mothlight reviewed The Eyre affair by Jasper Fforde
Review of 'The Eyre affair' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I was pretty disappointed by this book. It seemed to have everything going for it, an alternative history set in a world where literature is taken very seriously (major political fights hinge on who actually might have written the Shakespeare plays), filled with time travel, jumping into classic novels and poems (but yes, Woody Allen has been there first), and so on.
Maybe my reading suffered slightly since I haven't read Jane Eyre but it just felt entirely too clever and knowingly funny. It felt like instead of just being funny, it had to keep highlighting how funny it was. The funny character names (i.e. Braxton Hicks) just left you wondering why. Yes, it is a funny name, but I still can't figure out why it was used. Yes, labour contractions, but is it just that's ha ha funny, or was it supposed to actually mean something. After a while, …
I was pretty disappointed by this book. It seemed to have everything going for it, an alternative history set in a world where literature is taken very seriously (major political fights hinge on who actually might have written the Shakespeare plays), filled with time travel, jumping into classic novels and poems (but yes, Woody Allen has been there first), and so on.
Maybe my reading suffered slightly since I haven't read Jane Eyre but it just felt entirely too clever and knowingly funny. It felt like instead of just being funny, it had to keep highlighting how funny it was. The funny character names (i.e. Braxton Hicks) just left you wondering why. Yes, it is a funny name, but I still can't figure out why it was used. Yes, labour contractions, but is it just that's ha ha funny, or was it supposed to actually mean something. After a while, I just didn't bother wondering anymore.
But worst of all, the whole thing just dragged along. I read it for a book group, so I kept going on it, but I could see that otherwise I would have switched more often to the few other things I was reading at the time and wouldn't have bothered trying to get through it as quickly. I doubt that I'll bother pursuing the rest of the series.
