The Eyre Affair

I may bitch, rant and moan about my parents like most other mortals, but when it comes to the habit of reading, I am eternally grateful to them. My siblings and I were postively encouraged to read at every step of the way- a habit that I've retained over the years. I remember my sister(who had become a mother very recently) once coming in asking me for a "light" book to read. "Light? How light?" I queried. "Well, as light as possible. I'm breast feeding, its a crashing bore and I need something I can balance on his head." I'm delighted to report that fifteen years later the kid who had "lite lit" balanced on his head is now an avid reader himself.

This week has been gloomy as I've been ploughed with work and I've cocked up on a project. Something staring me in the face which I hadn't acknowledged. In any case it is always good to have intimations of fallibility flash by once in a while - failing which I'm sure I'd be perfect. It was in this Kafkaesque state of mind that I picked up a book by the strangely named Jasper Fforde-that's not a typo. "The Eyre Affair" is charming and intelligent at the same time. Much better than the pulp fiction many read to keep themselves afloat. It is based on an equally curiously named detective -Thursday Next and her adventures in a surreal Britain.

The year is 1985. The Brits are at war with Russkies in Crimea. Wales has declared itself a socialist republic. The Dodo has been revived in a process of reverse extinction. One thing hasn't changed though: The Brits are madly in love with their books and their literature. So much so that a special department has been set up to protect literary works and to ensure that manuscripts are safe. Enter Thursday. She works for Litera Tec which is a branch of Special Operations that has been set up to ensure that literature remains intact. Everyday conversation among the masses involves long debates on the authenticity of Shakespeare's authorship of the plays or the works of Dickens.

Enter the bad guy: Acheron Hades. He has devised a method of seizing original manuscripts and altering the text so that ALL editions of the text are altered. His first maneouvre is mundane. Removing Mr Quaverly from the text of Martin Chuzzlewit- not a great work of art by any stretch of the imagination. He takes on the establishment when he manages to get into the text and the world of Jane Eyre. Now this is serious stuff. The Brits and the Brontes have a connection which spans decades. What follows is a roller coaster ride interspersing "modern" Britain with the world of Jane Eyre. Nothing is sacrosanct in Fforde's imaginary world. He takes broad swipes at all, including the television press, by inventing the Toad News Network and big business, in the form of the Goliath Corporation. But do not be mistaken. There is an Alice in Wonderland feel to Thursday's adventure. No lofty polemics here. My "laugh out loud" moment came when Thursday (with the help of Mr Rochester) enters the world of Jane Eyre, only to discover some Japanese tourists who have managed to sneak in with her.

What remains once the book is over is a terrific sense of humour coupled with a fertile imagination- a rare occurence in a PDB (post Dan Brown) world. The seriousness (if that is the right word) lingers in the fact that great literature is important and worth fighting for. The only other work of fiction that dwells on this subject (though in a very different manner) is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 - subsequently made into a not-very-good film by Francois Truffaut. If great literature is worth dying for or worth saving then shouldn't more of us be reading it ? That, I think, is the unspoken premise in Fforde's work. I have the next three books and look foward to devouring them.