The Eyre Affair (2001)

Great Idea (I LOVE Rochester even though I've never read Jane), Genius way of carrying it off (A Heroine called Thursday), and 2 "r-rated" words in the middle! Not to mention the hundreds of "s-word" uses. Gracious. If you're that intelligent you could think up less offending words to use. Those words I can do without. ( )

Yeah, baby, this is a universe where I would fit; there's a whole police force dedicated to literary crimes! It's an awesome idea and Fforde's execution is really very good, although I'm not normally a sci-fi or war-story fan and have some problems with those bits. There's an abundance of zany characters and events that bring Hitchhiker's Guide to mind, so if you like that one this might be for you. I absolutely love all the literary references and the arguments within the different groups, but am wondering what someone who hasn't read these books or heard of these arguments think of them - do they detract from the plot? Fforde does explain the pertinent points of the books so that it shouldn't matter if you haven't read them. Will definitely read more in the series! ( )

Great weird worldbuilding-- all the comparisons to Douglas Adams do not go amiss, though Fforde's prose style and storytelling don't quite reach the same heights here (a difficult goal, certainly).

I loved all the wacky names and the alternate history stuff, and the premise of people crossing the boundaries between reality and fiction. I was expecting everything to be a little more tied together-- like, I get that a lot of the alt history happened because of time travelers (incl Thursday's dad) popping in and out of the past and messing around with things, but I thought there'd be a big reveal that history really started diverging when some major literary character became real way back in the past, or that time travel exists because someone in the future pulls a time machine out of a book, etc, etc. Instead it just ended up being basically "there's a lot of weird stuff in this world, huh", which is fine but just not what I was expecting. Maybe later on in the series.

My favorite part of the book is, I think, the existence of the LiteraTecs in general. The "everyone is obsessed with classic literature" is a great central worldbuilding element, and the recurring Rocky Horror-style Richard III performance seems spectacular, as is all the other Shakespearean/Baconian/Marlovian nonsense. I was less enamored with the Jane Eyre stuff on the other hand... it seems weird to me that this book treats Jane Eyre with such boring reverence, while treating Shakespeare with such wonderful irreverence. I think one of the weaknesses of this book is that it doesn't know what makes a compelling romance, and, case in point, Fforde seems to be laboring under the misapprehension that Edward Fairfax Rochester is not an enormous tool. I'm only somewhat joking about this being a major problem.

Overall: fun read, misses the mark in a few ways.

Oh, and the cover design is great. ( )

3.5 stars
It was fun and full of literary references. Basically, a quest to stop the alteration and destruction of literary works such as Martin Chuzzlewit and Jane Eyre. ( )

Fabulous as always. I'm forging ahead in the series this time. Let's see what book #2 brings. ( )