In Jonathan Swift's classic satirical work "Gulliver's Travels," there is an offhand remark about research a nameless botanist is doing on cucumbers. Amusing, but hardly of great significance to the life of Gulliver or to the themes of the work.
Most people forget the idea at once, but Jasper Fforde is not most people.
As Fforde reveals on the acknowledgments page, Swift is partly the inspiration for Fforde's sixth novel and second Nursery Crime mystery, "The Fourth Bear" (Penguin, 378 pages).
As those who have followed Fforde since 2001's "Eyre Affair" know, Fforde does nothing simply. His novels are fast-paced romps through a twisted version of England, populated by a mix of original characters and characters borrowed from literature, fairy tales and myths. Jack Spratt, Detective Chief Inspector and head of the Nursery Crime Division (NDC) in Reading Police Department, straddles two worlds. On one hand, he is a family man with a somewhat successful career. On the other hand, he eats no fat and has an unfortunate habit of accidentally killing giants.
"The Fourth Bear" begins some months after the end of the first Nursery Crime novel, "The Big Over Easy," which dealt with the murder of Humpty Dumpty. Despite the success of the NDC's investigation into Humpty's death, a bust gone wrong costs the department the respect of the public, the press and the police bureaucracy. When the Gingerbread Man, a homicidal madman/cookie, escapes from St. Cerebellum's asylum, the NDC is kept off the case. Instead, it's assigned the drudgery of enforcing the local anthropomorphic bear population's porridge rationing, while Jack himself is forced into sick leave pending a psychological evaluation he is sure to fail, since being crazy is a requirement to function at NDC.
And that's when journalist Henrietta "Goldilocks" Hatchett is reported missing, last seen by three bears who live deep in Andersen's Forest. What happened to Goldilocks? Was there a Fourth Bear at the cottage? Are the cucumbers actually red herrings? And what the devil happened to Chapter 13?
All these questions (well, most of them) are answered. But that's beside the point. Fforde is a fine writer when it comes to plot; but it's his mastery of the surreal, always made doubly absurd by how straight he plays it, that leaves readers hooked.
Fans of Fforde's madcap wit will be pleased, if not satisfied, with his latest offering. "The Fourth Bear" is funny, make no mistake. However, the chapter epigraphs in particular lack the sly energy from prior books. Nor is it his most brilliantly surreal work - which says more about his books in general than "The Fourth Bear," given the presence here of "Sommeworld," a theme park based on an infamously pointless WWI battle.
On the other hand, the characterization is arguably the best Fforde has managed. Jack Spratt, who had already seemed a more fully-fleshed character than Thursday Next (the protagonist of "The Eyre Affair" and three subsequent novels), here comes into his own: a man forced to come to grips with his multi-faceted nature as a father, husband and officer, and a Person of Dubious Reality. Mary Mary, his sergeant, also comes closer to full realization. But it is Ashley, Police Constable and NDC third-in-command, who steals the novel. In "The Big Over Easy" he was at best a two-note joke, an officer indistinguishable from any other, except that he was an alien from 18 light years away who while speaking occasionally lapsed into binary. Fforde has moved past that, not only giving Rambosians a distinct psychology from humanity but making Ashley more than just the token alien. It isn't exactly Tolstoy, perhaps, but it's a clear improvement over his earlier works.
But this is perhaps all incidental. Those who've read Fforde before know well enough what they're in for. Those who haven't? Well, now is as good a time as any to find out.
