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litlover12I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell! Below is my review (cross-posted from Goodreads):
This book is a brilliant achievement. Clarke has been compared to both Austen and Dickens; personally, I would say she's closer to Austen, with her wit and irony and her whole style in general. Plot, structure, setting, tone, foreshadowing, are all incredibly good, and there are a couple of real jump-out-of-your-chair moments!
The one weak spot is characterization. Clarke couldn't quite make most of her characters come alive, in my opinion. The only characters I really cared about from start to finish were the fairy's victims. Mr. Norrell was pretty hard to take, and I didn't feel anything at all, good or bad, for Jonathan Strange until about 700 pages in! I wasn't a big fan of the pacing either, although I can't really call it bad -- the author was creating a very complex world and needed things to play out gradually. Still, sometimes it felt draggy, and I kept wondering when someone was FINALLY going to get a clue and do something about that wretched fairy.
But anyway, I've been meaning to read this book for years, and I'm glad I finally did. Weaknesses aside, it was a worthwhile experience.
This book is a brilliant achievement. Clarke has been compared to both Austen and Dickens; personally, I would say she's closer to Austen, with her wit and irony and her whole style in general. Plot, structure, setting, tone, foreshadowing, are all incredibly good, and there are a couple of real jump-out-of-your-chair moments!
The one weak spot is characterization. Clarke couldn't quite make most of her characters come alive, in my opinion. The only characters I really cared about from start to finish were the fairy's victims. Mr. Norrell was pretty hard to take, and I didn't feel anything at all, good or bad, for Jonathan Strange until about 700 pages in! I wasn't a big fan of the pacing either, although I can't really call it bad -- the author was creating a very complex world and needed things to play out gradually. Still, sometimes it felt draggy, and I kept wondering when someone was FINALLY going to get a clue and do something about that wretched fairy.
But anyway, I've been meaning to read this book for years, and I'm glad I finally did. Weaknesses aside, it was a worthwhile experience.
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Date: 2013-12-24 02:09 pm (UTC)Not sure if I could get through it if there's not a character that I was really drawn to. I've learned that about myself the last few years. Unless the plot, or in rare cases, the language (see Tolkien) is extraordinarily compelling, I find it difficult plod onward with a character who is either not well realized or who is particularly evil/distasteful in some way.
Anyway, go, you!
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Date: 2013-12-24 03:59 pm (UTC)Yes, appealing characters are pretty important to me too. Once in a while there's a book that's so well-done and so compelling that it draws me in despite a lack of strong characterization (e.g., "The Night Circus"). But usually, I need good characterization!
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Date: 2013-12-26 04:21 am (UTC)Still haven't finished JS&MN, though - congrats! I made it about 350 pages in, a few years ago, and just got bogged down in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars. Now it's been long enough that I don't really remember exactly where I left off or what happened, but I don't want to start over...
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Date: 2013-12-24 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-25 02:20 am (UTC)