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08/17/2005 Entry: "EYRE AFFAIR and LOST IN A GOOD BOOK -- Stop at one? (Rebekah)"

I recently finished THE EYRE AFFAIR by Jasper Fforde. Wonderful! It's an extremely hard to describe book, containing elements of Science-Fantasy, Alternate History, Police Procedural, Romance, Horror, Literary Criticism, and on. Fforde also plays with the nature of reading and bookwriting which creates a sort of looping metastory, but don't worry - it's not as slow-going as that sounds. The world is one where literature is popular culture -- Bronte and Browning are like our rock stars, wars happen between Surrealists and Non-surrealists, and every Friday night the local theater puts on Shakespeare's Richard III with actors drawn from the audience because everyone comes costumed and knows the lines by heart.

The protagonist is a woman named