Thursday Next Book 1
What Fforde is pulling is a variation on the classic Monty Python gambit: the incongruous juxtaposition of low comedy and high erudition - this scam has not been pulled off with such off-hand finesse and manic verve since the Pythons shut up shop. 'The Eyre Affair' is a silly book for smart people: postmodernism played as raw, howling farce Independent It is always a privilege to watch the birth of a cult, and Hodder has just cut the umbilical cord. Always ridiculous, often hilarious ... blink and you miss a vital narrative leap. There are shades of Douglas Adams, Lewis Carroll, 'Clockwork Orange' and '1984'. And that's just for starters Time Out, on THE EYRE AFFAIR Ingenious - I'll watch Jasper Fforde nervously Surely a cult in the making If you want a change from these stories of loves fractured and rebuilt there is not shortage of gloriously eccentric alternatives. Jasper Fforde's much-hyped debut next month THE EYRE AFFAIR in which a literary detective has to stop an arch-criminal kidnapping characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom as well as engineering a halt to the ongoing Crimean War. Enough? I haven't even mentioned the pet dodo and the aunt trapped in Wordsworth poem. Delightfully clever ... Filled with clever wordplay, literary allusion and bibliowit, THE EYRE AFFAIR combines elements of Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But its quirky charm is all its own. Wall Street Journal A decidedly quirky and strangely thought-provoking debut novel The eccentric epic - A read that'll leave you breathless The reader is catapulted in and out of truth and imagination on a hectic, humorous and neatly constructed chase that finishes by tying up every loose end in the most satisfying, novelistic way [She's] part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew and part Dirty Harry Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, on Thursday Next Jasper Fforde's FASCINATING FIRST NOVEL reads like a Jules Verne story told by Lewis Carroll...Forget all the rules of time, space, and reality; just sit back and enjoy the adventure as Thursday, with the help of Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester, fights a desperate battle in which Jane herself is in jeopardy. Dark, funny, complex and inventive, The Eyre Affair is a breath of fresh air, and is easily one of the strongest debuts in years.
Jasper Fforde traded a varied career in the film industry for staring out of the window and chewing the end of a pencil. He lives and works in Wales and has a passion for aviation.