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While it's true that less is sometimes more, that principle apparently doesn't apply to the books of Mark Helprin, nor would his readers wish for less. FREDDY AND FREDERICKA is a vast, sprawling book of Homeric proportions and design in which Helprin exploits to the fullest his powers of invention as well as a lesser known talent for comedy; for unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey, FREDDY AND FREDERICKA is a comic epic, a genre famously defined by Henry Fielding in the 1742 preface of his novel JOSEPH ANDREWS. Some scholars believe Homer himself may have written a comic epic or a mock epic called the "Margites," of which only a few fragments survived him.
Helprin's comic epic differs from the classic model only in its use of comedy, otherwise addressing important and serious matters, with the action centering on a courageous hero who in some way is above the common man --- like Jason or Odysseus or, in this case, Freddy.
FREDDY AND FREDERICKA is also a poignant love story-that-might-have-been), for Freddy is transparently (based on) Prince Charles, Fredericka just as transparently (based on) Diana, whose death in 1997 ended their troubled marriage.
At the center of Helprin's tale, as in classical epics, is a quest. Here the quest is necessitated by unscrupulous newspaper publishers who embark on a campaign of defamation targeting Freddy, which seems certain to disrupt his accession to the throne.
In crises such as this one, the royal family has traditionally relied on a mysterious figure known only as "Mr. Neil," who appears as if by magic and provides whatever guidance is needed. In this situation, Mr. Neil says it is necessary to dispatch Freddy and Fredericka to reclaim Britain's lost colonies in North America.
So off they go, parachuting into New Jersey at night through clouds of noxious fumes and landing in a pool of chemical waste. Without clothing or identification, and having only their discolored parachutes to conceal their nakedness, they boldly set out to conquer the United States and restore it to its rightful owners.
In a wild proliferation of subplots and digressions, this odd couple's journey "on the road" is like a Three Stooges marathon, but interspersed with '40s melodrama, as well as a little seriousness here and there.
Like the alien Coneheads of the early days of "Saturday Night Live," who explained their unusual appearance with a terse "We come from France," Freddy and his spouse tell suspicious Americans: "We're dentists." And as readers might suspect, it's this cover story that ultimately takes them in the right direction.
--- Reviewed by H.V. Cordry
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