United States Reviews - Times Picayune TN2

For the true bibliophile, nothing satisfies like reading a book by a kindred spirit, sharing a world with someone for whom books and reading are serious commitments, ways of life. In these books about books, two offer timely glimpses of nations during and after war -- "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books," by Azar Nafisi and "The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo," by Paula Huntley. Two offer pure escape. "Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books," by Paul Collins, is a memoir of moving to the legendary Welsh book town of Hay-on-Wye, and "Lost in a Book," by Jasper Fforde, is the latest in a series of comic and clever novels featuring literary detective Thursday Next.

If Paul Collins is lucky enough to live within the pages of a book, literary detective Thursday Next, heroine of "The Eyre Affair," is lucky enough to be able to slip in and out of their very pages and story lines. In the fantasy/mystery 'Lost in a Good Book,' by Jasper Fforde (Viking, $24.95), Thursday returns after the phenomenal success of the Jane Eyre outing, in which instead of letting Jane sail off to India at the end, she did a little plot readjustment and arranged for the reunion of Jane and her beloved Edward Rochester for that old happily ever after. She even defeated the evil Jack Schitt, her nemesis from the evil Goliath Corporation, and imprisoned him in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven." Talk about dank and dreary.

Now Thursday is seeking a little happiness for herself with her new husband Landen Park-Laine, her dodo Pickwick, her large and eccentric family, and the prospect of a new baby. But strange things keep happening. Before long the Goliath Corporation is after her again. Brik Schitt-Hawse wants his brother freed and he's prepared to go to great lengths to make Thursday do his bidding, including eradicating Landen Park-Lane.

Thursday will do anything to get Landen back, and before long she's entered the world of Jurisfiction, where Miss Havisham of "Great Expectations" serves as her mentor. "Jurisfiction is the service we run inside novels to maintain the integrity of popular fiction. The printed word might look solid to you, but where I come from, 'movable type' has a much deeper meaning," her lawyer tells her, before Thursday enters Kafka's "The Trial."

One particularly brilliiant scene has Miss Havisham and the Red Queen from "Alice in Wonderland" duking it out at the Swindon Booktastic sale. These people take their books seriously. And the Cheshire Cat is never far from the action. In another hilarious moment, a small boy with golden locks approaches Thursday with repeated requests to "Please, draw me a sheep." (He is, of course, the title character from "The Little Prince.") Miss Havisham advises Thursday to give in, saying "Once he starts on you he'll never let go."Suffice it to say that Thursday has some close calls, particularly when Goliath traps her in a small room in "The Raven" with nothing to read her way out with. And by the end of the book, Thursday has taken up residence in a new book. She will emerge in spring of 2004 in Fforde's "The Well of Lost Plots."

If you haven't read "The Eyre Affair," "Lost in a Good Book" may make you feel like you're late at a party. So why not start with the earlier book, which has just been released in paperback? You'll learn all about the Prose Portal, about how to step inside the pages of a book, and then you can advance, along with Thursday, to the moment when she reads loudly to herself, "willing the words to live. And they did."

Fforde's wicked humor and wide-ranging intelligence make every page a joy. What about a newly discovered Shakespeare play? Why doesn't the number of Canterbury Tales match the number of Pilgrims? But the reader will more likely wonder, which way to enlist among the ranks of Jurisfiction? Try the Web site, www.ThursdayNext.com.

Susan Larson