The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde

Saturday night I finished reading Jasper Fforde's latest book in the Thursday Next series, The Woman Who Died A Lot.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a Fforde Ffan. I found his books accidentally. When I was in college I was at a large, well known bookstore and saw a book called The Eyre Affair on the bargain book rack. I'd read Jane Eyre many times, so I was intrigued. When I read that the basis of the story was that Jane had been kidnapped out of her book, I snatched up that book and haven't looked back.

Though this latest TN book has been out for a while, and I've had it for a while, I didn't get to reading it until last week. I won't make excuses. It just didn't happen. Still, it was worth waiting for.

The story begins in 2004. After surviving an assassination attempt in One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Thursday Next has been forced into semi-retirement from SpecOps, is unable to bookjump due to her leg injury, and is encouraged strongly by husband Landen to slow down.

Trouble seems to follow Thursday, though, and despite her attempts at a quiet life, Jack Schitt is up to something at Goliath, Synthetic Thursdays are popping up, Aornis Hades has given Thursday a daughter who doesn't exist, her son Friday is mourning the career he would have had (or did have, or will have) in the ChronoGuard, and her daughter Tuesday is struggling to get the Anti-Smiting Shield up and running before Swindon's scheduled smiting on Friday.

It makes more sense if you've read the other books in the series, I promise.

This story reminded me a bit of The Eyre Affair in some ways. Because of the gap between TN6 and TN7, it sort of feels like the first book in a new series. So there is a bit of a ramp up before things really get going. Fforde has to introduce new characters and update the reader on what's been happening and where we are in Thursday's life. Although, I will say The Woman Who Died A Lot did not feel as exposition-y as The Well of Lost Plots did. That one felt slower to me.

Still, Fforde does not disappoint. Like his other TN books that take place outside the BookWorld, Fforde creates a parallel world to what we know as reality for Thursday to live in (and protect). This time one major aspect of the story is the smitings that have been occurring since God has revealed Himself to the world (unifying all religions under one and changing the minds of atheists).

In Lost in a Good Book, Thursday's father offers to sideslip his daughter to another reality. (His description sounds remarkably like our reality, by the way). This reference to another dimension is expanded in The Woman Who Died A Lot, since it is proven that there are other dimensions and universes, and they work together in some aspects, particularly in trade. Some are quite different (one dimension is very much like reality except everyone has two heads), and some strange aspects of our reality are explained through this multiverse theory (for example, Aldi is the result of a multiverse trade, which is why you don't recognize any of the brand names).

As is the expectation with Fforde, the crazy and confusing threads of the story seemed to pull themselves together as the story progressed. Through much of the book I was saying, "What the frak?" when something would happen, but by the end, it made sense. And not in a cheesy way, in my opinion.

However, another aspect of the story that can't be ignored is that Thursday is a different person now. Not only is she older (55 years old, to be exact), but she is the mom of two teenagers and one young girl of dubious existence. Her allegiances are to her community, to the written word, to the continuation of humanity, but also to her children, who are finding their own ways in the world. She's realizing she's different, and is trying to hold on to who she once was while still trying to make who she is work. She's hard on herself because of it.

I think I enjoyed the book more because of the time in my life that I'm reading it. I'm not retiring, and I'm not the mom to teens, but I'm going through a major transition in my life, finding my new place. And that's what's going on with Thursday in this book. She's sort of retired, she can't do what she did before due to physical limitations, and her children are much more important to her than anything else. I can relate to that.

In addition to the Thursday Next series, Fforde is the author of the Nursery Crime books (The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear), Shades of Grey, and his young adult series (The Last Dragonslayer and Song of the Quarkbeast). He lives in Wales.

Thursday will return for her next adventure in Dark Reading Matter.

My rating:

Fforde Ffandom

I'm finally making time to read Jasper Fforde's book, The Woman Who Died Alot. I've had it since it was released in the U.S. late last year, but just didn't make the time to read it.

This week, however, I am absolutely reading this book, and doing a little shopping next week for the other Fforde books missing from my little collection.

I also listened to Lost in a Good Book (TN2) in the car on the way from Illinois to Florida last week. I've listened to it a few times, as well as The Well of Lost Plots (TN3). And Fforde's books have given me inspiration for decorating my new, Florida office space.

There are lots of cool things in Fforde's books--particularly in the BookWorld--and I want to create a sort of Fforde Ffan Cave of Stuff for my new office. I have some initial ideas for what to include, such as the Bellman's bell, a few plot devices, and a map of Fiction Island.

I'll have a smallish space for the next couple of years, but after that I'll have a little more room to spread out and make the most of my office: library table, card catalog, lots and lots of bookshelves....

My hope is that anyone who knows/enjoys Fforde's books will find lots of fun items in my office that will remind them of specific moments in his books. And for those that don't know Fforde... well, it'll just be a weird office, I suppose. But it'll be my weird office, and that's the important thing.

Does your office space have a theme?

Fforde Ffun

Worried about eaten by a carnivorous tree?  Here's some advice:

Coffee-Stained Pages: Shades of Grey

Well, I've finished reading Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.  And it was better than I could have expected.

As is the norm with Jasper Fforde, I don't know how to explain the story without giving anything away.  You could read descriptions on Barnes & Noble's website, but it doesn't begin to tell you how fun and quirky and complex the story really is.

Coffee-Stained Pages: Shades of Grey

I've almost finished Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey.  I'm looking forward to finishing it, even though I know I'll be a little sad when it's over.

The story is weird and fun and mysterious and turns my perceptions upside down, which is what I've come to expect and love from Jasper Fforde.  Once I've finished reading the book, I'll be sharing a bit more with you.  Until then, feel free to click on either of the links above to learn more about Mr. Fforde and his works.

Coffee-Stained Pages: Jasper Fforde

I know that in my introductory post I said I'd be starting the year with The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt.

Well, I'm a huge Fforde Ffan, and the long-awaited Shades of Grey was released at the end of December, so of course I had to pick it up after Christmas!  So when I went shopping with SIL I got it with the full intention of reading the whole thing this week.

That didn't happen.

But I did start it, and I'm already enjoying it immensely.

Here's the synopsis of the book from Barnes & Noble's website:

As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy.  From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one's limited color perception, society is dominated by color.  In this world, you are what you can see.

Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective.  With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works; he may even have enough red perception to make prefect.

For Eddie, life looks colorful.  Life looks good.

But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine.  There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes to the painful truth behind his seemingly perfect, rigidly controlled society.

Curiosity--a dangerous trait to display in a society that demands total conformity--gets the better of Eddie, who begins to wonder:

Why are there not enough spoons to go around?

Why is everything--and everyone--barcoded?

What happened to all the people who never returned from High Saffron?

And why, when you begin to question the world around you, do black-and-white certainties reduce themselves to shades of grey?

Part satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, this is the new world from the creative and comic genius of Jasper Fforde.

I haven't even finished the first chapter, and already Shades of Grey is revealing itself to be another fun, quirky, brilliant work of prose by the bestselling author of the Thursday Next series.

Here's a little infomercial to give you an idea of the mindset of the world of Fforde's new book:




What book is starting you out for 2010?

10 on Tuesday: Characters I Liked Reading

(In no particular order)

1. Thursday Next from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series

2. The Cheshire Cat from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series

3. Esther Greenwood from Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

4. Ma (the narrator) from Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

5. Frank from Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man

6. Malachy from Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Malachy McCourt's A Monk Swimming and Singing my Him Song

7. Clare from Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife

8. Vida Winter from Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale

9. Catherine from David Auburn's Proof

10. Deborah Blau from Joanne Greenberg's I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Pre-Order Available!

Be sure to pre-order your copy of the newest Jasper Fforde book, Shades of Grey, due out in the U.S. in December.

The synopsis, from Barnes & Noble's website:

From the bestselling author of Thursday Next--a brilliant new novel about a world where social order and destiny are dictated by the colors you can see.

Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color--but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means.

Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the nation of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.

Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey Nightseer from the dark, unlit side of the village. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.

Stunningly imaginative, very funny, tightly plotted, and with sly satirical digs at our own society, this novel is for those who loved Thursday Next but want to be transported somewhere equally wild, only darker; a world where the black and white of moral standpoints have been reduced to shades of grey.

Oh, no!

It has been brought to my attention that Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde is not going to be released in the USA until December 2009.

Really?  December?  Are ya kiddin'?  It's a good thing I'm so excited about his new release.  There aren't many writers I'd maintain this level of anticipation for, especially after a delay of five months.  Then again, neither do I want to rush him.  This is important work he's doing!

For those not in the Ffordean universe, it was scheduled to be released in the USA in July 2009.  However, I can take solace in the fact that this British writer will not be releasing it in the UK until January 2010.  For once, I get a Fforde book first!  Ha ha!

Jasper Fforde on Writing

The fiction site on About.com has an interview with Jasper Fforde about his writing process.

I love Fforde. Read the interview.