Can Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair (Viking, 374 pages,
$23.95) really be called genre fiction? Just because it's brilliant doesn't
mean it's not. Part fantasy, part science fiction, part mystery, this first
novel centers on Thursday Next, a Special Operations officer in an alternate
London where similar - and mysterious - police squads handle such crimes as
time-travel transgressions and werewolf attacks.
Next's specialty is literary crime, and her nemesis is one Acheron Hades,
who's making off with original manuscripts of fiction for devious purposes.
Next is a veteran of the ongoing Crimean War, which has prompted the
enshrinement of a shady, arms-producing corporation at all levels of
government, and while she's trying to track the theft of Martin Chuzzlewit
and Jane Eyre, she's also enmeshed in the company's intrigue thanks to a
character named Jack Schitt.
Funny name, eh? It's one of many. The literary wordplay is half the fun. The
other half is the fantastical goings-on in this world, where reconstructed
dodos are common pets, Thursday's father is a rogue time-travel operative,
and her Uncle Mycroft is a wacky inventor who makes James Bond's Q look like
a piker. His bookworm device allows the villain to murder literary
characters and erase them from existence.
The dialogue is often absurdly funny, as in Mycroft's description of his
assistant's demise: "A bit tragic, Thursday. We were developing a machine
that used egg white, heat and sugar to synthesize methanol when a power
surge caused an implosion. Owens was meringued."
There are moments of seriousness, too, as Thursday deals with her war
experiences. That Fforde can deliver the goods with a straight face makes
this novel all the more enjoyable. It's that rare thing, a must-read, and I
expect we'll be seeing a lot more of Thursday.
Copyright © Feb 2002, The Baltimore Sun.
