{"id":14,"date":"2007-08-07T15:44:38","date_gmt":"2007-08-07T19:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/07\/the-fourth-bear-by-jasper-fforde\/"},"modified":"2007-08-07T15:44:38","modified_gmt":"2007-08-07T19:44:38","slug":"the-fourth-bear-by-jasper-fforde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=14","title":{"rendered":"The Fourth Bear, by Jasper Fforde"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"fourth_bear.jpg\"\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
The Fourth Bear<\/div>\n
by Jasper Fforde<\/div>\n

Reviewed August 7, 2007.
\nViking, New York, 2006. 378 pages.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jasper Fforde\u2019s books are impossible to satisfactorily classify. Perhaps I should start a new category for his books only. Let\u2019s see\u2014I could call it \u201chumor for clever readers\u201d or \u201cfantasy-sci-fi-mystery-humor-with literary allusions.\u201d I took the easy way out by calling the Thursday Next books \u201cscience fiction,\u201d since they do involve alternate universes, and I called the first of the Nursery Crime series \u201cmystery,\u201d since it is<\/em> a detective story. However, the fact that the detective is a character in a nursery rhyme investigating such people as the Gingerbreadman and Goldilocks and the Quangle-Wangle, does make it an extremely atypical detective story.<\/p>\n

I could call this fantasy, but it\u2019s very different from what people expect from that category. So I\u2019ll stick with \u201cmystery,\u201d which scratches the surface of what this book is about.<\/p>\n

In The Fourth Bear,<\/em> the second book in the Nursery Crime<\/em> series, Jack Spratt investigates the disappearance of Goldilocks. He\u2019s currently in trouble for letting the wolf eat Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. Although they were saved by a woodsman, they\u2019re traumatized and won\u2019t speak.<\/p>\n

Jack\u2019s boss is after him to get a psychiatric evaluation and some time resting. What Jack\u2019s critics don\u2019t realize is that the wolf also ate Jack. He puts his life on the line, but doesn\u2019t think he needs therapy. He\u2019s used to such bizarre circumstances\u2014They\u2019re all in a day\u2019s work. Besides, how can he rest when that homicidal maniac, the Gingerbreadman, has escaped from the asylum?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s great fun in this book, though you do have to tolerate a few groaners, like a waiter who seems familiar in the D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu Hotel. In the Thursday Next books, we saw what it\u2019s like to be in books from the characters\u2019 perspectives, so that prepared me for passages like this one:<\/p>\n

Jack and his partner Mary Mary had just been discussing at great length and alliteration the fact that \u201cPippa Piper picked Peck over Pickle or Pepper.\u201d The text reads:<\/p>\n

There was a pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems a very laborious setup for a pretty lame joke, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d mused Jack.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d agreed Mary, shaking her head sadly. \u201cI really don\u2019t know how he gets away with it.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, Jasper Fforde, the man who successfully used eleven hads<\/em> in a row in The Well of Lost Plots,<\/em><\/a> has gotten away with it again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde Reviewed August 7, 2007. Viking, New York, 2006. 378 pages. Jasper Fforde\u2019s books are impossible to satisfactorily classify. Perhaps I should start a new category for his books only. Let\u2019s see\u2014I could call it \u201chumor for clever readers\u201d or \u201cfantasy-sci-fi-mystery-humor-with literary allusions.\u201d I took the easy way out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-fiction-review","category-humorous","category-mystery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}