Freddy and Fredericka (Hardcover)

Freddy is the Prince of Wales. In private he is a fit and intelligent man approaching middle age who tests his physical skills by hiking across the wilds of Scotland with nothing but a backpack. He is thoughtful and well read. In public, he is ungainly and misunderstood. His rather large ears and his penchant for making malaprop-riddled public utterances make him a laughingstock to the British public. His wife, Fredericka can do no wrong. Considerably younger than Freddy, she is beautiful but empty-headed. Despite that, no matter what she says, no matter how vacuous or wrong headed the public eats it up. Freddy's mother, Queen Phillipa, abhors Fredericka. The Queen's relationship with her daughter-in-law is dysfunctional to say the least. Freddy has a sizzling relationship with an older yet extraordinarily passionate woman, the aptly named Lady Phoebe Boylinghotte. Freddy and Fredericka's relationship is strained to say the least. Sound familiar yet?

As the story opens, Freddy is in the Highlands trying unsuccessfully to get a falcon to fly at his command. This is no trivial matter. The falcon will only fly for someone with the qualities to be a king and no Prince of Wales can succeed to the throne unless can make the falcon fly. Freddy has failed in his first three attempts. He has one more to go.

After a series of hilariously funny misadventures that makes Freddy look like an insane clod a mysterious stranger, a wizard in fact, is summoned to Buckingham Palace in what can only be described as a royal intervention. Mr. Neil, who claims to be old enough to have first-hand knowledge of the earliest Kings of England, with the blessing of the Queen, commands Freddy and Fredericka to go out on a quest to prove they are worthy of the throne. Their task is to reconquer America. To that end they are stripped of their clothes and money and flown to the States in a military aircraft. They parachute out of the aircraft and find themselves in "Hohokus" a wet swampy area just west of New York City. Their subsequent journey takes them through the United States. They hop rail cars, do manual labor and see a side of the U.S. and the world that no royal has ever seen. As they discover America they also discover themselves and, more importantly each other. By this point it becomes clear that any similarity between Helprin's fantasy Prince and Princess and any real royal persons is superficial; just a jumping off point for an exploration of what lies below the surface of those we only know through the media. It is also a nice jumping off point for what lies below the surface of all of us. Helprin does this without ever slowing down the pace or humor of the story.

A mere description of the outline cannot describe the enjoyment I derived from reading the book. Helprin's writing style is funny and frenetic. It is also thoughtful. Some readers may not find the Dickensian names Helprin gives some of his characters particularly witty. I found them endearing. Some may think that some of the humorous set piece fall flat. Some of humor did not work for me but that is only a minor complaint when viewing the book as a whole.

The most enjoyable part of Freddy and Fredericka was the fact that the book evoked so many different reference points for me. The snappy one liners, word-play and somewhat less than dry wit that marks the first portion of the book seemed one part Yes Minister, one part Dickens and one part Monty Python. Freddy and Freddy's journeys through the U.S. to reconquer America contained some (distant) echoes of Mark Twain Prince and the Pauper and Kipling's The Man Who Would be King.

Despite a couple of flaws and false notes, I enjoyed Freddy and Fredericka. The book turns reflective as it nears its conclusion but I think the zany adventures that precede the conclusion renders the change in tone and pace more effective.

Shakespeare's Richard II demanded people to "let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings!" In the case of Freddy and Fredericka you won't go wrong if you sit upon the ground (or preferably the beach) and read this zanily-realized fantasy of the birth of a king.