Lost in a Good Book

I liked this one better than the first one, in spite of my general dislike of extortion plots. A large part of my enjoyment probably comes from knowing what was going on from page 1, as opposed to the half-book it took me to figure that out in Jane Eyre. This is an incredibly complicated universe Fforde has created and I can't imagine what the inside of his head must be like.

There's no way I can really adequately talk about this book, there's just too much going on, so I'll just say it's an incredibly fun read. It's funny, it's well-written and it celebrates the written word and language like no other book I've ever read. I love the word play the author uses, both the obvious ones (villains named Schitt-Hawse) and the not so obvious show more ones (Agents Phodder and Kannon). I laughed loud and long when I read about Mycroft's "retirement".

I'm so happy I found these books when I did; they're the kind you savour, not devour, which means I have a heck of a lot of fun reading ahead of me. Who knows? by the time I finish the ones I have, the next one (or two!) might finally be released. show less

Thursday is a minor celebrity since she’s saved the Jane Eyre manuscript … in her world. In Book World she’s on trial for changing the ending (even though everyone agrees the new ending is better). After defending herself in front of the judge from Kafka’s The Trial, she returns home to find a series of very weird coincidences leading to several near-death experiences - too many to be coincidental. Meanwhile, her personal life turns upside-down - her husband never existed. He’s been erased as leverage for Goliath Corporation to get their operative Jack Schitt back from inside The Raven. Not great timing since she’s just discovered she’s pregnant. In order to get him back she needs to get inside The Raven, and in order to show more do that she’ll need to study under one of the great JurisFiction (secret agents who work inside books) agents - Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Also, her time-traveling father visits to let her know the world is going to end in about a week and asks for her help preventing it.

Just like the first book, there’s so much good stuff here and nothing in particular is the main plot. Do I care? Not really. On this read I especially appreciated the plotline with the Neanderthals. Fforde thoroughly thinks through what ethical concerns there would be about resurrecting an existing human-but-not species, even for a very minor plotline, and it’s a joy to see them given such consideration. I would read a whole series about several of the scenes - Thursday moonlighting as a vampire hunter to earn some extra cash, behind-the-scenes in Sense & Sensibility where the Dashwoods listen to Walkmen and fly planes, Thursday’s dad creating all life on earth by transporting imitation whipped cream back to prehistoric times, and his daughter seeing the last moments of his life though in her timeline he’s still alive . Thankfully I have a lot more fun ahead of me. show less

This is all kinds of wonderful - I actually like it better than The Eyre Affair (how often does that happen with a second novel?). The stakes are higher with Thursday being pregnant and Landon being eradicated and the end of the world coming up, so that automagically makes it a more exciting read. The clincher is that the characters are getting more fleshed out and the new ones that come on are even more hilarious than others. Case in point, Thursday's granny who is old and wants to die, but has realized that she has a curse on her - she won't die until she has read the ten worst books in the world! Of course, it doesn't have much bearing on the plot, but I have a feeling that Fforde has just waited for an opportunity to list the books show more he finds the most hideous. I actually found myself telling the book, "Read Madame Bovary, and you'll drop dead in a second!" I can't wait to read the rest of the series! show less

The world that Fforde has created for this series of novels is wholly novel (pun absolutely intended): part science fiction, part alternative history, part Alice in Wonderland. A world in which an Amazon+Apple+Disney-eque mega-corporation, Goliath Corp, runs everything (social satire); genetic engineering has restored Neanderthals, mammoths, and dodo birds (science fiction); Turnbridge Wells has been ceded to the Russians as war reparations (alternative history); and – most importantly - literary characters are real and walk among us (bibliophilia). Puns, literary references, satiric allusions to modern society, and silly wordplay abound.

The books feature Thursday Next, a fiction detective affiliated with SO-27 (Special Operations). show more A mini-celebrity thanks to her defeat of arch-villain Acheron Hades in the first volume of the series, 'The Eyre Affair' (in which she inadvertently alters the ending of 'Jane Eyre' for the better), Thursday's biggest concerns would seem to be her marriage, a new pregnancy, and trying to dodge Cordelia of SO Public Affairs, who keeps booking her for absurd celebrity events ("The Thursday Next workout!" "How to get that Thursday Next look!"). But of course complications soon arise when …

• A staid old aristocrat finds a copy of an unknown Shakespeare play, Cordenio, in his library, which turns out to be purloined from the Jurisfiction library - but for what purpose?;

• Villainous Brik Schitt-Hawse "eradicates" (erases from time) Thursday's husband Landon as leverage to force her to retrieve Schitt-Hawse's brother Jack from Poe's 'The Raven' (where Thursday imprisoned him back in the last book);

• Someone appears to be trying to assassinate Thursday by arranging preposterous (deadly, but preposterous) coincidences;

• The folks at Jurisfiction recruit Thursday into their organization and apprentice her to Miss Haversham;

• Oh - and according to Thursday's father, a rogue ChronoGuardian, the world is about to end (turn into a strawberry-flavored goo) in a couple of days, unless he and Thursday can prevent it.

But even this doesn’t fully communicate the density of creativity or adventure that this outing manages to contain, to include a surreal trial staged in Kafka’s court, a riot at a book store sale, the exorcism of a Supreme Evil Being (SEB) in a spooky graveyard (a process which involves a vacuum), and encounters with Raffles, the Cheshire Cat (now the Unitary Authority of Warrington cat, thanks to redistricting), Miss Haversham's arch-nemesis the Queen of Hearts, and the monstrous Questing Beast of Arthurian lore. This volume in the series also introduces us to grammacites, bookjumping, boojums, bloopholes, Bowdlerizers, ToadTV, cheese taxes, a spectrum of schismatic religions, sideslips, entroposcopes, footnoterphones, gravitubes, and 'Name That Fruit!'.

It's impossible to capture the sheer whimsical delight of these novels: for all I’ve tried, they defy description. The only thing to do is give them a try and see what you think. Just a few words of advice to those newly arrived (as I am): (1) the series works best when read chronologically; (2) suspend your disbelief: Fforde’s worldbuilding isn’t supposed to be logical; and (3) take time to appreciate the multiple layers of wisdom contained in the epigram: “It’s funny the way things work out.” show less

For those that enjoyed Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, the sequel Lost in a Good Book delivers more of the same: more action, more quirky characters, more wordplay, and of course more Thursday Next.

Though Fforde never quite crosses the line into somber, this entry in the series takes a slightly more dark and serious tone. Super criminal Acheron Hades is assumed to be out of the picture, but when Thursday is in the cross-hairs of death by coincidence a few too many times she begins to suspect that only Hades could be behind the attacks. Meanwhile the Goliath corporation is still after the Next family's book jumping technology, but Thursday soon learns of a whole world of literary travelers and takes on an apprenticeship to Miss show more Havisham in the world of Jurisfiction - the written word's version of her own job as a LiteraTec.

Crossing genres artfully as few other authors can, Fforde again dabbles with time travel, history, humor, and horror without hesitating to borrow heavily from the classic canon of Shakespeare, Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and even Franz Kafka. With their unprecedented level of quirkiness, the Thursday Next series is not for every reader, but for those that are hooked, Lost in a Good Book provides another delightful adventure. show less

I’ve only just begun my re-read of this series, but if I recall correctly, this is my favourite volume. I believe it was also the first one I read, in a rare incidence of reading a series out of order. But, as quirky, interesting and unique as The Eyre Affair is, this is the true beginning of Thursday Next’s evolution into a superhero. We are introduced to Jurisfiction, the organization peopled by fictional and nonfictional characters who manage affairs inside books, and how things in the book world affect things outside. It all comes from such an incomprehensible depth of imagination it boggles my mind. If I hadn’t had real life encounters with Jasper Fforde I might think he wasn’t real either. In true superhero fashion, show more Thursday finds herself constantly in precarious situations, and manages to get herself out (sometimes with fortuitous intervention from uncommon quarters), all in the name of justice. And the story is littered with literary witticisms that would tickle any avid reader. Right now I must pause my return to Next-land, but I fully intend to return and see the series through. show less

Ecco dove finiamo noi che, quando leggiamo un libro che ci piace, perdiamo completamente il contatto con la realtà.
Un libro così complesso, lussureggiante, colto, esilarante che piuttosto che parlarne fa venire voglia di leggerlo di nuovo.