Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

I would not have expected a dystopia novel from Jasper Fforde. His previous books have all been mostly-fantastical off-kilter police dramas with literary undertones and overtones, set in present-day worlds that are just like ours, except very decidedly not. He does this really well, and I think his books are some of the most fun and clever books I have ever read.

But after reading Shades of Grey, I think Jasper Fforde was exactly the author to do something fresh and different and interesting with what I think can be a tired genre. The distant future of Fforde's novel is as delightfully off-kilter as the present worlds of the Thursday Next or Nursery Crimes novels, but everything feels weightier. In this novel, the fate of the world is at stake, not just the fate of the next-door neighbors. Except the world also includes the next-door neighbors, and we care about them, too.

Like most dystopia novels, however, the main character (in this case 20-year-old Eddie Russett) does not think much about the fate of the world in the beginning. He is more concerned with getting through the Chair Census he has been assigned to conduct in East Carmine, a town on the outskirts of society, as retribution for pulling the "elephant prank" on a friend back home. Once finished, he can return to his life in Jade-Under-Lime and marry into the prestigious Oxblood family. There's nothing overtly sinister at the outset, other than an awful lot of rules (ranging from dress codes to a strange ban on spoon manufacture) and a dismaying shortage of loganberry jam.

The society Eddie is a part of is a "colortocracy," in which one's social standing is based entirely upon one's perception of color. No one in this society can see the full color spectrum. Eddie has a very strong perception of red, and if he can marry into a purple line that has begun fading to the blue end of the spectrum he can bump himself up in the world. But when he meets Jane, a Grey with limited color perception, but with a proclivity to question what others take for granted, his perceptions and priorities begin to change and pave the way for...well, I don't know what. Apparently there are two more novels to come.

Shades of Grey is very clearly setting up a story rather than finishing one, but I didn't feel at all dissatisfied at the end. Like all of Fforde's books, most of the payoff comes from the journey itself, from exploring the world he has created. Fforde likes to tell his stories quite matter-of-factly, as though you actually understand his premise to begin with. It can leave you feeling bewildered, but it also draws you in. You want to understand what's going, and Fforde never really tells you. You just spend so much time in his world that you eventually come to feel like you're a part of it.

I'm anxious for the next installment. I think Fforde stretched himself by going outside his normal genre, and in my opinion the result is one of his strongest efforts yet. If you have read Jasper Fforde or if you have not, I highly recommend giving this one a try. It's funny, immensely clever, and compelling all at once.