Friday Forgotten (or Overlooked) Book: THE FOURTH BEAR by Jasper Fforde

British author Jasper Fforde is best known, I suppose, for his satirically quirky Thursday Next series of novels which take place in a modern day England that never was; an England in which airplanes haven't been invented, air travel is by dirigible, time travel exists, and the denizens of literature pop in and out of their books often leaving literary chaos in their wake.

But today is not about Thursday Next, literary detective, today is about the Nursery Crimes Division series begun by Fforde way back in 2005 with THE BIG OVER EASY. Unfortunately, this series is still only two books along and here we are in 2015. After THE FOURTH BEAR was published in 2006, no further Nursery Crimes books have come along though we were promised a third - a book now forecast to be published in 2017 - but who knows? I hate to be toyed with. Especially when the writing and story-telling are this good. But patience is a virtue (or so they say) and so I must be patient.

In the meantime, it's true, we've had the very satisfactory SHADES OF GREY (No, not that shades of grey) and its sequel also due out soon. So I mustn't complain - much. The Grey book is set in yet another bizarre though oddly familiar world, but this time out, the color spectrum is in short supply. Go read it if you want to know more. Unlike the other 'shades of grey', this time, bring your thinking cap.

At any rate, this review of THE FOURTH BEAR was first posted by me in 2011 and since I am currently re-reading the book, I've decided to bring the post forward and re-work it. This is too good a book to be forgotten, overlooked or lost in the shuffle.

How high (or low) is your tolerance for nonsense? I don't mean run-of-the-mill nonsense - I'm talking intelligent nonsense - absurdity, if you will - the kind promulgated by...oh, let's say, Jasper Forde. I don't know about you, but I seem to be able to tolerate Fforde's brand of nonsense very, very well, indeed.

Incidentally, I love this artwork by Bill Mudron and Dylan Meconis. Hence my enlarging the cover to this gigantic 'bear' size.
 

THE FOURTH BEAR was Fforde's second entry in his two book (so far) Nursery Crimes series set in Reading, England in a Berkshire of his own devising. First book: THE BIG OVER EASY had to do with the death of Humpty-Dumpty who turned out not to have been a very nice egg. The likable detective in charge then, Jack Spratt, is back in THE FOURTH BEAR, where once again, due to an unfortunate incident involving a wolf, a girl in a red hooded cape and a bed-ridden grandmother, Spratt is on the outs within his small department. The powers that be are insisting that he undergo psychological evaluation or be trumped out of the NCD (Nursery Crime Division).

From the chapter headings:

First (and only) bear relocation: Mr. and Mrs. Edward Bruin, 1977. With the passing of the 1962 Animal (anthropomorphic) Equality Bill, all talking animals won the right not to be exploited or hunted and instead live in the designated safe haven of Berkshire, England. Bears were fully expected to take up residence in small cottages in the middle of the woods and eat porridge in a state of blissful quasi-human solitude, but they didn't. Most bears instead preferred to remain urbane city dwellers and shunned the notion of foraging in the countryside. Ursine elders deplore the situation but secretly admit that Reading's proliferating coffee shops, theaters and shopping opportunities are not without their attractions.The Bumper Book of Berkshire Records, 2004 edition

While Spratt resists the evaluation,  the seven foot tall Gingerbread man - psychopath, sadist and convicted murderer - escapes from the loony-bin and is roaming the streets of Reading causing havoc. But since Spratt's career is on a downturn, he is not placed in charge of the investigation even though it was thanks to him that the vile ginger cookie was captured the first time around. Rather, Spratt and his associates, fellow detectives Mary Mary and Ashley the luminous (and squishy) blue Alien, get handed the Missing Persons case of golden-haired Goldy Hatchett, star reporter for The Mole newspaper. When 'missing' turns to murder, as it usually does in mystery books, we learn that the last three witnesses to have seen Goldy alive were, you guessed it, three bears.

Here, Jack Spratt interviews Ed Bruin and his wife.

"Have a seat, Inspector. Tea?" 

"Thank you." 

"Honey sandwich? It's all quota - no substance abuse in this house." 

"Thank you, I've already eaten." 

"Do you mind if I have one?"

"Not at all." 

Ed licked his lips and shouted across to his wife. "Two teas, pet - and a honey sandwich for our guest." He winked broadly at Jack and smiled slyly. 

"So when did you last see her?" asked Jack. 

"It must have been Friday morning - " 

"Saturday," said Mrs. Bruin from the other side of the room. Ed looked around. "I think it was Friday, actually, dear." 

"Saturday," she growled."We had to go to the vet about your worms." 

There was a ghastly pause. Ed looked at Jack with an expression of acute embarrassment etched upon his features. He smiled sheepishly....."What were we talking about?" 

"Goldilocks." 

"Oh, yes. It was last Saturday. My good lady wife had made some porridge for breakfast - again, strictly quota - and we all went for a walk in the forest while it cooled." 

"Is that normal procedure?" 

"Yes, indeed; it's completely true what they say about bears and forests. Our morning constitutional, as it were. The forest speaks, you know, Inspector. Every morning it has changed in some small way. By the way the trees sway and the birds sing and the leaves - "

"That's very interesting, Mr. Bruin," interrupted Jack, "but what about the porridge?"

"Oh, well, we came home to find that my son's porridge had been eaten. He was most upset about it."

"Goldilocks?"

Ed held up a claw."Wait a minute. Then we noticed that my son's chair had been sat on and broken."

"This one here?" 

"Yes, I've tried to mend it, but it's never quite the same, is it?" 

"And then?" 

"We went upstairs and found that woman asleep in my son's bed!" The bear stared at Jack as though he should be as outraged as Ed was. 

"Then what did she do?"

"Isn't that enough?" asked Ed angrily. "You would have thought that finally, after two thousand years of being hunted, kept in grotty zoos, made to ride motorcycles and dance to some forgettable tune played by a repulsive and usually toothless Eastern European, we members of the Ursidae family have won the right to be left alone."

"She broke a chair, but surely that's not the end of the world?"

"It's the thin end of the wedge," he replied indignantly. "How would you like it if a bear wandered into your house when you were out, ate your breakfast, destroyed your property and then had the barefaced cheek to fall asleep - naked - in your bed?"

"I see your point..."

Eventually, both investigations will intertwine as we knew they must, bodies start dropping like flies (including a woman who was wallpapered to her wall), giant cucumbers start exploding, and Jack and Mary Mary must save the day though they will, of course, not be thanked for it. Nobody likes to be shown up, less of all, Jack's ego-maniacal and mostly inept superiors.

Call this a wickedly funny police procedural satire or just a very strange book, whatever you will, just don't miss it.

World's oddest theme park: Contenders abound in this field, and several deserve mention. ElephantLand in impoverished East Splotvia is odd in that it has no elephants, nor a clear idea of what one is. GummoWorld in upstate New York is devoted to the Marx brother who had the distinction of never appearing in a movie, and Nevada's ParkThemeLandWorld is a theme park dedicated to other theme parks, but has no attraction of its own. SommeWorld in the UK invites its visitors to taste the marrow-chilling fear of being an infantryman in the Great War, and, by contrast, ZenWorld in Thailand is nothing but a very large empty space in which to relax. Our favorite, however, is La Haye's DescarteLand, which merely furnishes ticket holders with a paper bag to put over their heads and a note reading, "If you think it, it shall be so." The Bumper Book of Berkshire Records, 2004 edition.

Author Patricia Abbott is away at Bouchercon this week and so meme hosting duties will be handled by Todd Mason at his blog,  Sweet Freedom. Don't forget to check in to see what other forgotten or overlooked books other bloggers will be talking about today.

Reading Binges!

There are eating binges, drinking binges, shopping binges and of course, reading binges.

I got the idea for this post from a piece I read (not sure where) on some one's binge reading of Henry James as a school project. Binge reading. Have you ever done it? I'm assuming we all have at some point or other, especially those of us who read constantly.

But just in case by some remote possibility you've never tried it, here's how it works: Pick an author, any author. It could be someone you've just discovered or someone you've been meaning to read. Get your hands on as many books by this author as you can find. Then sit back and begin reading and don't stop until you get to the last book. Simple.

It's kind of pathologically intense, but hey, if you can't be pathological once in a while - what's the point?

As with anything that seems too easy, there are pit falls of course. I'll come to those in a moment.

I am currently 'sort-of' binge reading the books of Mary Roberts Rinehart. Not that easy to do since most of her books are out of print and hard to get. But my library had a few and I brought most of them home with me a few days ago.

I admit it's harder to binge now because I need to keep reading other stuff for the sake of my blog.

A few of the authors I've binged on in the past:

Ngaio Marsh. Last year, some time before I began blogging, I began a Ngaio Marsh binge. For about 6-8 weeks or so, I read nothing but Ngaio Marsh's books until I'd exhausted the available supply. This Golden Age Grande Dame wrote quite a few books, so it was an especially lengthy binge. I had a great time hanging out with Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Roderick Allyn and catching up on a lot of terrific mysteries I'd probably read years ago but had totally forgotten.

I tried to read them in order of publication as best I could, because there are changes that occur in Allyn's life and I wanted to get the full emotional flavor.

I'm convinced that, for me, this was the best way to get reacquainted with an author I'd mostly forgotten about. And I admit, I was totally impressed with her talent and how good a writer she really was. I loved most of the stories and loved living in her characters' world for several weeks. In fact, it was hard at the end, to walk away.

Dick Francis. I didn't discover Dick Francis until a few years ago although I was familiar with his name and the fact he wrote mystery/thrillers. The first Francis I picked up and read was TO THE HILT which features an artist as the main character - an artist who paints golf courses as a metaphor for life. Well, once I saw this, I had to read it. I love an artist protagonist.

I also love horses and the milieu of horse farms, the race track, etc. Though in this book, the horse aspects are in the background as they are in many of Francis' books.

By the time I got to the end of the book, I knew I'd struck gold. In those days my budget allowed for book splurges, so I calmly went to Barnes and Noble and bought every Dick Francis paperback they had in stock and what they didn't have, I ordered. I remember the sales clerk looking oddly at me, but did I care? Nah.

Then, for the next few weeks, I read nothing but Dick Francis. I was a Dick Francis book fiend. to this day I don't regret a moment of it. I loved those books and still do. Loved them so much I have a bunch of them in hardcover on my living room bookshelves. Ready for the moment when I get the urge to read any of them again.

Robert Crais. You've read how much I love R.C.'s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books. Well, it all began years ago when I was NOT a thriller reader at all. For whatever reason, I picked up Crais' book, VOODOO RIVER at the bookstore and then turned around and bought every Crais I could get my hands on. Sound familiar?

There are just enough Elvis and Joe books that you can easily get immersed in their world of violent crime and retribution in Los Angeles. But it's the do-or-die friendship between Elvis and Joe that I will never tire of reading about.

Stuart Kaminsky. I read all the Toby Peters books I could get my hands on and believe me they were not all easy to find. Kaminsky had been writing for years and had tremendous output, especially in this humorous series set in the Los Angeles of the 1940's featuring movie stars and celebrities of the era, i.e. Judy Garland, Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Mae West, Bela Lugosi, Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin, Salvadore Dali, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc, etc, etc.

Toby Peters, hard-luck private eye is one of my favorite of Kaminsky's characters. I love these stories.

Rex Stout. I binge-read all his Nero Wolfe books in one fell swoop every few years. Regular as clock work. I can't get enough of the irascible Wolfe and his steadfast minion, Archie Goodwin. When I read all the books at a time, I feel as if I've moved into the Manhattan brownstone with Wolfe and Archie and am privy to all their cases. These books never grow old for me. I will re-read them forever.

The pitfalls of binge reading: While binge-reading is mostly enjoyable - obviously, or I wouldn't do it - there are certain pitfalls.

1) You get to recognize the author's favorite phrases (and phrasing) and to note the constant use of certain words from book to book. It's the kind of thing that often slips by an author's radar. With a really talented writer though, this is mostly held to a minimum. But in binge reading you can't help but notice when it occurs. With most writers, it's probably unavoidable. Authors have favorite words and expressions. We all do. I don't think writers are any different from us in this regard. But for them it's an occupational hazard.

2) You will find mistakes as you read. Things you might not have noticed if you'd read the books in 'normal' time - say a book once every year or so. This only occasionally occurs in books that are not meant as series, since each story then features different characters and usually different settings. But in a long standing series, there are mistakes made and most of the time, you just have to overlook them, depending on how much you love the author's work. The sort of thing I'm talking about: character names, character idiosyncrasy, events in the character's life, dates of these events, that kind of thing. It is not very common, but it does happen and becomes especially noticeable if you're reading the books in a bunch.

3) You are apt to get too caught up in the world of a particular author's characters. Once you get to the end of the books, especially in a series, you will find it hard (at least, I do) to break free of that author's spell. I often find myself comparing the books I've just finished, to everything else I pick up to read - and not in a good way. It takes me a while to shake loose.

There's no accounting for binge reading, really. It's just something that happens every now and then and you go with it if you can.

So, are you guilty of binge-reading? Come on, 'fess up.

All illustrations by the one and only, the brilliant Quentin Blake, whom many of us know from his work with Roald Dahl's books (among others).