“When Franny Stands Up,” Eden Robins’ debut novel

Supernaturual comediennes of WWII.

Of all the alternate history premises in fiction, the McGuffin of Eden Robins’s debut, “When Franny Stands Up,” is one of the most unlikely and — it turns out — rich. Robins’ novel opens on Franny, a teenage Jewish girl from the Chicago suburbs who’s snuck out on Christmas Eve to hear the notorious comedian Boopsie Baxter do standup.

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It’s an all-female audience. After all, WWII is in full swing, and all the young men are Over There, including Leon, the older brother Franny adores. But there’s another reason that Boopsie can pack the house with women: she’s got a Showstopper.

This is the alternate history part. In Robins’ world, the advent of World War II and the rise of woman comedians (filling in the vacuum left by the departure of all the men) reveals the existence of Showstoppers: involuntary psychic reactions that woman comedians can induce in female audience members when they’re really cooking.

Some Showstoppers are relatively mild — like the uncanny sensation that you have just caught your bus. Boopsie Baxter’s is a little more intense: she induces involuntary, powerful orgasms in the women who hear her sets. So…