He named a top ten list of time travel books for the Guardian, including:A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark TwainRead about another book on the list.
Laugh-out-loud funny one moment, astute social commentary the next. Twain's protagonist takes advantage of his knowledge to set up the infrastructure of a civilised society. The book is a thinly-disguised celebration of what Twain valued most about 19th-century American life: religious tolerance, egalitarianism, education for all, scientific thinking, human dignity and manufacturing industry. It would be interesting to bring Twain to our times and ask whether he thinks America has stayed true to its origins or become a new version of medieval Britain.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is the book Roman Simic most likes to re-read.
--Marshal Zeringue
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