Author: Jasper Fforde
Title: The Eyre Affair
Narrator: Susan Duerden
Publication Info: New York : [Westminster, Md.] : Penguin Audio : Random House ; Books on Tape, p2009.
Summary/Review:
It’s always good to revisit some old favorites from my 100 Favorite Books list, and this one continues to deserve it’s spot on that list. This time I listened to it as an audiobook and Duerden adds an unexpected gravitas to the first person narration of Thursday Next. Having read the many sequels to this book, which inevitably have Thursday juggling 3-4 ridiculous scenarios at once, and I was surprised at how relatively quiet this first book is. Fforde has a lot of world to build in his alternate universe 1985, and he does a great job of establishing it in this book setting seeds for things that get explored more thoroughly in later novels. Ultimately though, this is a great stand alone book with it’s mix of alternate universe science fiction, detective novel pastiche, literary allusions, and riotous humor. And after all these years, I still want to live in a world where people perform Shakespeare’s Richard III in a Rocky Horror Show style, if only for a little bit.
Rating: *****
Panorama of the Mountains 