The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
This is a very odd book my sister gave me for my birthday, and as it’s
the first in a series I can see I’m going to have to find the sequels.
It’s sort of a murder mystery, and sort of a science fiction novel,
and sort of a thriller, and sort of a literary fantasy. It takes
place in an alternate universe where Literature is more highly
prized than in our own, a world where criminal fiends might reasonably
kidnap the original manuscript of, say, Charles Dickens’
Martin Chuzzlewit and hold it for ransom–and threaten
to kill the title character if their demands are not met.
Literary detective Thursday Next is detailed to find the Chuzzlewit
manuscript, and before she knows what’s what she’s entangled in
a web of intrigue surrounding general all-around-bad-guy
Acheron Hades, arch-criminal, seducer of college girls, and Thursday’s
one-time literature professor (she turned him down).
There’s a lot of high literary foolishness in this book, and a lot of
plain old ordinary foolishness as well, and I have to thank my sister
because it was a great way to be “unavoidably detained” for a few hours.
And I have to apologize to Craig Clarke, as he reviewed it for
Ex Libris Reviews
just last
February, and I didn’t go looking for it.
But I shall certainly go looking for its sequel,
Lost in a Good Book.
