The Eyre Affair

I first saw mention of Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair on the personal blog of ESPN’s Keith Law (one of my go to book recommenders).  It seemed like it was different and creative and possibly up my alley.  To prep for it I first read Jane Eyre, which I had never read (although I knew the story).

The Eyre Affair begins with Thursday Next, a literary detective in 1985 England, investigating the theft of an original manuscript of a Charles Dickens novel.  Pretty standard stuff.  Oh, and of course it’s a parallel universe where England is a police state engaged in a 130-year war with Russia, time travel is possible, and dodo birds are cloned as pets.  Other than that, a pretty basic detective novel.  And did I mention that Thursday has a run in with a vampire, travels back in time to give herself advice after getting sucked into a black hole, and unwittingly changes the ending of Jane Eyre (to what we now know as the actual ending) by burning down Thornfield Hall?

So where were we?  Thursday is single, in her mid-30s, and working a dead end job in Special Operations solving crimes involving works of literature.  When Archeron Hades, one of the most wanted and dangerous criminals in England, kidnaps her uncle and the machine he invented that allows one to enter the pages of a novel, Thursday is forced into action.  With help from her Special Operations team she chases Archeron into the pages of Jane Eyre (which he’s attempting to destroy) where she hopes to save both the novel and her uncle.

This book was definitely an imaginative and fun read, and while I did enjoy it, in the end it was good but not great.  Yes, it was creative, but it felt like Fforde was almost trying to hard to be different (see the whole dodo birds as pets things – I don’t see why this was necessary).  There was also a weird love story with Thursday that felt tacked on.  It did sort of parallel the plot of Jane Eyre and maybe that was the point, but it felt forced.  The Eyre Affair is the first book in a series of Thursday Next novels, but I wasn’t impressed enough that I plan on running out to read the next (no pun intended) one.  How’s that for a ringing endorsement?

Next up:  Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson