milieu of England, beginning in the 1930s and ending not far in the recent past. The story unfolds through the eyes of two characters, George Fisher (Georgie), the son of Frankie, a famed stage entertainer, (who is the daughter of a legendary ventriloquiste, Echo Endor,) and another George…who happens to be a dummy.
      Having this seemingly inanimate object as a lead character who “speaks” in more ways than one is a risky conceit – but Stace pulls it off with unwavering ease. George the dummy tells his version of events over the years from the first person, while, for much of the story, George the human is told in the third person.
      Life in the Fisher family is an existence filled with secrets and things better left unsaid. While George the dummy knows about his creator, Georgie is merely told his father died in a car crash and little else. Virtually every other family member – and their friends and lovers – have secrets, all of which, in the end, are revealed as revelatory, yet Strace has slyly and carefully distributed clues throughout the epic story.
      The book is structured, for the most part, in alternating chapters narrated by George the dummy, whose life begins in the 1930s when Echo buys him for her introverted son, Joe, so that he can carry on with the family tradition of ventriloquism and life on the stage, and the story of the other George, beginning with his childhood in the 1970s and ending with his post adolescence.
      What happens to Joe over the years is one significant piece of the greater puzzle (and the plot is, in fact, a striking set of interlocking events which construct many small mysteries) but for the most part, we follow the two Georges, in orbit around their complex familial structure, moving from the past to contemporary times. The plot, like the family structure of the Fishers, sometimes borders on convoluted, but suffice to say, as Stace adroitly juggles the characters within the family saga, he never loses sight of his theme: what is the essence of communication and why are we so adept at spending time and energy avoiding it!
      The use of ventriloqism as a metaphor is brilliant; but there’s so much more to be gained from a close reading; as stage star Frankie, Georgie’s mother, realizes in the end, her mother, the matriarch, Echo, has raised her to believe “…as if life, the whole play, could be manipulated from backstage, plotted and blocked.”
      Yes, if only it were so simple.