Did you ever find yourself taking forever to finish a book? Not because you disliked it, and not even for any reason you could really pin down? That’s been my experience with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
And it’s a really wonderful book, don’t get me wrong. It rests in some weird territory between Jane Austen and Neil Gaiman, which is an interesting place to find yourself. At times, it’s ramblingly anecdotal. At others, the plot moves forward with lethal purpose. It can go from archly satirical to tragically romantic without pausing for breath. (Okay, it’s almost 800 pages long, so there’s room for shifts in tone and pacing, I guess.)
It’s also a triumph of style, as Clarke assumes the pose of a period novelist/historian, complete with archaic usage and footnotes (similar in flavor and function to those found in the Discworld books, but with more of a straight face). She’s gone to great pains to place it in the early 1800s, and the period detail alone is fascinating, focusing on the shifting nature of what is and isn’t fashionable, and having her characters memorably cross paths with Wellington, Byron, and others.
I suppose I should throw in a plot summary: it’s the story of two magicians of entirely different dispositions and motivations trying to revive English Magic after a long, fallow period. Along the way, they encounter war, politics, social treachery, faerie machinations, and their own shortcomings, which have painful consequences for both. Great, dense stuff.
It’s also interesting to view through the prism of current events, as two factions, with seemingly antithetical world views, thump up against each other in every way on every subject. Watching those world views evolve and seeing the various forces that drive them gives the book some real resonance.