THE COSMOLOGY OF JEFFREY FORD

I saw a t-shirt in a magazine this week that reads "Joss Whedon is my Master Now." Funny, and something I would wear. After reading Jeffrey Ford's The Girl in the Glass a few months agao and The Cosmology of the Wider World this week, though, an even more apropos shirt would say "Jeffrey Ford is my Writing God."

The Girl in the Glass is his new novel, a paperback original (his previous novel, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, first arrived in HC but a paperback version is available and highly recommended by me). I was amazed to discover my local Barnes & Noble already had mulitple copies coming for the shelves when I went to order a copy for myself. Sadly, those other three copies sat on the new release table until just a few weeks ago.

The novel is set during the Great Depression and centers on a small group of con men who take money from the rich by running fake seances. In the course of one of those seances, the leader thinks his sees an actual spirit, the titular girl in a glass. From there, they have to decide what they've really seen and also uncover a nefarious plot involving secret experiments and more. That's a real bare bones assessment of that plot. Of course, with Ford that plot is only one part. He is wonderful with characters and ideas and writes beautifully.

Those aspects are at the forefront of The Cosmology of the Wider World, a novella available from PS Publishing (which means you can only find it on the net). It is the story of the minotaur Belius, a citizen of the Wider World. He is very depressed as the story opens and it is the maze of his mind that is the focus of the book. We get glimpses into his past in the "real world" and also meet his friends in the Wider World. There is Pezimote, a philandering tortoise, and Thip, a flea who sails the blood of Belius to help Shebeb the doctor ape. Other friends decide Belius is lonely and set about creating a female minotaur for him. Mixed throughout is the Cosmology itself, the writings of Belius and the philosophies behind his life. It all works together very well, tied together by Ford's prose.

Both are well worth your time and money and come highly recommended. Jeffrey Ford has done great work for four books in a row and I'm sure his upcoming collection, The Empire of Ice Cream, will be no exception. All I need know is for his first three novel to come back into print (the trilogy of the Well-Built City) and my joy will be complete.