I love all things Welsh! I read a book about Wales when I was 11 or 12 and became slightly obsessed. I dreamed about moving to Wales, teaching at a small village school, and owning lots of sheep. Like Little Bo Peep. If she were a teacher.
So my obsession merely increased when I stumbled upon a Welsh author by the name of Japser Fforde. I found a book called The Eyre Affair about a "literary detective" who has to save the world by traveling through Jane Eyre. I loved the literary allusions and the fantasy of traveling into different books. (Ah, if only I could jump into Little Women and run away with Theodore Lawrence. I hope he looks like Christian Bale!!!)
I was so surprised to find a witty, intelligent, uproariously fun story with a plucky heroine and a cloned Dodo as a sidekick (Well... Pickwick isn't exactly a sidekick...) It had been a long time since I had laughed out loud while reading a book. The Eyre Affair was a delightful journey that I didn't want to end! And it hasn't! Fforde has written 5 more stories in the Thursday Next series. Each new book I pick up hoping that it will be as good as the last, and each time I find myself pleasantly surprised at the quality of each new installment.
The Thursday Next series is a perfect little comic series. Stories that I have enjoyed immensely and could read over and over again. I thought that nothing could top my love for Thursday Next and the Literary Detectives. That was it; Literary-Comic-Fantasy had reached its pinnacle, Fforde must have used all his creative genius to come up with his innovations in The Eyre Affair world...
... Then one day I was taken by surprise when I found The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde on a bookshelf at Powell's. WHAT?! Nursery Crimes? A new Jasper Fforde series?! What is this?! I was skeptical although the story of the murder investigation of Humpty Dumpty (No, he didn't just fall off the wall) did seem amusing.
I never should have doubted Jasper... Sorry, Mr. Fforde... Jack Spratt and Mary Mary, along with a blue alien that speaks in binary and bathes in Windex, are detectives that investigate all the misdeeds that take place in the world of nursery crimes. I found this just as hilarious and entertaining as the Thursday Next series. Although I do long for my dear Thursday!
Fforde has extravagant plot lines, smart literary references, crazy-funny in-jokes, endearing characters, and complex settings. His stories are all I could ask for!! While his fantastical tales might not be everyone's cup of tea, I will be waiting with bated breath for the next installment!
Post Script ~ "World's oddest theme park: Contenders abound in this field, and several deserve mention. ElephantLand in impoverished East Splotvia is odd in that it has no elephants, nor a clear idea of what one is. GummoWorld in upstate New York is devoted to the Marx brother who had the distinction of never appearing in a movie, and Nevada's ParkThemeLandWorld is a theme park dedicated to other theme parks, but has no attractions of its own. SommeWorld in the UK invites its visitors to taste the marrow-chilling fear of being an infantryman in the Great War, and, by contrast, ZenWorld in Thailand is nothing but a very large empty space in which to relax. Our favorite, however, is La Haye's DescarteLand, which merely furnishes ticket holders with a paper bag to put over their heads and a note reading, 'If you think it, it shall be so.' -- The Bumper Book of Berkshire Records, 2004 edition" ~ p. 352, The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
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