Freddy and Frederika, by Mark Helprin

I'd never read any Mark Helprin before, probably because an old boyfriend wanted me to read A Winter's Tale and at the time it was more important for me to be an argumentative jerk than find out why he loved Helprin so much. Well, guess what? The man can write. This book casts a dreamy, dreamy spell in which you may actually start to believe all that rot about the noble heritage of kings. But of course the royal family is all barking mad, and oh my god the horrible puns. In a nutshell, the prince and princess of Wales are sent to capture America; dropped from an airplane with just the clothes on their backs, their real identities secret, hilarity doth ensue. And some glorious descriptions of the American landscape.