Life in the Outer Fringes
BY R.W. O'ROURKE I April 8, 2010
Jasper Fforde. Shades of Grey. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. 388 pages.
ISBN: 978-0670019632
Eddie Russett needs a lesson in humility for making his friend do the elephant trick and is sent to the Outer Fringes with his father to conduct a chair census. This sentence will have no meaning to you whatsoever unless you have read Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.
Fforde doesn't write novels, he creates worlds. Alternate universes that seem to appear wherever language sparks recognition by, or the imagination of, his audience.
Beginning with the apparent untimely demise of the narrator, it is difficult for anyone, with the obvious exception of Mr. Fforde, to imagine how the story could continue for 388 pages. He fills it with last rabbits, the Apocryphal Man and intrigue that would make Hitchcock scratch his head. Yet, for a fictional setting, Fforde draws remarkable similarities to any world in which you might be reading this review. Politics and prejudices, deceit, honor, affection; all are represented with typical humor and candor.
With an entire social and medical system based on color vision it isn't Eddie's mundane punishment, or his infatuation with Jane (a lowly Grey) that has him seeing red. And his red perception might be radically high, spelling success and turmoil simultaneously. While waiting to be tested, and to take his place in society, he makes friends, and enemies, from one end of the spectrum to the other.
From schoolyard tricks to an epic journey of discovery, Fforde doesn't disappoint. Anyone who has ever been humbled will identify with more than one character in this first volume of a new series. Or, anyone who has known someone that is limited in his or her perceptions; or, anyone who has witnessed sacrifice.
I am reluctant to reread Shades of Grey for fear the pages will invert, the cover fly around the room and the ending will rearrange itself entirely.
I do believe Mr. Fforde has that kind of magic.
Comments
