Monday, February 4, 2008

The Fourth Bear

I was feeling a bit sick this weekend, so I decided to go for something light. Fortunately, I had Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear on my bookshelf. I had liked The Big Overeasy, but it wasn't up to the standard of the Thursday Next books, so I was a bit hesitant on starting this book -- would it be even worse, starting a slide into dullness? It just seemed that nursery rhymes aren't enough to carry the weight of a full story.

Well, it seems that Mr. Fforde agrees -- he's started playing the game of throwing in literary references all over the place, from Dorian Gray as an evil car salesman to David Copperfield as a police lieutenant. The best praise I can give the book is the I completely forgot my stomach ailment as soon as I got two pages in. There's a real art to writing light, funny fiction, and Fforde has definitely nailed it.

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