Fforde Ffun

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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?

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!