Book 48: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I have not seen much about this book, but what I have seen has all been positive.  It is, apparently, a book about wizards and witches in an alternate England with supernatural overtones.  It has something in common with Harry Potter in that respect, but it is supposed to be a more mature, more peculiar take on the idea with more alternate history than fantasy.  Also in common with Harry Potter, this book is massive at 782 pages.

I'm looking forward to reading a book with no preconceptions.  It can sometimes backfire if the book ends up being terrible, but I'm hoping for the best.

782 pages means 112 pages per day.


REVIEW:

On paper, this book sounds like a Harry Potter-type book.  An award-winning, 800-page book about an alternate, magical England.  It's even written by a woman.  However, it becomes very quickly evident that this is NOT Harry Potter.  The book is set in the early 1800s and more accurately, is written as a book of that time.  As such, it comes off as more of an alternate history book than a magical fantasy book.  The writing is very good and you never get the impression that it's a modern author trying to write in an older style.  I've read a number of books from the period and other books attempting to fit themselves into the period and this book feels a lot like those.  Magic is treated, almost, as a natural science and the practitioners of  magic behave accordingly.  The story started out slow but eventually picked up and led down more interesting paths.  One of the most interesting aspects of the book were the footnotes.  Extended footnotes are almost a hallmark of Regency / Victorian writing, especially scientific writing, and the footnotes in this novel are some of the most interesting ideas in the book.

Unfortunately, for me, very little can save a book set in this time period.  The reserved manners, somewhat pompous speech affectations and utter civilization of the characters does not lend itself well to action.  Neal Stephenson tried really hard to stay faithful to the Regency Era in his Baroque Cycle, a novel focusing on the early history of Science.  But even his books, though well-written and full of interesting information, fell flat.  I just found it boring and this book was having the same problem.  Someone like Jane Austen is able to overcome these limitations by showing the passions behind the characters' manners and Charles Dickens is able to (sometimes) overcome them with the emotional situations of his underprivileged protagonists but it's a very tricky feat.

The book was an interesting read but was a challenge to finish.  While I respect Susanna Clarke's ability as a writer and her subject matter is deep and interesting, the period of time just doesn't lend itself well to anything exciting, which is what this book lacked most.

6 out of 10.