Jasper Fforde
by Roger
I have only part-read two of his books so far - yet I am hooked - and will most certainly read them all.
My mind is on 'The Big Over Easy' because that's what I'm reading right now. I laugh out loud over his one-liners and thereafter he has got me smiling for page after page. However, after a while, as in 'Carry-On' films you know what the next line will be - but it is so cleverly done.
I loved the Toast Marketing Board, slotted into the Thursday Next series and the 'Allegro Enthusiast Club in the B.O.E. He convinces you to take this seriously because of the car's renowned 'hydrostatic' suspension gives a great 'ride' and you can always adjust the 'torque' to your advantage.
It is great fun to play around with the author's classic characters. Fforde knows that these by their nature carry the luggage of his readers preconceptions. He doesn't impose on them a different personality - and that makes the whole book work. I'm sure he purposely resists 'developing' a character such as his Inspector Jack Spratt (who cuts off all his fat from his bacon breakfast at the Police Station Canteen - 'My wife won't eat anything else.') It's all about the dialogue for Fforde.
I find that the books can be too loaded to take in a single session. Rather like too much Marx Brothers - you need something different in between. The beauty of his stories is that you get to believe in his reconstitiuted characters as real people, and that includes his Nursery Rhyme ones too, because he does them so well.
Jasper Fforde is one of the authors appearing at Manx Litfest 27 - 30 Sept.
