Lost in a Good Book charts the continuing adventures of Thursday Next, dodo-owning, book-jumping, literary detective and decorated war hero. The book opens a few months after the events of Jasper Fforde's debut The Eyre Affair, and sees our heroine getting increasingly fed up with being at ... Read review
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the disturbing news that her husband of only a month drown thirty-eight years ago, and no one but Thursday has any memory of him at all. Someone, somewhere...
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Lost in a Good Book
Thursday Next literary detective and newlywed is back to embark on an adventure that ... more
begins quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen her husband of four weeks actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone somewhere sometime is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible? Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair Thursday must battle corrupt politicians try to save the world from extinction and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations journeys into Just William a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan. But whose? and why?
First asterisk to the left and straight on till...
A review by Olly_Plimsoll on Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde October 19th, 2007
Author's product rating:
Would you read it again?
Absolutely
Story
Outstanding
Characters
Outstanding
Readability
Excellent
How does it compare to similar books?
Excellent
How does it compare to other works by the same author?
Excellent
Advantages:
Well written lunacy
Disadvantages:
Airships over an alternate Britain
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Lost in a Good Book charts the continuing adventures of Thursday Next, dodo-owning, book-jumping, literary detective and decorated war hero. The book opens a few months after the events of Jasper Fforde's debut The Eyre Affair, and sees our heroine getting increasingly fed up with being at the centre of a media circus.
Facing a court case from the mysterious Jurisfiction for altering the ending to Jane Eyre, and dealing with blackmail threats from the sinister Goliath Corporation - who are desperate to retrieve their operative from the pages of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven', it only takes a few short pages for the reader to realise that they're dealing with a very unique style of fiction.
Told entirely in the first person from Next's point of view, the Thursday Next series is relentlessly hilarious for anyone who's read a lot of books. I doubt there's many people who will nail every joke or reference that crops up in Fforde's writing - Lost in a Good Book contains a lot of Great Expectations, Sense and Sensibility, Alice in Wonderland and The Trial. While most people have read a bit of Austen, Dickens and Carroll, they're not always the same people who you find reading Kafka...
Set in an alternate Britain (a Republic with George Formby as President), Thursday Next's world is one where you can take a 'gravtube' to Tokyo in 40 minutes but there's no jet engine. In common with every alternate Britain that's EVER been created, the skies hang heavy with airships. I can only hope this is some kind of ironic nod from the author, because it's a cliche that really hacks me off.
In addition to the airships and the omni-present Goliath corporation ("For all you'll ever need"), Next's world is characterised by a rabid interest in literature. The Shakespeare lobby is influential enough to decide the outcome of general elections. The obsession is strong enough that the shadowy Special Ops need a branch devoted to the literary detectives.
Although this set-up is quirky to begin with, the story quickly gets madder and madder, while at the same time becoming more and more clever. From the moment where Thursday Next enters Jurisfiction, out-Kafkaing the prosecutor at her trial and becoming Miss Havisham's apprentice, it's probably fair to say that you need to be approaching a degree level handle on English Literature to get the most out of the book.
This isn't to say there's not a lot on offer to people who haven't read Edgar Allen Poe's poetry, or who have never wondered where the Red Queen's kingdom actually is. In the real world, there's a persistent hint that Acheron Hades may have survived The Eyre Affair, and is manipulating entropy to produce catastrophic coincidences. This thread turns into a truly goofy and lurid science-fiction thriller that counterpoints the quasi-philosophical adventures inside fiction.
Luckily, for a series of books that revolve around fiction and poke fun at cliches and narrative conventions, the Thursday Next novels are incredibly well-written. Next herself is a great heroine - faintly tomboyish without falling into the 'man with breasts' trap of many female leads written by men. Her devoted husband Landen takes care of the romance angle (although there's a great twist on this to keep things later on in the book) and she couldn't give a stuff about shopping. So she's an engaging and sympathetic female lead who doesn't get in the way of the adventure.
The other thing that I love about these books is that, believe it or not in this jaded age, they actually carry a whiff of originality about them! While postmodernism has lead to all sorts of explorations of the nature of fiction - from Last Action Hero to the bits in Doctor Who where Tom Baker used to talk to the audience - it's never been quite this systematic, or quite this much FUN. Populating 'bookworld' with an insane bureaucracy is a masterstroke, and there's a tortuous internal logic as Fforde pushes his creation to breaking point (even washing machine instruction manuals have a secret life, apparently).
I can unreservedly recommend this book - and indeed the whole series - to anyone who loves books. And as you'll hardly be buying any novel if you DON'T love books, I can recommend it to everyone, safe in the knowledge that the people who wouldn't like it won't be buying it anyway.
My copy is the first edition, which has a disappointingly muted cover compared to the pulp brilliance pictured on this site. It cost £6.99 but I got mine, inevitably, for 79p from a charity shop. Jasper Fforde novels are also a regular fixture on Waterstone's 3 for 2 tables, so fill your boots.
Advantages: weird and wonderful! Disadvantages: will take over your life till you've finished it!
...next book ‘The Well of Lost Plots’ which is due out in July this year.
The books are published by Hodder & Staughton – Lost In A Good Book is 372 pages long and costs £6.99 in paperback.
I loved it and highly recommend it.
Lost In A Good Book – you certainly will be! ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Some truly inspired ideas Disadvantages: Disconnected set-pieces; Written too quickly?
...they always have been.
Lost in a Good Book takes this initial, very humourous, premise and stretches it - with Thursday Next now married to Landen Parke-Laine, having defeated her nemesis Acheron Hades in the first book, and trapping Goliath Corporation's Jack Schitt in a copy of The Raven.
Things start to go wrong when Mr Schitt-Hawse (yes, it's already a tired pun), Jack Schitt's cousin, eradicates Landen and blackmails Next to return to The ... ...the series, 'The Well of Lost Plots', makes you think that this is a 'novel-lite', written to publisher's order and to a tight deadline.
I can't help feeling that with a bit more time spent on it (this sequel followed only a year after the original) this could have been a worthy addition, but instead I find myself feeling that this is a series I would have preferred to see remain at one book. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: awsome expansion on an already great world Disadvantages: Another can't put down book
This exciting return to the world indeed worlds of Fforde is a fantastic return to the world and life of Thursday Next and also of course more of Jurisfiction Yay.
So what's happening to Thursday Next next (excuse the pun) well some one is trying to kill her , the evil Goliath corporation teamed up with the chronoguard kill off her husband ,,,back when he was a little boy! An uncanny and improbable amount of possibly fatal accidents keep on occurring ... ...to pink goo doesn't appeal much either
We see even further into the workings of jurisfiction which is a real treat and as witty as ever this particular sub world he has created is and insane world of books and words that never ceases to amaze. When Thursday seeks sanction in the world of jurisfiction she is put to work under the tutelage or none other than Great Expectations Mrs. Havasham .
This is a cant put down book for sure same as the last ...
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helpful
14.12.2006
A good laugh Review ofLost in a Good Book - Jasper Ffordeby
victoriablackburn
Advantages: Hilarious Disadvantages: People look at you funny when you start laughing out loud in public
...on words. The characters in Lost in a Good Book are very believable and you'll find yourself lost in this book. It's the type of book that once you pick up, you'll not want to put down until you're finished. When you have finished, you'll want to start all over again. I bought it for all my friends who are book lovers so I can talk to them and laugh with them about it! Highly addictive. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
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somewhat helpful
25.03.2003
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