As a bibliophile, I have so many “favorite” books that it is really hard to pick one, however if I were to pick a series to read over and over, it would be the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. The first book, The Eyre Affair, takes place in an alternate world, very similar to our own in that reality television is watched constantly and crime is rampant, however the differences are what makes this series so much fun: this is a world where time travel and cloning are a reality, where literature is loved more than sports and where the criminal element is so evil that they have supernatural powers. Thursday Next is the tough, no nonsense protagonist and as a Special Operative in the Literary Detectives, she is very loyal to the written word. Her world gets turned upside down by a mastermind criminal who steals a first edition of Jane Eyre and she has to enter the novel in order to stop his crime spree.
To say that this book is both bizarre and fantastic is an understatement. I love the idea of literature being so important to the general public that people are willing to change their name to that of their favorite author. And the idea that you could enter books? A dream! Thursday finds that she is one of the very few in the world able to slide into the written word and as such, she is able to do so much to help both the “real” world and the injustices of the written world.
Fforde has a very ironic wit and an irreverent humor. I personally love the tongue in cheek mentions of popular television shows (like “Name That Fruit”) and the sly inside jokes that he makes when doing something as simple as naming characters (“Jack Schitt.”) From the first line, “My father had a face that could stop a clock,” you are jettisoned into an amazing world of 1985 England and Wales by an author who understands literature better than most English Professors.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is available here!
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.