Review: Lost in a Good Book
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LOST IN A GOOD BOOK (Penguin Books, 399 pages, paperback edition), a novel by Jasper Fforde, is...difficult to summerize. One assumes the book takes place in the future, although I don’t recall anyone actually saying so. Perhaps it’s an alternate universe or all a dream or some sort of elaborate virtually reality. In any case, the world is controlled by a giant corporation, and the main character, Thursday Next, is an employee of a CIA-like organization where she investigates literary works. In this second Thursday Next novel, her husband is erased by the evil corporation, she learns to travel inside of books, tries to save the world from deadly pink goo and dotes on her Dodo bird.
Weird? Yes. But very readable.
In Thursday’s quest to become a better getter-insider-of-books, she is assigned Miss Havisham from GREAT EXPECTATIONS as a mentor. Odd to have a famously anti-male character as a guide while trying to save your own husband from, well, wherever erased people go. The Cheshire Cat – yes, that one – is the keeper of the books that Thursday jumps to and from. He is, in fact, the keeper of all books and the know-er of all book knowledge. According to the Cat, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is the most-read book of all time due to its translation into Arthropod. Lobsters, it seems, are big readers.
Lots of other stuff happens, too, of course. She learns to shake a jar of beans to see if things are a bit too coincidental, which means something horrible is going to happen to her. She’s distressed to discover her pregnancy may or may not have been initiated by her erased husband. And then there’s something about Neanderthal rights.
No formula genre fiction here. This is class A new territory. It’s a little sci-fi, a little mystery and a little college literature course all rolled into one. Not that everything is perfect. There are so many odd things, you may have difficulty keeping them straight. And then there are the first 30 pages. While Mr. Fforde is a wonderful writer throughout the rest of the book, the first 30 pages – being largely about television interviews and toast – are just, well, boring. You will want to give up. But if you can press on a bit further, all will be rewarded.
All in all, I give this book two Dodo birds up. And the fun doesn’t end there. THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS, the follow up to LOST IN A GOOD BOOK, is on bookshelves now and on my to-be-read list, too.
Weird? Yes. But very readable.
In Thursday’s quest to become a better getter-insider-of-books, she is assigned Miss Havisham from GREAT EXPECTATIONS as a mentor. Odd to have a famously anti-male character as a guide while trying to save your own husband from, well, wherever erased people go. The Cheshire Cat – yes, that one – is the keeper of the books that Thursday jumps to and from. He is, in fact, the keeper of all books and the know-er of all book knowledge. According to the Cat, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is the most-read book of all time due to its translation into Arthropod. Lobsters, it seems, are big readers.
Lots of other stuff happens, too, of course. She learns to shake a jar of beans to see if things are a bit too coincidental, which means something horrible is going to happen to her. She’s distressed to discover her pregnancy may or may not have been initiated by her erased husband. And then there’s something about Neanderthal rights.
No formula genre fiction here. This is class A new territory. It’s a little sci-fi, a little mystery and a little college literature course all rolled into one. Not that everything is perfect. There are so many odd things, you may have difficulty keeping them straight. And then there are the first 30 pages. While Mr. Fforde is a wonderful writer throughout the rest of the book, the first 30 pages – being largely about television interviews and toast – are just, well, boring. You will want to give up. But if you can press on a bit further, all will be rewarded.
All in all, I give this book two Dodo birds up. And the fun doesn’t end there. THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS, the follow up to LOST IN A GOOD BOOK, is on bookshelves now and on my to-be-read list, too.
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