‘The year is 1976 and we are living in a Europe-that-might-have-been. It is a Europe that never underwent the Reformation of the 16th century, peopled by – among others – Monsignor Jean-Paul Sartre, a Jesuit theologian and Heinrich Himmler, a papal envoy… and Hubert Anvil, a faultless boy soprano. When the clergy discovers the rarity of this sublime voice, they conspire to ‘alter’ him and preserve Hubert’s genius. The plot against this defenceless creature then swirls in a whirlpool of piety, terror and passion from which no reader can escape until the final resolution.’Blurb from the 1988 Carroll and Graf Masters of Science Fiction EditionHubert Anvil is ten years old and lives in 1976 in a Britain in which the Reformation never took place. He is, his tutors believe, an amazingly talented singer and composer, and the vicious Catholic theocracy which controls most of the world wishes to preserve his singing voice by the simple expedient of making him a castrato, the ‘alteration’ of the title, although the title also refers, one presumes, to the alteration of history which led to this beautifully delineated society.Although the narrative very much follows Hubert and his indecision and ultimate rebellion against this process, it also, mostly through Hubert’s eyes, shows us the complex and highly detailed world which Amis has created.The author certainly relishes this attack on the Catholic Church, made all the more powerful by its abstraction from our world to this one, allowing us to see with fresh eyes practices which the Church not only condoned but encouraged, and attitudes which are still prevalent today.Hubert and his friends at school are fans of TR fiction (Time Romance) or CW (Counterfeit worlds), copies of which one of Hubert’s friends buys illicitly from the brewer’s apprentice. Their latest find is ‘The Man in The High Castle’ by Philip K Dick which, Hubert hears, features an alternate Earth in which everyone is allowed to use electricity. Later, Hubert acquires another CW book, Keith Roberts’ ‘Galliards’ which is no doubt Roberts’ version of ‘Pavane’ in Hubert’s world, seeing as ‘Pavane’ uses essentially the same premise as Amis.America is known as New England and is a fast-developing country where the Catholic Church does not have so strong a hold and where passenger pigeons still fly in millions across the skies.Amis’ characterisation is wonderful, peopling the novel as he does with Dickensian grotesques such as the Fagin-like Jacob who kidnaps Hubert and plans to hold him for ransom, incidentally passing on the information that that the Catholics have pre-empted Nazi procedures and confiscated all Jewish property and business interests and force Jews to wear a yellow star sewn on to their clothes.The Pope is a Yorkshireman and though his initial avuncular homeliness is engaging (when Hubert and his father are invited to the Vatican) it masks a ruthless psychopathic nature which is prepared to employ further Nazi tactics to deal with the world’s population problem.This novel is sheer joy and deserves re-reading, for it is full of secret gems of observation, in-jokes, subtle sketches of characterisation and shows wicked insight regarding the internal political machinations of the Church.I for one will never look at a Pope in the same way again, which would, I imagine, please Kingsley Amis no end.
Fascinating book. The Alteration is a treasure simply for the wonderful uniqueness of its premise: a 1970s dystopia controlled by a Catholic church that never experienced the Reformation and Protestantism. It's a singularly fascinating riff on Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle, and written with a quality that makes me wonder if it is a taunt more than an homage, a flamboyant gesture seemingly saying 'that's all you did with the idea?' I'm sure Amis intended it as a clever homage, directly referencing the work within the story in a perfect intertwining of realities that would please Philip K. Dick, yet there is a gulf in quality between the two on evidence of this work.Regardless, The ALteration stands on the shoulders of giants and offers up a meticulously crafted structure that consistently and constantly reinforces its theme. A young talented choir singer faces pressure from the church to be altered in order to preserve his youthful singing voice forever. Caught up in battles between powers in the world before he's ever really learned of their existence, the boy starts to learn what will be denied him, as he has no real agency of his own at this point, and by extension what the church attempts to deny the world in their quest for dominion.The Alteration is well worth reading for its singular vision, however it is let down on occasion but he prose itself. Perhaps in aiming for too realistic of an older and altered form of speech, it can be a bit of mouthful and somewhat obscure at times. Certainly, a knowledge of history helps one catch the many subtle references made that separate the depicted timeline from the one we know as our own. Additionally, the end perhaps lets off a bit, and rather than exposing faultlines takes more of a 1984 approach in that dystopia is permanent. The final turn of the plot leaves something to be desired, but that doesn't stop this from being a must-read, simply because so few books cover a subject so odd with such pleasing results.
Do You like book The Alteration (2007)?
I somewhat uneven novel. The authors descriptive abilities are impeccable. The plot was fine until the ending. It felt like this was written under a deadline and that the author had grander plans for the book. Late in the book we are introduced to a plot line that the Pope and his advisers are thinking about, that plot line was either filler or something that was to be bigger in scope. The split between Europe and North America was interesting with Europe Roman Catholic and North America Protestant. The fact that the Indians in North America were treated as second class citizens seemed out of place, maybe this was done to make both sides bad guys, with no one able to truly hold the high moral ground.
—David Schwan
A young boy Hubert has got a very brilliant voice. His father, mother and brothers are very proud of him. Certainly they wish cloudless future for him. An Abbot in one of the churches in England heard him singing many times. His voice captivated him. He thought up a nice plan. And here who said that radical religious monks are complete illogical folks? So the Abbot proposed a deal to the Hubert’s family.Hubert was to be altered to serve for “the will of God” as a singer in the Abbot’s church. What’s the alteration here? You may ask. Simply, it’s just castration or becoming a eunuch. He was to be childless and without family of course. But in spite of it the same-self Abbot promised the boy wealthy future within borders of the church and Vatican’s dominion which included almost all the western Europe. Some political talks among monks appear in the book. You see they do wish, they want badly to settle their Catholic capital in Constantinople, now Istanbul. Well, Hubert’s father is all for it. He wants his son to be altered for the sake of Christianity and for his future. He’s very pious person. But Mother thinks it’s appalling to cut her son’s testicles for preservation his beautiful voice for the needs of Abbot’s Church. Being a quite beddable woman, she, with her secret lover, Father Lyall wants to protect Hubert. Father Lyall didn’t sign a document allowing a surgeon to perform operation on the boy. Ubiquitous Pope hears about the boy too. He‘s got his own ideas concerning the boy. Hubert must sing for Vatican choir. He invites Hubert and his family to Rome. He promises the boy such possibilities Huber would never have dreamed of. Still, he would have undergone castration that surely Hubert doesn’t want.So what can he do? He has no right and power to act against “God’s will” and Church and Pope. There’s only one thing he can do. He wants to run from the Europe altogether. He heads for the New England (the USA) but an incidental sickness struck him in the half way there. You won’t believe it. The sickness has something to do with his testicles. A medical surgeon strongly advised a removal operation for the boy health was in danger. In the end Hubert had no other option but to join Papal choir.I think the writer deliberately chose this sad finale. Of course he didn’t want to tell that Pope always gets what he wishes. No. Rather he wanted to arouse pity and compassion among readers towards the victims of any religious dogmatism.
—Nazim
Another quick review. This is a very fun novel, but one that took me three or four tries to get into. Once I did, I read the whole thing in about three days. The beginning is very dense - the central idea takes some time to manifest itself, and in the meantime the reader is left puzzling over what the hell is going on. A melange of highbrow culture is referenced and re-figured in the alternate world Amis has created, and it takes some time to work through it. At least one course in Art History or Architecture is a must for reading this book with any hope of following it. After about 30 or 40 pages the Narrative kicks in, and that is easier to follow and fun to read, but ultimately less rewarding than the beginning of the book.I was disappointed when the book changed from "what if" ideas thrown at the reader rapidly, into a kind of standard runaway boy story. Finally, the deus ex machina at the end is truly painful - I imagine Amis just wanted to end the book quickly without doing any more research, and threw in the towel. The concept of the novel is fantastic, but I think someone like Neal Stephenson would have had more fun with both creating alternate references of current culture, and done a better job with an action story style narrative. Okay, but I would recommend Anathem by Stephenson for a longer, yet easier to read similar treatment. Good, but not great...
—Fred
