Cultural Dessert

'Something Rotten' by Jasper Fforde

1 August 2008

Having really enjoyed Jasper Fforde’s ‘Nursery Crime’ novels featuring Inspector Jack Spratt – ‘The Big Over Easy’ (reviewed here in April 2007) and ‘The Fourth Bear’ (reviewed here in October 2007) – I turned to Fforde’s other series of novels. These feature the literary detective Thursday Next and I’ve been reading the latest, ‘Something Rotten’. Whereas the Jack Spratt books create a surreal parallel world – familiar yet inhabited by characters from nursery rhymes, Greek gods and aliens – ‘Something Rotten’ takes things considerably further. This felt more like Terry Pratchett than Douglas Adams (which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your point of view). I was amused, confused and exhausted by the combination of characters from fiction, characters in fiction, time travellers, Neanderthals, clones, genetic experiments, dodos and much more. It probably didn’t help that I had started with the fourth book in the Thursday Next series but it did feel like Fforde was throwing in everything including the kitchen sink. Having decided not to bother trying to make sense of it all and just going with the flow, I began to enjoy the journey – and it is very funny. And as we headed towards the dramatic conclusion it gradually all began to make some sense. Despite the silliness, Jasper Fforde is a master plotter and it is very satisfying when numerous early episodes and references return towards the end of the book and fall into place. Whereas Jack Spratt lives in a version of Reading, Thursday Next is based in a kind of Swindon. It was the weirdest experience, last weekend, to be reading the chapter about Leigh Delamare services on the M4 being a hidden gateway to the underworld while sitting in Leigh Delamere services! Don’t worry, I didn’t cross to the ‘northside’ …

Labels: Books

posted by Robin Simpson @ 8:58 am