Lost in a Good Book

LOST IN A GOOD BOOK may be a painful rite of passage for a linear thinker. Here, in author Jasper Fforde's England of 1985, people keep dodo birds as pets, a special police unit drives stakes through vampires' hearts, Tunbridge Wells has been given over to Russia in war reparations, London to Sydney travel time is 40 minutes by Gravitube through the Earth's center, air travel is by lighter-than-air airship, cheese is contraband, there's a duty on custard, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis has been recreated from recovered DNA and now provides society with its minimum-wage untermenschen, time travel is a reality, and 249 wooly mammoths in nine herds migrate back and forth across Britain. So little of this parallel universe makes sense that I at first doubted my ability to finish the book. But, intrepidly, I carried on. The heroine of the story is Thursday Next, a Literary Detective in department 27 of SpecOps, the national law enforcement megaforce. The mission of SO-27, among other things, is to validate the authenticity of recently discovered works by dead authors. The title of the book refers to the ability of certain trained adepts to physically enter book plots in real time, much as Mary Poppins and her young charges were able to pop in and out of chalk pavement pictures in the film MARY POPPINS. This talent is so rare that, here, Next is coerced by a representative by the world's monolithic business corporation, Goliath, to rescue his unsavory half-brother previously marooned by Thursday within the pages of Poe's "The Raven" in the first book of the Next series, THE EYRE AFFAIR. In return, Goliath will restore Thursday's husband Landen, who has been eradicated. And, as if that wasn't enough of a bother, Thursday must also thwart the imminent destruction of all Life on Earth by rampant strawberry flavored Dream Topping. Perhaps you can see where a linear thinker might suffer a migraine. The enjoyment of becoming lost in LOST IN A GOOD BOOK isn't related to a nail-biter plot because what plot it possesses isn't; the word "peripeteia" comes to mind. Rather, the joy comes from the expectation of reading what clever quirkiness the frisky imagination of Fforde cranks out - sort of a present-day version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Indeed, the Cheshire Cat is one of the book's characters. It's that imagination that compels me to award the novel five stars though it goes against my grain. I'm not particularly driven to read THE EYRE AFFAIR, but I have ordered the next in the series, THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS. It will undoubtedly spend time in the waiting room with the twenty-some more linear works awaiting my attention until I get the urge to lose myself in a bit of benign madness.

After reading "The Eyre Affair", the first book in Fforde?s "Thursday Next" series, I was delighted. I loved the characters, the premise of a different world where literature was such an encompassing passion, and the possibility some of the characters had of "jumping into" books, thus being able to interact with many personages from literature. "The Eyre Affair" was witty, funny, easy to read, and enthralling: I could not have liked it more... But, as a result, I was somewhat afraid of reading its sequel, "Lost in a good book". I asked myself how on earth could Fforde write another book as good as the first one. I really couldn?t imagine an answer, but thankfully my curiosity was stronger that my fear of finding the sequel not good enough. "Lost in a good book" brings the same characters, but new situations, and developments that make the story richer. Spec-Ops 27 Thursday Next is now a celebrity, and she must deal with that, something that is quite difficult for her. As if that were not enough, the Goliath Corporation blackmails her into bringing back Mr. Schitt (trapped by Thursday in one of Poe?s poems in "The Eyre Affair"). As she is indifferent to the Corporation?s threats, and to the money it offers her, they eradicate her husband (at the age of two years) with the help of a corrupt Chronoguard, promising to bring him back once Schitt is returned. But how will Thursday do that, without the Prose Portal that previously helped her to jump into books?. Thursday has more than enough problems in the "real world", but she discovers quite soon that that is not all. She is accused by Jurisfiction of a "fiction infraction", due to the fact that she accidentally changed the end of "Jane Eyre". Jurisfiction, as the fictional lawyer assigned to her explains, is the service ran "inside novels to maintain the integrity of popular fiction". Consequently, she will be prosecuted in Kafka?s "The Trial". Sounds strange?. Stranger things will happen when Next becomes an apprentice to Miss Havisham (from "Great Expectations"), in order to become one of Jurisfiction?s agents. This review is already too long, and I haven?t mentioned the difficulties surrounding the authentication of "Cardenio" (one of Shakespeare?s lost plays), the visits to other books (for example Austen?s "Sense and sensibility"), Pickwick?s egg (her pet Dodo is a "she") or the fact that somebody is trying to kill Thursday through coincidences... Did I pointed out that Fforde goes on introducing literary devices that make the reader laugh?. I guess I will have to leave that, and many things more, for you to discover :) On the whole, I can say that even if "Lost in a good book" is similar to "The Eyre Affair" in some aspects (characters, main premises), it continues to develop Fforde?s world, and doesn?t merely repeat the things that were already said in the first book. In my opinion, in this book we get to know more about Thursday and the people that surrounds her, but we also

In this sequel to The Eyre Affair, intrepid heroine Thursday Next is back for more hilarious romps through time and literary space. She is busier than ever, as she tries to save the world from a horrid (and pink) annihilation, rescue her husband Landen from his recent state of nonexistence, and guard the literary universe from evildoers, all the while evading the all-powerful Goliath Corporation. We follow Thursday into such reading material as Kafka's The Trial, Dickens' Great Expectations, Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Poe's The Raven, and a laundry label (yes, a laundry label!). Jasper Fforde, whose humor is reminiscent of Douglas Adams, is in top form here. Literary gags, puns, outlandish situations, plays on words, and irreverent jabs at anything and everything abound in this fanciful story. I recommend that you read The Eyre Affair first, if you have not done so already, since it will help you understand the quirky flavor of this alternate universe. I also suggest that you take the Spec Ops literary challenge referenced on this latest book's back cover and try your hand at its devilishly difficult puzzles. If I have any critical comment, it is that the story leaves several loose ends, which have me impatiently awaiting Thursday's next adventure, The Well of Lost Plots. But I'm sure it will be worth the wait. Enjoy!

Jasper Fforde has done it again, and with a bit more polish, in this engaging sequel to The Eyre Affair, which introduced Thursday Next, LiteraryOps detective in an alternate universe.Fforde slathers lots of plot with tons o' wordlicious fun as he carries us past the events of Thursday's introductory outing, into her first year of marriage and the aftermath of her defeat of archcriminal Acheron Hades and corporate creep Jack Schitt. The Goliath Corporation eradicates Thursday's husband and pressures her to rescue Schitt while she is dodging murder attempts by an unknown enemy, helping her father try to save the world and taking bookjumping lessons from Great Expectations' Miss Havisham. Oh, and battling the occasional Supreme Evil Being to bring in a few extra bucks. Who says a woman can't have it all?The author writes dialogue superbly, and introduces new concepts and slang fluidly. There is lots of wordplay, and more than a few puns, but not so much as to be annoying. We see more of Thursday's father here, which is enjoyable, but her husband Landen is not really fleshed out. We are introduced to some terrific new characters, including Granny Next, condemned to live until she can read the ten most boring books ever written, and Miss Havisham, who loves anything with a gnarly engine. The brief cameo by Uncle Mycroft and Aunt Polly, though, is much much too little. Strangely, Thursday's partner Bowden is used to good effect in the first half of the book and then rather unceremoniously dumped, as are the rather fascinating neanderthals. Fforde adds some unique and wonderfully creative concepts this time around, many concerned with the world of literary characters who inhabit a magnificent library containing all the books that ever have been or ever will be written, on 52 (maybe 53!) floors of shelves stretching 200 miles in every direction.The librarian? The Cat formerly known as Cheshire. Jurisfiction, bookjumping and footnoterphones roll off the tongue and into your consciousness effortlessly as Thursday Next proves once again that she is a superb agent -- intelligent, resourceful, diligent and good -- an admirable heroine and a worthy narrator.Anyway, you should read this book for the lively deconstruction of The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, if nothing else! In keeping with the spirit of things, there is an associated puzzle and contest, and an active web site with BBSs in which the author participates.Really, it's impossible to convey all the creativity, fun and insight found here, but let me say that while I am a confirmed paperback and used book buyer, I got this as soon as the hardcover was available, and I will do the same with the next instalment, The Well of Lost Plots, due out in the Spring of 2004. Hurrah!Can't go wrong, writes Sue Pyrb. Highest recommendation.

It's a world very like ours, only different: the Crimean War is still going on the 1980s, there are dodos and mammoths, time can be altered and changing a manuscript changes all copies of the book. The surreal sequel to Jasper Fforde's fantastic "Eyre Affair" serves up more of the same, only more polished this time.The newly-wed Thursday Next is drowning in the publicity after her showdown with Acheron Hades and the fateful changing of "Jane Eyre"'s finale. Her consolations are her new husband Landen, her dodo Pickwick, and the fact that she's going to be a mum (yes, you read that correctly). But bizarre things start to happen ("Something's going to happen, and I'm part of it"), including telepathic footnotes from her fictional defense attorney. When Thursday ventures onto a Skyrail, time twists after a Neanderthal pilot steers it in an effort to go to Goliath Corp. and her dad appears long enough to warn her about the impending potential destruction of the world (everything is going to turn into goo --literally). Worse, when Thursday returns home, she finds that Landen isn't there. Even worse, he's not there because of a fatal drowning incident at the age of two. And if she wants to return things to how they should be, she'll have toencounter the Cheshire Cat (or more correctly, the "Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat"), venture into her memories, and be apprenticed to Miss Havisham...Fforde gives even more dimension to his alternate universe (including a mention of our own), showing that he still has plenty of turf left to cover. First there were dodos, and now there is also a dreamy mammoth and a Tasmanian tiger. Fforde also gives us a race of reanimated Neanderthals, who are treated as more intelligent animals, and gives us an intriguing, delicately-done look at human nature. But it's also extremely funny, including the discovery of a lost Shakespearean play, Molecular Unstable Brie, the condition of Xplkqulkiccasia, the renamed Cheshire Cat, and Thursday's stint on a talk show where nobody lets her talk about the work that made her famous.Thursday is still hard-boiled and tough, but she gets a little more vulnerable now that she's married, so some readers might find her edge a bit gone. Landen is nice enough, although he's in relatively little of the book; Akrid Snell (Acrid Smell?) of an mystery series is entertaining as the footnote-speaking attorney who won't tell Thursday why she's on trial. There are also appearances (some brief, some not) by Acheron Hades (well, sort of), Uncle Myles, Spike, Pickwick the Dodo, and others.Fforde's writing has become a little more polished since "Eyre Affair," and the book flows a little more smoothly (especially when it needs to be weird or surreal). The dialogue is still funny and snappy, full of literary in-jokes and weird twists, but it grows more serious about halfway through. "Lost In A Good Book" is amusing and literate, like "Eyre Affair." And Fforde's literate little world has plenty of promise