The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book
I just finished The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book, the first two books in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. They are fun little books, full of wit and literary humor. They are great books to read quickly, just for plot - and fit well with my preferred escapist reading of detective fiction. I did find that a little goes a long way and that small doses are best.
The Thursday Next series is an odd mix of science fiction, literature meta-jokes, and detective novels, with a definite British flavor. I am reminded of Douglas Adams and Red Dwarf (but thankfully not Sherlock Holmes – I often feel like Conan Doyle is talking down to his readers…but that’s another review). I kept feeling that if I were British, I would probably find them laugh-out-loud funny (do the Brits laugh out loud? Or is it frowned upon?) but since I’m American, I just find them smile-to-myself humorous.
I’ll admit that by the time I was done with Lost in a Good Book, I was ready to put the series down for a while. Instead of buying the rest of the books, I’ll reserve them at the library and read them as they come available. What made them less compelling as they went on? I think perhaps they are a little too clever after a while. By the time I got through the first half of the second book, I ws thinking, “Oh, speaking to characters by ‘footnoterphone?’ Hunhh!" Instead of entertainingly clever, it seemed a little roll-my-eyes-clever.
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