BOOK REVIEW: The Eyre Affair

Before we get to this week’s book review, the following test is required. Please answer A or B.

Question number 1:
A. Do you believe that THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is of real help so that intergalactic travelers don’t panic or forget their towels?

B. Do you believe that THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is a silly book written only for nerds?

Question number 2:
A. Can you recite “The Jabberwocky” so that it makes sense?

B. Do you think that a Lewis Carroll is something sung at Christmas time?

Question number 3:
A. Do you know all of the lyrics to “Spam, Spam, Spam” and do you find ways to work, “Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition” into a conversation?

B. Do you think that Monty Python sounds like a real neat guy and you wish that you had his autograph?

If you answered A to any of the above, you are ready for a Jasper Fforde book. If you answered B to any of the questions, please give me a call. You need help!


THE EYRE AFFAIR by Jasper Fforde introduces the reader to Thursday Next in a surreal version of Great Britain around 1985. Thursday is a renowned Special Operative in literary detection. Her job involves hunting down forged works of literature in a world that sees forging Byronic verse as a punishable offense. Literature is taken very seriously and Baconians heckle performances of HAMLET.  RICHARD THE THIRD is always playing and everyone goes regularly to see it. The scene where Thursday and a friend go made me laugh out loud. It was very much like going to see “Rocky Horror Picture Show” except instead of throwing rice, the audience holds up paper horses when Richard calls for one in exchange for his kingdom.

In this world not only is time travel possible, but an aunt can get lost, literally, in a poem. She did get to meet Wordsworth, though as she wanders through the daffodils.

Then, characters from the great works of literature start getting kidnapped. Thursday is involved in the case when Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Bronte’s novel.

This is a fun book. It is one of the most inventive things that I have read in a long time of reading off-beat literature. I have to admit that I caught myself thinking, "That is not the plot of JANE EYRE that I remember," but it had been a long time since I had read it and my memory is not what it was.

Naturally, all ends well, thanks to Thursday. It does make you want to see how she handles the literary woes in the books to come. The other books in the series are just as funny, but I would suggest reading THE EYRE AFFAIR first.