"Thursday's Child." Thurday Next's next.

For some reason I have not written about Jasper Fforde’s latest Thursday Next novel, One of our Thursdays is missing. My regular readers must be quite lost for guidance. I apologise to both of them.  I’ve already confessed my love of Fforde’s writing so I will surprise no-one when I say I really enjoyed this one. BookWorld is recreated, there are some fun new characters, and the climax takes place on a riverboat heading upstream to meet a mysterious renegade. Who could not love a book that contains the Mediocre Gatsby and a dangerous mimefield?

In brief: the real Thursday Next is missing and the written Thursday Next has to find her. To explain: the real Thursday Next is the one we read about. The written Thursday Next is the Thursday Next in a series of novels written in the real Thursday Next’s world, based on the real Thursday Next, so she is a similar character, but not real, although both Thursday Nexts can exist in each other’s worlds, can meet, and indeed have worked together before. Neither of them seem aware of us, so I don’t think we exist in their world. Clear?

The Thursday Next world created by Jasper Fforde is a world of books within books and worlds within worlds, sort of fan-fic meets fantasy meets detective meets intellectual meets Douglas Adams meets – oh I could go on and on. Woody Allen had a character travel into a classic novel in The Kugelmass Episode. This was but a paddle on the beach compared to the Pacific Ocean of Thursday Next’s world. If you are new to this series of novels, this is not the place to start! I’ve read every one of these novels and I got confused.  Start with The Eyre Affair and move on from there.

Fforde plays with a lot of ideas and stories within these books, mixed with parody and lit crit. I’m sure many of the references and jokes go over my head or through to the keeper unnoticed. But one idea that struck me forcibly was the nature of the revenge that Aornis Hades, one of Thursday’s many enemies, took on her. She gave her the memory of daughter that doesn’t exist. So she spends a lot of time worried about where her child is, because she never sees her. I’m not a parent but I can’t imagine how hard it would be not knowing where your small child is. A more subtle revenge I cannot imagine.

Thursday Next, despite the fantastic world she lives in, is a very believable character. She dresses for comfort and convenience, spends most of the time with her hair pulled pack into a pony-tail, has too much to do and not enough time to do it. Add to this her intelligence, toughness and love of books – heck I’d like to meet her sometime. If not her, someone quite like her.

Hmmm. I may be in love with Thursday Next. This could be awkward.