Super-geeky fun. I love this book's density of literary and historical references, the silly wordplay, and the snappy pacing. Jasper Fforde is a very smart author, but instead of stultifying his readers with his erudition, he plays with his historical, political, literary, and pop-cultural knowledge in an upbeat, whimsical, wink-wink-nudge-nudge sort of way. This is the best for-pure-fun read I have enjoyed in a while.

Having read Turgenev's works in the original Russian, I can acknowledge that Constance Garnett does an acceptable job with Mumu, although her language occasionally feels stilted or, worse, laughably anachronistic. My biggest complaint about this new audio release of Turgenev's 19th century classic is the use of a narrator who has a Russian accent. As listeners, we already perceive Turgenev's language through the filter of the translation, so being forced to contend with the additional filter of the narrator's accent serves only to emphasize our distance from the original. Frankly, the narrator's accent makes this audiobook come across as gimmicky for an English-speaking audience, preventing the listener from getting lost in the story itself, which is a great disservice to Turgenev's mastery as an author.

I resisted reading this book even after a friend effusively recommended it. The story follows a 33 year old woman through the grief-filled year after her lover's suicide -- a topic too depressing to sound appealing. Eventually, I gave in, and I have re-read the book many, many times in the years since. Cathie Pelletier's writing is beautiful, poetic without being flowery, with quietly evocative imagery. The human truths she explores are just as beautiful. There is something deeply honest about Pelletier's wry, tragicomic portrayal of family, of human relationships, of the complexities of our emotional involvements and our sense of self. This is the book I give as a gift when a friend needs comforting -- all the words I would say are here.