Eyre Affair Part Deux

[jacey]

OK - I finished it. Yes, as I suspected, my previous stopping point was just before Eyre became relevant to the whole Affair. The book offered a decent payoff in the end, but I still can't help thinking that the first two-thirds of the book was a little overlong to carry the last third. No spoilers but at the conclusion there were some nice wrap-up sequences and a few possible leads into future books which were well done.

Looking at the back of the book the potential reader is told for starters that Thursday Next (the heroine) is on the trail of Mr Big for crimes against literature and that Jane Eyre (the character) has gone missing from the novel. When this pivotal plot point doesn't happen until page 295 of a 373 page book I reckon that's a badly written blurb. Or - if the missing Jane Eyre is the book's most saleable plot point maybe we shouldn't have had to wait until past three-quarters of the way into the book for it to happen. I feel a bit cheated.

Having said all that, I did make time to keep reading it though you can tell I'm not a total convert. Final analysis? I wouldn't wriggle too hard if someone put: 'Lost in a Good Book' or 'Well of Lost Plots' on my to-read pile, but I probably won't spend money on either of them just yet as I have other books on my most-wanted list.

Shopping:
I weakened and ordered Lost - Season Four which is released tomorrow on DVD.

Comments

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Eyre Affair - only read these as I was part of the Audience Participation Richard III at Eastercon a few years back ... some nice ideas, and having some of the jokes etc. explained by the author (in advance) helped ... :-)

I think his Nursery Crimes books are a bit better, but in a similar style (so I've mostly borrowed them rather than buy them, well, unless I saw them cheap second hand at a con)

Perhaps they try a little *too* hard from time to time :-)

his pivotal plot point doesn't happen until page 295 of a 373 page book
How far into the movie Titanic are we before it hits the iceberg? How far into the Poseidon Adventure before the ship turns over? How far into The Crying Game before the Earth is destroyed by a giant asteroid named Rosebud? ;-)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I said:
his pivotal plot point doesn't happen until page 295 of a 373 page book

the magician said:
How far into the movie Titanic are we before it hits the iceberg? How far into the Poseidon Adventure before the ship turns over?

and I say:
Well, yeah, but we _know_ the Titanic sinks and we know Cameron isn't going to mess with the historical accounts, so the movie is all about the build up and the characters. And as for the Poseidion Adventure... er... it sinks pretty near the beginning I think and the movie (the first one) is all about getting out.

There's very little Eyre in the build up here - it's all Chuzzlewit. And there's more foreshadowing of the minor 'Who the hell did write shakespeare?' sub-plot. There are a three off-the-wall appearances by Rochester and a very brief excursion into the Jane-meets-Rochester scene prior to page 295, that's all.

At the end of the day all I'm probably saying is that I would have written a different book!
:-)
That's a good thing, yes?

Of course, mine probably wouldn't have been a runaway best seller so what do I know?