The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (#9, Fun)

What can I say but that I was disappointed. This was a book that had much promise but just couldn't deliver. I guess I shouldn't have been expecting that much--it is a New York Times Bestseller and we all know what that means in the land of Booknymphs. I wanted to be amused, entertained, and along for a metafictional ride but the only thing this book delivered were cardboard characters and predictable plot lines. Sadly, this is the first book in a series and I can only shudder to think what Jasper Fforde comes up with in the subsequent installments.

It is really annoying to stumble across such a promising premise for a novel and then to find that the author has squandered it away in such a hideous fashion. There is nothing to love about Thursday Next, our main character. I feel like you never really get to know her and the parts that you do get to know aren't that interesting or great. And I know that some characters aren't meant for us to like (think The Kite Runner) but Fforde is not telling a compelling story about human interaction. The Eyre Affair is science fiction for lit snobs that falls so very short. I made myself finish this book only because I purchased it--had it been a library book it would have found itself tossed in my started-to-read-but-hated-and-gave-up pile. Fforde failed at rule number one for writing books in a series: you have to grip your readers with a lovable character. You have to give them a reason to pick up book two.