Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey
Rule 9.3.88.32.025: “The cucumber and the tomato are both fruit; the avocado is a nut. To assist with the dietary requirements of vegetarians, on the first Tuesday of the month a chicken is officially a vegetable.”
Marriages are arranged to go up the social ladder for prestige, go down the social ladder for money or to strengthen a particular hue in a family line. But when Eddie Russett, a strong Red, finds Jane, a Grey who doesn’t follow the rules, he starts seeing the cracks in society and must decide whether he wants to conform to or question the rules.
Rule 1.1.2.02.03.15: “Marriage is an honorable estate and should not be used simply as an excuse for legal intercourse.”
The book starts with Eddie head first in a carnivorous tree, helped in there by Jane, and remarking what a strange four days it had been. The book the goes back four days and starts the adventure. Eddie and his dad are traveling to East Carmine. His dad is a swatchman (a healer who uses color swatches to help people) traveling to help out at East Carmine who’s swatchman died from a fatal self-diagnosis. Eddie, who’s half promised to Constance Oxblood, is going with him on an Pointless Task from the Head Office to do an official chair census as a punishment for an incident with the prefect’s son. Eddie is a questioning youngster who’s almost ready for his Ishihara (the test that officially determines how much of the color spectrum you can see). If Eddie gets over 50% Red, then he can be a prefect and will be the favorite to marry Constance over Roger Maroon.
Rule 9.7.12.06.098 “Anyone above 50 percent receptive is given the designation “Chromogentsia” and is eligible for such privileges as listed in Appendix D.”
Chromatica is dominated by Munsell’s rules for society, a set of rules that dictate everything from the hierarchy of colors to the products allowed to be created (spoons are not allowed, but everyone’s convinced it must haven been a mistake). The rules came about at a point after Something Happened (but no one knows what it is) and are used to control society. But East Carmine is on the Outer Fringes and the rules aren’t necessarily followed as closely as they are back in Jade-under-Lime. Eddie slowly finds out that his trek to East Carmine might not be as temporary as he thought and that the reasons for him ending up there might be more complicated than was told to him.
The Munsell Book of Wisdom: “Imaginative thought is to be discouraged. No good ever comes of it–don’t”
Jane is a lowly Grey who has the cutest nose (and will physically harm you if you mention it) who seems to know more than she’s letting on. As Eddie finds his way around East Carmine, he continues his general questioning and soon realizes that either his future is doomed or dependent on Jane (which might be even worse). His natural questioning (helped by some Loganberry) point out to Eddie a society that isn’t as stable and bound to the rules as he thought.
Rule 1.1.01.01.002: “The word of Munsell shall be adhered to at all times”
Shades of Grey is Jasper Ffordes first novel that is not in either the Thursday Next or Nursery Crime series and shows his remarkable versatility. While his other series are satirical looks at literature and fairy tales, this book is a different sort of world building based off an interesting premise. The color based society of Chromatica is well thought out and wonderfully presented. The book is a great look at a society that might be too paralyzed by rules, but doesn’t know any other way of living. The ending leads to the possibility of future books and I’ll be first in line to read them.