Review - The Fourth Bear
Nov. 19th, 2009 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanI think I liked The Fourth Bear more than I liked The Big Over Easy. I am very used to Jasper Fforde's style, tricks and puns, but this book had some sections I found truly brilliant -- and read at length to my flatmate. This one seems even more meta-fictional than the others: more so than The Big Over Easy, anyway. It's been a while since I read the Thursday Next books.
One thing I felt really sad about was Ashley losing his memory of his date with Mary. I actually really wanted them to get together. Ashley was a really sweet character -- quirky and sometimes used just to get a joke in, sure, but that goes for every character in Jasper Fforde's books so far.
One of the things I don't know how I feel about, with Jasper Fforde's stuff, is that -- certainly with the Nursery Crimes books, anyway -- I can't ever figure out how it's going to end, or how it's going to get there. It's not that fun reading something entirely predictable, sure, but sometimes I wish I had just a bit more of a clue. Mind, everything does tie up in a neat little bow at the end, with stuff from the beginning (or middle) tied back neatly into the main story. It's unpredictable, but maybe somebody paying more attention, or someone a bit quicker, might be able to predict it somewhat. Also, part of it might be getting references -- I wouldn't have understood the Dorian Gray subplot much if I didn't know the story of Dorian Gray.
One thing I felt really sad about was Ashley losing his memory of his date with Mary. I actually really wanted them to get together. Ashley was a really sweet character -- quirky and sometimes used just to get a joke in, sure, but that goes for every character in Jasper Fforde's books so far.
One of the things I don't know how I feel about, with Jasper Fforde's stuff, is that -- certainly with the Nursery Crimes books, anyway -- I can't ever figure out how it's going to end, or how it's going to get there. It's not that fun reading something entirely predictable, sure, but sometimes I wish I had just a bit more of a clue. Mind, everything does tie up in a neat little bow at the end, with stuff from the beginning (or middle) tied back neatly into the main story. It's unpredictable, but maybe somebody paying more attention, or someone a bit quicker, might be able to predict it somewhat. Also, part of it might be getting references -- I wouldn't have understood the Dorian Gray subplot much if I didn't know the story of Dorian Gray.
