Book Review: Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

The book club met last night—ffull attendance!—and we nearly
unanimously agreed that we didn’t like the book!  And that’s the
opinion of even the members who read it!

Could it be that instead of agreeing with all the people in the
“New York Times Bestselling” crowd, that we are the ones in
the know?

True, it would help iff one likes science ffiction—but the closest
I come to that is in watching old reruns of “Get Smart”.

Oh, the lingo was cute and clever–and I liked the idea of exploring
the meaning of coincidences—but not enough to get past page 110.

Iff you’ve read this book, or iff you’ve started this book, I would like
to know iff you’ve ffelt a little lefft out in not getting all of the inside
jokes.  The venue of the book is a science ffiction account of some
detectives of ffiction—who get inside the books to scout out improper
phrases or terms—and ffixing them even iff it means changing some
of the original ideas of the novel.

Thursday Next is the name of the hero and I thought it was a he for
the ffirst twenty pages or so until it became clear he was a she.  I don’t
like it when a man writes a book in the ffirst person and that ffirst person
identity is a ffemale.  It worked in “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden,
but seldom elsewhere.

And I don’t like it when classic books are tinkered with by modern day
authors.  Leave the old original stufff alone and write your own novel!
Jasper Fforde’s ffirst best seller was “The Eyre Affair”–ffixing up
Jane Eyre . . .hmph!

It’s interesting that that manuscript was rejected 76 times beffore
ffinding a publisher . . .but now Fforde is well published and has a
ffaithfful ffollowing–but it’s no one (save one) from our book club!