Customer Reviews

Lost in a Good Book: A Thursday Next Novel

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thursday Next is back from her triumphs in The Eyre Affair. If you have not yet read that book, please do so before Lost in a Good Book. You will be totally confused in the first half of this book if you do not.

In The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next had been working on Shakespeare-related literary crimes in London as a Special Operative when she was summoned into a special assignment with a highly classified outfit. It all related to a run-in she had with a professor while in college. The assignment left her literally flat on her back, and after recuperating she returned to her hometown to face her past and her future. She had been trying to escape from both since her unit was decimated in a terrible lost skirmish in the Crimea during which her brother was lost, and her relations with the love of her life were terminated.

While there, important manuscripts began disappearing in unexplained ways and she found herself in the middle of the investigations. Helped by unexpected interventions from outside this time and dimension, she made steady progress towards protecting Dickens and Bronte from unpopular bowlderizations.

As Lost in a Good Book opens, Thursday finds herself happily married and expecting. But dark clouds soon rain on her happiness, and she has to deal with unexpected sadness. Complications from The Eyre Affair create new problems for Thursday. In the process, she has to develop new talents and solve new problems . . . some of which threaten our very existence! Along the way, she has some unexpected help from new friends . . . including Miss Havisham from Great Expectations!

The Eyre Affair focuses on the discontinuities between what readers would like stories to say and what authors have provided.

Lost in a Good Book shifts that focus to how to read fiction in richer and more delightful ways. If you are like me, you will find yourself remembering sleepy afternoons in your childhood as you day dreamed about being a character in a book.

Thursday's personal life also takes a delicate and thoughtful look at what it means to be connected to another person and what a personal loss really is. Anyone who is grieving the loss of a loved one will find understanding and comfort in part of this story.

After you read this book, I strongly encourage you to move on to the brilliant third book in the series, The Well of Lost Plots. Although the books can be easily understood as a stand-alone effort, you will probably be more thrilled by The Well of Lost Plots if you sneak up on it by reading the other two books first.

Ultimately, these books most appeal to those who love literature as readers . . . and for whom classic characters seem like old trusted friends. Those who like science fiction, fantasy, mysteries and adventure stories will be much less pleased. Those aspects are amusing icing on the cake rather than the cake.

To me, Lost in a Good Book most seems like a continuing literary update and enhancement of Alice in Wonderland with Thursday Next as Alice.

As before, the Britain you will read about in this book differs substantially from the current one. Although the reason is never stated, I inferred that this one that has been influenced by time travelers to the detriment of Britain. The Crimean War had continued until recently since the 19th century between Britain and Imperial Russia. Wales is not part of Britain and is a people's republic that is not sympathetic to Britain. Literary debates are more important than political ones. Britain has succumbed to the military-industrial complex in ways that are usually ascribed to the U.S.A. Much technology is primitive (such as air travel by dirigibles) while other technology is very advanced (time travel, cloning of extinct animals as pets, and dimension shifting).

The overall themes of the book involve the classic struggles between the light forces of good and the dark forces of evil, against a backdrop of separated love.

The satire is layered on with a heavy hand. The names give you a sense of this. There are a number of agents who are assassinated. Their names provide clues as to what's coming next such as Kannon and Phodder. One of the new villains has a name that will make you chuckle every time you read it. The overall effect is a lot like Voltaire's Candide and occasionally has an element of Rabelais.

Regardless of any temporary drawbacks in the book to your preferences as a reader, the charming moments will easily carry you forward wondering what marvelous writing innovation next awaits you.

Plan to read this one in one sitting. It's hard to put down.

How does the book compare to The Eyre Affair and The Well of Lost Plots? I found the book to be more of a transition between those two books than a story of its own. Therefore, I thought this was the least strong book in the series to date.

I wouldn't have believed it possible, but this sequel is even better than Jasper Fforde's first Thursday Next novel, "The Eyre Affair." And I adored that book! But this tale has such an emotional core - still funny, but wonderfully thoughtful, as Thursday races back and forth through time, trying to save the world and her husband, Landen, who has been "eradicated" by the big, bad corporate control monster, Goliath. The time travel scenes are gorgeous, and I love how Jasper Fforde makes his readers think "outside of the box" with his fantastical concepts and characters. I was also completely delighted by Thursday's further adventures in the literary world, going everywhere from Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" into Kafka's absurd text, meeting the Cheshire Cat and Red Queen from "Alice in Wonderland," and of course, studying the fine art of "book jumping" with Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations." I LOVED this book, and greatly look forward to jumping into the next one in the series, "The Well of Lost Plots."

Literary Detective Thursday Next, who has just discovered she is pregnant, is in hot water again when her husband, Landen, is eradicated at age 2 in an evil attempt by the corrupt Goliath Corporation to blackmail Thursday. In her previous adventure, Thursday trapped one of Goliath's key employees inside The Raven, and they want him back. If all this sounds impossibly confusing, it isn't once you get into the swing of Fforde's incredibly complex alternate reality.

Thursday, who has slipped into an alternate alternate reality where she has no husband (but seems to have a mysterious boyfriend named Miles of whom she has no memory), is determined to do whatever it takes to get Landen back. To meet Goliath's demands she has to learn how to jump into books without the help of her uncle's invention, the Prose Portal, which has been destroyed. She seeks out the mysterious Mrs. Nakajima, the only other person Thursday knows who can "book jump." Her search leads her into the shadowy world of Jurisfiction, where a dedicated group of fictional characters police the fictional world from inside the books, just as Thursday's agency, LiteraTec, does from the human side. As an apprentice to Miss Haversham (yes, that Miss Haversham), Thursday undertakes her education while dodging evil Goliath persons, coincidences gone wild, and a corrupt ChronoGuard agent attempting to catch Thursday's time-jumping fugitive father (who often pops in to give Thursday a hand).

And then there's Pickwick, Thursday's genetically engineered dodo, who has laid an egg .

The second Thursday Next installment is every bit as fun as the first. The writing is incredibly clever, filled with literary allusions and amazingly deft wordplay. About 90 percent of it goes straight over my head, but the 10 percent that I do get is plenty to make me laugh out loud. And just when you think it can't get any crazier or funnier, you get socked between the eyes with tender, emotional moments that make me wonder if Thursday could actually "book jump" into my living room.

Poor Thursday. Just when she's out of "Jane Eyre", she's smack in the middle of a reprint of "The Raven."
This is not good. This is definitely not good.
But it's a lot of fun. To get her husband back, Thursday Next must delve into literature, and jump from book to book, to rescue her erst-while husband, who may not exist, being wiped from reality by the Chrono-guards.
Be afraid. Be very Afraid.
Be tickled. Be very Tickled.
Fford's prose is a shot of white-lightening on an empty stomach. His (Oh god help us) references are too close to home to be more than funny and a little less than thought-provoking, and a joy to read!
Literary readers will scramble for reference books. Too bad, as Thursday Next will have been there first, and tidied them up a bit. Ordinary readers (being not Literature-types) will rollick in the humor, catch the best puns, but unless the reader is with "IT", could very likely miss the point.
Cudos, Mr. Fforde. Fantasy is now Literary, or is literacy now fantasy, and much, much too enjoyable.

BUY THESE BOOKS. READ THEM.

Catch a pun, win a prize. Catch a particulr metaphor, win a book. Catch the point, and sit at home satisfied that I get it. While the rest of the world sits home and waits for "something" to happen.

While you're waiting, read these books. It will help pass the time.

Who doesn't want to know more about Miss Havisham? God knows she was the saving grace of GREAT EXPECTATIONS. In this sequel to THE EYRE AFFAIR, we find Thursday losing Landen and trying to find him, while also saving the world. The witty pundits, and tongue in cheek naming, along with the ironic musings of Fforde make this a great ode to the reading man. However, these books really should be read in order, since Fforde doesn't waste time reiterating the rules of the little world he has created. After all, he is writing for readers, and I suppose he hopes that we have read the first in the series.

"...officers Hurdyew, Tolkien and Lissning heard you talking and listening..."(page 277 in the paperback edition)

Okay, maybe all the puns, word-plays, and literary allusions are so blatant, but this book is literally full of them.

Not to mention the names, which include Harris Tweed (a member of Jurisfiction, a police-type agency inside books), Spike Stoker (a vampire killer), and Cordelia Flakk (an overbearingly loud and flashy PR agent). That should give you some idea of the overall tone of the book - fun, quick, light, and unbelieveably SMART.

Fforde writes with a great wit, keeping the reader intrigued, laughing, and on the edge of his or her seat. It's not often that you find a book that accomplishes this: usually all books that are amazingly fun to read are, well, slightly lacking in the intellectual areas.

However, this book has it all - along with mystery, a little bit of romance, and some serious book-jumping.

I accidentally found The Eyre Affair while browsing in a favorite bookstore. After the first paragraph I was hooked and bought it on the spot. After I finished it I wasn't quite sure what I'd stumbled across...meaning, it is completely different from the books I usually read. It was also fun, original entertaining, made me laugh out loud many times, and very well-written.

When I realized that Lost in a Good Book was out, and also a sequel to Eyre Affair, I couldn't wait to read it, but figured also that it would follow the usual "sequel curse" of not being as good as the first. WRONG! It's better! And now I cannot wait to get "Well of Lost Plots"!

Thank goodness for Jasper Fforde! I love writers who think outside the box, take you on a journey with the characters and work your creative mind! They are few and far between these days. And for those of you who are avid readers, especially of the classics, you will love his infusion of those characters into the world of his heroine Thursday Next!

Thursday Next is back, and she has more problems, when the first time around. Not least among them are the fact that her husband was eradicated (not killed, just the nearly fatal accident he had at the age of two was made COMPLETELY fatal) and the end of the world, which is imminent in a matter of days.
This sequel to "The Eyre Affair" has all the fun of the original novel and even more characters from literature, including Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations" and Cheshire Cat. There is also a visit to Kafka's "The Trial" and many otther, not so obviouse, references and puns.
Those who loved the original novel will be immensely pleased by this one. The characters are two-dimensional, but it's deliberate here, so can't be considered a drawback. And also, does it really matter if the characters are two-dimensional, if we have so much fun with them?
The plot is solid (if yo accept jumping in and out of books, genetically ingeneered dodos and charecters from Jane Austin asking for AA batteries), but is a bit below the high plank of the first one. That's due to two things:
1) the lack of novelty, due to the fact that mostly the novel develops the ideas introduced in the first one;
2) there is no great opponent on par with Asheron Hades here.

Still, this is one of the rare breed of books - humor written for people, who like to read. And it's written by a person who shares our love for books. If i could jump into any book, I guess a Thursday Next adventure will be my first choice.

Book-jumping. The lives of books. Good, clean fun.

What's it about? Well, according to Fforde . . .

"I like subplots a lot, and it probably shows. In fact, you could say that Lost in a Good Book consists only of subplots - a month in the life of a literary detective. The actual plot I have decided, is the love interest between Spike and Cindy - all the rest are just subplots."

This is extremely funny because Spike is a very minor character and Cindy is mentioned only in passing.

This book is very much more about the world Thursday Next inhabits than the sort of narrative that drove The Eyre Affair. It's hard not to be grateful for that - it smells of more adventure to come.

One of my favourite elements is the snippets from the glossary of The Jurisfiction Guide to the Great Library (used, along with other "publications," at chapter openings primarily to fill in backstory - personal, social historical, and technical). For example:

PageRunner: Any character who is out of his or her book and moves through the backstory (or more rarely the plot) of another book. PageRunners may be lost, vacationing, part of the Character Exchange Program or criminals, intent on mischief.

The author's website also includes a little insight into the editing process - how a few simple substitutions can make things so much better. http://magnificentoctopus.blogspot.com

Reading a book that makes you laugh and think at the same time is an odd situation, but this book, like the first in its series, is that type of work. The author has included so many literary people, places and hints that you really have to be "up" on literature to get everything that's thrown at you. Of course, you don't have to be that erudite to enjoy the puns and the play on names that are encountered. There's a Mr. Schitt-Hawse therein, but also expendible characters known variously as Phodder, Kannon, Walken and Dedman. That's only the "tip of the iceberg", as they say. We also get very well acquainted with Miss Havisham, the Cheshire Cat, and the Red Queen, not to mention King Pellinore and the Questing Beast. A little aside about Shelley caused gales (sorry about the pun) of laughter from me. This series is quite something, and I look forward very much to following Thursday's many future (or past?) adventures.