07/06/2005 10:14 AM
Posted by VeggieSteph

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Something Rotten is the fourth book in the Tuesday Next series. Tuesday Next lives in mid-Eighties England, in an alternate reality where literature, authors, and characters in books are pop culture, time travel is possible, and her uncle Mycroft has invented numerous things that a big, bad corporation wants for its own fun and profit. They have fan clubs for Shakespeare, and there are special police divisions devoted to protecting literature. It’s a dream come true for folks like me.

In this installment, Tuesday Next has a two-year old son, Friday, and is living in the Book World (where books are actually pieced together by characters like The Cheshire Cat and Miss Havisham). There she is the head of Jurisfiction, the folks who police the book text, make sure characters stay where they are supposed to stay, and make sure they don’t rewrite the novel to how they see fit. After spending two and a half years hiding out there (you’ll have to read book two to find out why), she decides it’s time to return to the real world. She returns in hope that she will be able to get her husband back (he’s been erased, to make it short and sweet), get her job back, and finally defeat her old foes, Goliath Corp and Yorrick Kaine. Kaine has succeeded in almost becoming full-on dictator of England, and she is bent on stopping him. Her adventure includes a Hamlet, several historic characters brought out of time by her father (a time policeman), an angry Dodo called Alan, a cloned Shakespeare, and a 13th century saint whose predictions have seen the downfall of Goliath and Kaine, but only if Swindon wins the SuperHoop (a sort of cross between cricket and croquet).

It’s quirky, it’s British, and its got more references to literature than you can shake a stick at. If you are a lit geek, a former unrepentant English major, or someone who enjoys many layers of footnotes, you’ll like the Tuesday Next series. I can’t wait for book five.