I read this book two months ago, and I'll be damned if I can remember any details. There's a very funny bit at the beginning where a hilariously stereotyped Western sheriff has to identify a minotaur; and there's the greatest press release of all time:

'Quite simply, we deny everything,' said Mr Toedee, the Goliath head PR operative, 'including any story that you might have heard now or in the future.'

(It was funnier in context.) But other than that: nope, a total blank.

It doesn't matter. All that I need to remember, and all that's relevant for the purposes of this silly exercise, is that Something Rotten is a return to fine form for Fforde and Thursday Next, after the disappointing third book in this series, The Well of Lost Plots. It combines all of my favorite Thursday Next elements: physical slapstick, bad puns, ludicrous situational comedy, and--most importantly--time travel. Yes, as with the second volume and my former favorite, Lost in a Good Book, Something Rotten relies heavily on time travel, for something or other, I can't quite recall. I also can't quite recall why I thought the time travel element was used so well: but then, I do remember the fact that it was. So there.

The ending of the book, if I'm remembering right, is a little melodramatic. I guess that's Fforde's weakness; not one of his four books thus far has yet avoided his penchant for the maudlin, though the proportion has improved. Still, this book made me laugh out loud, and not many books have done that before. I don't remember very much about it, but what I do remember, I remember with great fondness.

Copyright © 2005 Steven Wu