One of the good things about joining a book club at my local library is that I am exposed to books that I wouldn’t normally choose. And since it’s run by the library, most of the selections are legit. In this case, I was shocked to find we were reading a book I had never heard of. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde was a very different read for me. Time travel, alternate history, and alternate literary endings are not usually all t
hrown into the books I read.
At first it was overwhelming to adjust to this England that is and isn’t the current England. You soon realize that something happened in the distant past that has influence events so that the 1980’s are nothing recognizable to what we know. At first I thought this was going to be a satirical look at the downfalls of our culture, but it was more subtle than that. It made me want to read further to figure what had happened in the past to alter the future. It’s not really explained in this tome, but it faded to the background by the end of the novel.
Then there’s the fact that some people are able to move from our world into the world of a book, like “Jane Eyre.” This is what captures my attention because who doesn’t wish there was a way to immerse yourself into the world of your favorite book and interact with the characters and setting as if they were real. We soon realize there’s consequences to interfering with the book-world because it changes the plot and ending of novels. I’m really tempted to check out the rest of this series.
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I love Jasper Fforde! He’s such a goober and his books are so fun.
He’s a great author. I like his style part nerd, part entertainer. It makes for a good read. I’m going to check out his other works. When I first started I was worried it was going to be like “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” which I hated. I’m glad it wasn’t.
If you dig into his other series, just be warned that he’s been promising the third Nursery Crime book for yearrrrs and not delivered yet. Also, he’s only written one book in his Shades of Grey series, which was fantastic, and the two promised sequels have yet to arrive. He’s pretty prompt about the Thursday Next books, though.