Opposites Attract Imagination fills the gaps. BY MOLLY TEMPLETON ARTHUR & GEORGE, fiction by Julian Barnes. Knopf, 2006. Hardcover, $24.95. Shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize. A funny thing happens when reading fiction about historical figures, especially for a reader unfamiliar with the lives of the characters: The fiction starts to feel like fact. Doubtless the author has done plenty of research and has worked many facts into his or her story, but imagination has to fill in the gaps, the places where letters and historical records don't reach. The imagination of noted British author Julian Barnes, then, is a truly astonishing thing, offering in Arthur and George an utterly convincing, slowly revealed portrait of two thoroughly dissimilar men at the close of the 19th century: Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji. Barnes begins with each man's childhood. Alternating chapters tell Arthur's story in past tense, George's in present. Arthur grows up with "the Mam," as he calls his mother, and his siblings; the tales he hears and reads install in him a sense of chivalry, and he vows to someday give the Mam all the nice things he feels she deserves. George, the son of a vicar, is sheltered and shy. Nearsighted, gentle and painfully polite, he doesn't know how to communicate with the townsfolk and children of Great Wyrley. A strange series of nasty letters and pranks plagues the Edalji household in George's youth, then stops suddenly, much to the relief of the family. Arthur grows up to be a doctor, though a not very successful one; long hours without patients give him time to write the books which later make him famous. George becomes a lawyer, specializing in railway law, enduring the teasing of colleagues who poke at his half-Indian heritage. Arthur marries and has children, while George remains single, living a simple life at home until he is incomprehensibly accused of gruesomely murdering farm animals. And then the two lives intersect. Arthur, free to marry his longtime mistress after the death of his wife, is torn by unexpected guilt and cannot act. "The triangle within which he has lived — frettingly but safely — for so long is now broken, and the new geometry frightens him," Barnes writes. Uncharacteristically, Arthur mopes, lacking the drive to do much of anything until he finds, in his mail tray, a package from George: the story of George's attempt to clear his name. With his faithful secretary, Mr. Wood, in the Watson role, Arthur borrows the methods of the character he's come to resent, his logical, observant Sherlock Holmes, and puts his mind to George's case. Barnes' prose is straightforward yet lyrical, utterly entrancing and meticulously precise. The lure of the tale is the character study with which it begins; the hook is the mystery, the suddenly gripping pull of George's infuriatingly unfair trial and Arthur's determined attempts to bring the actual criminals to justice. As Arthur and George interact, each man's view of the other subtly changes the portraits painted before. It's a delicate, stunning piece of work, flawed only for readers who wish for a more emotional connection to Arthur and George, who at times remain somewhat distant, wrapped tidily in Barnes' perfectly shaped sentences. Still, in the hands of such a masterful writer, Arthur and George is several remarkable books in one, its characters woven together with a plot that changes shades like a ball of yarn dyed in many bright, unforgettable colors. Julian Barnes reads at 7:30 pm Monday, Feb. 13 at Powell's in Portland.   BOOK NOTES: Readin' in the Rain discussion of Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber, 7 pm 2/9, UO Bookstore ... Timothy Zahn reads, 7 pm 2/9, Powell's in Beaverton ... Ginnie Lo, author of Mahjong All Day Long, reads and presents hands-on activities for all ages, 2 pm 2/11, UO Bookstore ... Readin' in the Rain discussion of Crescent , 2 pm 2/12, Downtown Library ... Julian Barnes reads, 7:30 pm 2/13, Powell's on Burnside, Portland ... Gordon M. Sayre reads and discusses The Indian Chief as Tragic Hero, 7 pm 2/15, UO Bookstore ... Readin' in the Rain discussion of Crescent, 6 pm 2/16, Sheldon Library ... Author Patricia Limerick speaks on "Gender, Science and the American West: Experiments in the 'Demilitarized Zone' Between Development and Preservation," 7 pm 2/16, EMU Ballroom, UO ... Diane Goeres-Gardner discusses Oregon's Necktie Parties: Legal Executions from 1850-1903, 7pm 2/16, Lane County Historical Museum ... "The Art of Composing Literature," reading and discussion with George Estreich and Rick Borsten, 9:30 am 2/16, 208 North Santiam Hall, Linn-Benton Community College, Albany, and 1:30 pm 2/18, Corvallis-Benton County Library ... Diane Goeres-Gardner greets customers, 3 pm, and discusses her book Necktie Parties, 6 pm 2/18, Barnes & Noble ... Bruce Benderson reads and discusses The Romanian: Story of an Obsession, 7 pm 2/20, Borders Books ... Windfall Reading Series: Adrian Matejka and Stacey Lynn Brown, 7 pm 2/21, Downtown Library ... Melissa Bank (The Wonder Spot) reads, 7:30 pm 2/21, Powell's on Burnside, Portland ... Readin' in the Rain discussion of Crescent, noon 2/22, Downtown Library ... Diana Abu-Jaber speaks and reads, 7 pm 2/23, Hult Center.
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