Impromptu Book Review

I didn't expect to do this, but this author is so remarkable that I feel it necessary to spread the word about his works!

I just got over the internal paradox of dreading to finish a great book while simultaneously eagerly desiring to find out what happens at the end. Luckily, it is the third in the brilliant "Thursday Next" series by Jasper Fforde, and I will reprise this feeling soon enough. I highly recommend the entire series, and I am about to continue on reading this author's other works, which I assume I will be able to rave about immediately after.

I find that somehow no one knows about Jasper Fforde, and yet, everyone needs to. I began with the Eyre Affair, which interested me solely due to the fact that Jane Eyre is my favorite book and I figured that a plot that involved it would hopefully interest me. What I discovered was an incredible intelligent Harry Potter-type series for well read adults. It's brilliant.

If you are not a Harry Potter fan, do not immediately discount that form of praise, for I only mean it in the way that Fforde creates an entirely new ficitonal world. His is far more creative and brilliant, however, in that it is birthed from literature: English, American, the Classics, Science Fiction, the whole gamut. He takes the reader behind the scenes of reading! He invents a realm within our reality that is composed of the books themselves and links the different pieces of literature by the exploits of his detective protagonist, Thursday Next.

It's full of humor and a very meta concept, which is especially timely in what often seems like an uber (sometimes excessively and exhaustively) meta age. The works are also somewhat ostentatious, for Fforde flaunts his skill with constant literary allusions and by writing for some of literature's most celebrated and interesting characters. He assumes the role of the greats by writing in the voices of (and thus informing the characterizations of and expanding what we as readers know and think of) celebrated figures such as Heathcliff and Catherine, Edward Rochester, Uriah Hope, and so many more. He even emulates the Shaksepearean language of Falstaff, Benedict, Beatrice, and other favorites. You don't mind Fforde's self aggrandizement, however, because you are too busy delighting in the world he invents and the expansion of the familiar faces within it. The details of his works are so intricate and complex, you can only sit back and gaze around in awe of what he has created.

It's the kind of book and entire series that will keep you home and antisocial for weeks, as I know my friend agree certain others can certainly boast of (*cough cough Twilight cough cough Harry Potter*). I intend on suggesting that our book club reads some of his works in the future. Yes, I am in a book club. What up.