The Confusion

As the Author’s Note informs the reader, The Confusion is really two novels, merged (or, in a pun this novel rather over-uses, con-fused) into one by interlacing their chapters, Bonanza and Juncto, with respectively Jack and Eliza as main characters (Daniel remains somewhat in the background for this volume). Events begin some time (years for Jack, months for Eliza) after we left them in Quicksilver, and that proves to be something of a problem – after enjoying the previous novel more than I had been expecting to, I almost gave up on The Confusion because of the incredibly clunky way Stephenson catches up on what happened in the time that has passed.

Stephenson is often praised as master of the infodump, but what we get here are a series of extremely clumsy dialogues that would have been cause of much eye-rolling even in a debut novel, but coming from someone who already has several novels under his belt and has shown that he can do better this is extremely annoying. He even has to give Jack amnesia for the sole purpose so that someone can narrate his own history back to him, which everything considered might be even worse than the infamous “As you know, Bob” variety of infodumping because it is such an obvious and at the same time so very weak attempt to avoid it that it smacks of desperation.

Fortunately, the novel eventually gets caught up and rolling, and things take a marked turn for the better compared to Quicksilver. Admittedly, the “Juncto” (Eliza) part of The Confusion still gets bogged down in the swamp of pointless details Stepenson drives the (often somewhat meagre) plot through as well as his continued attempts to be Deep and Meaningful; but then there are the chapters with Bob Shaftoe (Jack’s brother) as protagonist who somewhat make up for that by presenting a rousing tale of love and vengeance in the context of English warfare at the period.

And there is “Bonanza”, the other part / novel making up The Confusion which again has Jack Shaftoe as protagonist and which is even better than “King of Vagabonds,” the second part of Quicksilver. Jack travels not only in Europe this time, but gets to visit exotic places like India, the Americas and even Japan in a series of increasingly outrageously adventures, making and losing his fortunes several times over, acquiring the gold of Solomon and being chased for it by dastardly foes. He remains the lovable rogue throughout, and Stephenson thankfully does not skimp on the rogue part – Jack does not have many scruples in the pursuit of this goals, and is not someone even the most kindly inclined reader would enjoy spending time with. But he certainly is a lot of fun to read about, and more than once this particular reader wished Neal Stephenson had just written a neo-Picaresque novel with Jack as hero and dispensed with all the stuff about Science, Finances and Enlightenment – whose only real function is to give the author room to brag about the huge amount of mostly useless information he has accumulated – and focussed on travels, roguery and swashbuckling. I know, I know – I’m sounding like a complete philistine here, but it’s such a waste and a pity to see what could have been a splendid adventure novel buried under so much extraneous dross. Still, there is less dross here than in Quicksilver, so maybe there still is hope for Neal Stephenson, and the best volume of the Baroque Cycle is still to come.

El más flojo de los que he leído de Stephenson hasta ahora.
Pasan tantas cosas que marea. Es como si la trama fuese tan abigarrada que hay que abrirse paso a machetazos. Hay varias historias simultáneas que se entrecruzan pero llega un momento que me cansó. No le falta genialidad porque está muy bien pensado, pero se me hizo denso.
En algunas partes me atrapaba y me leía 100 páginas de un tirón. En otras (la mayoría) me dormía a las 10 o 15 carillas. Por eso el avance se me hizo muuuy lento. Las mejores partes me parecieron las divagaciones sobre filosofía natural y monadología por parte de Leibniz y Fatio. Reconozco que el interés en la historia de la ciencia, y de este período en particular no son para todo el mundo, pero a mí me interesan especialmente; quizá por eso disfruté más el primer libro.
Es una pena porque el anterior libro de la trilogía me encantó y por supuesto que quiero saber cómo termina. Espero que repunte! Además tengo otro bodoque de Stephenson en la mesa de luz para leer a continuación...

Reviewing one of Stephenson's tomes is always difficult; this is a huge book with many redeeming and not so redeeming aspects. Stephenson tells us in the prologue that The Confusion is basically two books 'con-fused' together; the two story arcs run parallel in time, so Stephenson gives us a linear narrative divided into two related but discrete tales here. The first follows Eliza-- the former harem slave girl 'half-cocked Jack' rescued from the siege of Vienna by the Turks. The second follows Jack himself following his abduction and enslavement by the Barbary corsairs (this happened in Quicksilver, and it was obvious his character would return at some point in his massive saga). Of course, we also have a broad supporting cast, including Jack's brother Bob, an array of French nobility (including the king), Liebnitz (the German 'natural philosopher'), and the 'cabal' of slaves associated with Jack (in Algiers to start with), some of which where introduced in the last volume as well. All in all, The Confusion covers about 15 years, from roughly 1688 to 1703 or so.

Quicksilver ended with Eliza being captured by a French privateer while trying to flee to England with the fortune she made in Holland. Due to various machinations, she is a minor noble in France and England. Eliza, her funds absconded by the privateers, is in a state of limbo as since she is a French noble, having her fortune taken by a French privateer is questionable at minimum. Jack on the other hand, the former 'King' of the vagabonds, connives with 9 slaves an audacious plot to pirate a large shipment of silver the former Viceroy of Mexico is bringing back to Spain and win his freedom (along with the rest of the cabal) at the same time.

Having given the basic set up, I will stop with the plotting; Stephenson takes us on a vast journey here (over 800 pages in the hardcover). The Confusion is not nearly as focused as Quicksilver (and that is saying something). Basically, the main features of the plot revolved around a few aspects. First, the financial system in place in the late 18th century in Europe receives a lot of attention-- bills of credit, money matters, etc. The war between England and France really serves as a backdrop to highlight the issues of state finance, as both England and France need money to pursue the war, and neither has a functioning system. France relies primarily on rents from the various estates to fund itself and somewhat dubious letters of credit. England struggles to finance basically anything and money (e.g., coins) have basically disappeared from the population after having been debased to worthlessness. The financial aspects are at times brilliant and other times quite mundane. I loved the discussion of how money or credit was moved around/among the various European nations, but this may bore some to tears. Essentially, the silver from the new world minted by Spain is the common currency of most of the world by now, but neither France nor England have much means to put their hands on it. Eliza's renown as a financier moves this story arc along.

Jack's story arc, on the other hand, primarily serves as a means to highlight the various political situations all over the world. His journey takes us from Algiers to Spain (for the heist), then to Cairo, then to India. Mild spoiler-- he manages to travel around the world in this one literally! Stephenson's portrayal of India reeks of Orientalism; perhaps because it is narrated through Jack's eyes, but this was definitely one of the less redeeming features of the novel. Nonetheless, the research required must have been substantial to say the least, and Stephenson gives us views of India, Japan, the Philippines and the Americas in a very tongue and cheek way as Jack's adventures continue.

So, basically, The Confusion gives us late mercantile finance in Europe in spades, and a world tour of politics and economics/trade. I can see why people love this-- as a work of historical fiction, Stephenson gives us a vivid and lucid look at the world circa the late 17th century, warts and all. On the other hand, I can see why people would be bored to tears with this one as well. It really lacks the relatively fast pacing of the Quicksilver, along with the evolving scientific discussions and actual scientists introduced there. Sure, we run into Newton and John Locke, but Leibnitz and some of his theories are really marginal to the story. Pretty mixed on this one, but I will settle for 3 stars.

I sometimes think Neal Stephenson novels are fit only for college professors, especially business professors, with a need for astronomic levels of excitement, but since this category includes *me* I love this series. The form of the novels reminds me of a baroque and convoluted Candide - a picaresque in which philosophical speculation trades places back and forth with big-time all-star adventure - burning ships, mistaken identities, kidnappings, mounds and piles of gold, murderous Jesuits, etc. The science makes the adventure more fun (a detailed chapter about how phosphorus is made becomes a chapter about how our heros win a battle with bottles of phosphorus). Outside of people like me, some people might like the adventure bits, and others the philosophy bits - but not both.

If you fall in this camp it's still worth a go, because Stephenson is an utter genius at invention. The end is thrilling! Sad! Unexpected! Makes me crave volume 3 ("The System of the World")!

The jig is up, the news is out
They finally found me
The renegade who had it made
Retrieved for a bounty...
—From "Renegade", on the 1978 album Pieces of Eight by Styx

If you have been reading my reviews with the close attention that I hope and pray you have, then you saw me mention upon rereading Quicksilver, the first volume of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, that the most fun was to be had during the swashbuckling and adventurous sections involving Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds (in French, L'Emmerdeur), that most romantic renegade (who had become, if you'll recall, a galley slave by the end of that book), and Eliza, the love of Jack's life, whom we left as the Countess de la Zeur, with a child—not Jack's, though—on the way.

(Those are, by the way, the last explicit spoiler warnings I'm going to issue in this review—if you have not already read Quicksilver then quick, hie thee to the previous installment, lest your eyeballs be assaulted by that which you do not wish to see.)

But if you are of the same mind as I am about Jack and Eliza's value as entertainment, I have exceedingly good news. The Confusion, the second volume of The Baroque Cycle, interleaves two distinct narratives, both of them quite romantic and swashbuckling, and both focused primarily (though not solely) on our favorite star-crossed couple: to wit, the globe-spanning "Bonanza" of our friend Jack, and the more strictly European "Juncto" involving our increasingly influential inamorata Eliza.

In short, The Confusion is faster-paced, and more action-oriented, than Quicksilver.


Bonanza is, it turns out, not just a TV show or a concept—Bonanza is a place, an historic Spanish port serving the Andalusian city of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Columbus and Magellan both sailed from there. But, more importantly for The Confusion, the Bonanza is where shiploads of gold from the New World flowed in to Spain.

The title of that Styx album now seems even more apropos.

Jack Shaftoe, that Renegade among renegades, and a colorful cabal of his fellow galley slaves have hatched a complicated scheme to divert a particular shipful of that Mexican gold—enough to buy their freedom, to pay off their masters for letting them conspire in the first place, and even to set themselves up in business afterwards. The surprising consequences of that scheme take them as far away as Japan (where I was myself surprised by a connection with the setting of David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet) before wandering back to Europe.

Their journey is... eventful.

The Juncto sections are, in contrast, somewhat less colorful, at least in terms of exotic locations and stirring battles (though Eliza does take one memorable sleigh ride early in the book), but they're no less full of twists, turns and intrigue, and are certainly no less important to the story.

These chapters are also where Stephenson can fully indulge his penchant for witty observations:

If Daniel had hopes of weaseling out, he had to do it now. To Roger Comstock, silence implied not merely consent, but a blood oath.
—p.489

And to include arch references to future events, as when Stephenson says of Sir Richard Apthorp's country dwelling,

This bland countryside seemed oddly well suited for the hiding of secrets in plain sight.
—p.495

The rural estate in question is called Bletchley.


Throughout The Confusion, the narratives of the Juncto and the Bonanza—of Eliza and Jack—weave around each other, approaching ever closer but never quite touching. Meanwhile, the con-fusion proceeds apace, with the disposition of that ship's worth of gold in doubt more than once.

Of course, a lot more than one star-crossed romance is going on... various royal figures die and are replaced by others; the Royal Society continues replacing alchemy with science, while Sir Isaac Newton is placed in charge of the Mint; and so on... Stephenson continues to portray the grand sweep of history through the personal anecdotes and asides that make the Baroque Cycle such a lively read.

And then... another cliffhanger ending—and it's no spoiler to tell you that The Confusion's conclusion is every bit as dark as that of, say, The Empire Strikes Back. But never fear; there is a third volume in the series, and The System of the World promises to pull together all the tangled threads that, for now, Neal Stephenson has had to leave hanging...

I'm a big Stephenson fan, even though his politics are childish and he seems too big a seller for editors to edit him anymore, despite his tendency to pages-long regressions on mathematics or numismatics or what Isaac Newton thought of alchemy, or perhaps because of. Like, I made the decision to read a book with a major theme of the changing science of coinage in the late 17th century. I'm here for it. I'm not as into it as Neal, but you know what, it's important to him how the Mint of England got its silver in 1705, so, buddy, please feel free to talk about it for 815 pages. There's also lots of generally excellent swordfighting and epic battle scenes. He still does that thing where he introduces new characters (and there are HUNDREDS - you like characters, there are characters here) anyway he introduces new characters in scenes as if we're supposed to know who they are because if he took the time to tell us who the hell every new person was, the book would be 8150 long - and I'd still read it - because it's no small feat to make a book this long, this sprawling, and keep it genuinely entertaining, even provocative, for such a great clobbering mass of pages. I exclaimed aloud no fewer than four times while reading this, something I hardly ever do while reading. (I am known for my equipoise.) It surprised, it engaged! He talks for about four thousand words about the origin of Damascus steel and I was riveted! The many many characters were interesting, the book is mad, but it is accomplished, it is an accomplishment. I am exhausted. I can't believe I read that. I am delighted to see that the next one is 840 pages.

This is the second volume in Stephenson's Baroque cycle.

At the end of the last book, Half Cocked Jack was a Galley Slave off the Barbary Coast, Eliza was making a run with her baby from the continent to London, and Daniel Waterhouse had Joined the Royal Court and taken a Mistress.

This book picks up several years later. Eliza is captured and brought back to France, Daniel's Mistress died of small pox, and Jack has been cured of the Syph by some sort of extraordinarily high fever, although it has left him with some sort of amnesia.

Jack joins a cabal of galley slaves with a plot to make themselves free. This plan inadvertently becomes embroiled with Eliza living back in France in the Royal Court. Her life is in turn interacting from afar with Daniel Waterhouse, who is involved with the Marquis of Ravenscar who is leading the newly formed Whig party in British Parliment.

This book follows Jack (literally) around the world, as he tries to get free from slavery and poverty, getting into all sorts of swashbuckling madcap adventures along the way. Daniel is just trying to get by and move to Massachusetts with the other puritans. Eliza is just trying to get revenge on the slave trade and failing that keep her family together.

This story is told as two novels, interspersed and shuffled together. The shuffling is well done, and you generally do not jump around in time too much. For all you OS nerds (like myself) out there, it is reminiscent of how two processes time share the physical processor together. Message passing and everything, as the various story arcs affect each other in surprising and interesting ways.

Historically, this book cover's the late 17th century war Between England and France, the reign of William and Mary in England, the Reign of Louis XIV in France, the Japanese Isolationism, the expansion of South and East Asian sea trade with Europe, Mexican Colonialism, and the Spanish Inquisition.

As ever, Neal Stephenson's writing style is entertaining and interesting. This book reads faster than the previous volume Quicksilver. Also, Neal Stephenson obviously traveled to many of the places he wrote about in this book. Many of the places in this book that I have actually visited (like Acapulco) are very accurately described.

I read this book because I am reading the Baroque cycle. All sorts of smart dudes in the know recommend that book series to me.

Excerpt from the journal of Neal Stephenson.

What have I done? I must have been out of my mind to think that I could write a trilogy set in the late 17th and early 18th century that used three main fictional characters to explore the political and religious intrigue of the time as well as the development of the first stages of modern science and economics. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, I had to incorporate a bit of science fiction by including my ageless character Enoch Root and hints that the alchemy of the day may have been on to something.

Oh, and just to complicate it even more, I made the brilliant decision to have one of my main characters from Quicksilver be in the midst of the late stages of syphilis as well as being captured by pirates. What was I thinking?? I’m going to need Jack to get me out of this mess, and I effectively killed him in the last book.

OK, let’s think this through. Where did I leave it? Eliza had seemingly managed to outwit King Louie and help William of Orange with her spying efforts, but she now had a child out of wedlock that she has to hide.

In 1713, Daniel Waterhouse had been recruited from his home in Massachusetts by Enoch Root to go back to England and mediate the dispute between Isaac Newtown and Leibniz, but his ship was being pursued by a pirate fleet. Back in the late 1600s, the younger Daniel Waterhouse had helped to bring about the Glorious Revolution, but was dying from a stone in his bladder.

And of course, Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds, had let his pride come between him and Eliza. Which shouldn’t matter because he would soon be dead from syphilis as well as being captured by pirates.

Now, here’s what I need to get to in the second book:

(*) Eliza needs to be essentially held hostage by the French nobility who know she spied for William, but they’ll still need her financial talents to help fund their war efforts.

(*) I want to use that set-up to have Eliza run a complicated financial scheme to get revenge for what’s been done to her.

(*) Since I flashed forward to an older Daniel Waterhouse at the beginning of Quicksilver, the readers will know that he ultimately survived having the stone. But I really don’t have a lot for him to do here. This is mainly Eliza and Jack’s story, and I won’t need him until the next book.

(*) Since the last book focused more on the Royal Society and science, this one is going to be more about economics. I can use Eliza and her on-going palace intrigues for that. Also, I can circle back to Isaac Newton and him taking over the Royal Mint. Wait a second! I can bring Daniel into that story. That’ll give him something to do.

(*) I also need to tie up the loose ends with Jack’s brother, Bob, who had gotten involved with Eliza and Daniel to free the woman he loved from slavery. Oh, hell. I forgot about Jack’s two sons. At this point, they’d be grown men. I gotta bring them into the story at some point.

(*) It’s time to bring the alchemical stuff to a boil. I’ve got an idea about legendary gold that King Solomon created that had unique properties. The acquisition of this gold should be a driving force to the plot, but I can’t figure out how to work it in.

(*) And here’s where I’m really stuck. I was going to have Jack roam the world and get involved in various wild schemes with a crew of misfits. They could have had a series of adventures. That would have been a great place to tie the gold into it as well as do a plot where the nobles are still hunting him for his actions in France that would put Eliza in a dangerous position. Plus, I could have done a lot of great action stuff with Jack as a globe trotting adventurer. But no. I had to get cute and give him syphilis.

(*) So I’m completely screwed unless I come up with some bullshit way for them to cure syphilis in the late 1600s. How am I going to….. Hold on. Just had a thought. Could I get away with that? Why not? I’m Neal Stephenson, goddamnit! I can do anything!

(*) One thing is for sure, I’ve got a pretty accurate title: The Confusion.