Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a behemoth, people. Clocking in at over 1,000 pages, a thickness well over shoulder-bag-acceptable measurements, and a weight I estimate to be roughly equal to that of my 20-month-old daughter (who is admittedly only in the 25th percentile of her age group for weight), you have got to really be into this one to lug it around and haul it out on a commuter train. After more than a month of reading I had succumbed to some kind of literary Stockholm Syndrome and couldn't ever remember reading a normal-sized novel.

The point is, for all the hassle it entails, an epic like this better deliver the goods. Fortunately, it's a pleasure to read, through and through. Only perhaps twice did I feel impatient and wish that the damn thing would just get on with it already. (And I am an admittedly antsy reader, with a wandering eye, easily drawn over to a shelf of unread books.)

Set in a slightly askew version of England towards the start of the 19th century, the novel details the efforts of two very different magicians working to bring magic back into practice. As you might be able to imagine (or might not, I don't know!), the action takes place over the span of more than a decade and aside from the titular magicians, features a sturdy cast of well-drawn supporting characters. Realistically, one needs a vast swath of time and a dense cast of characters to keep any engine purring over the course of 1000+pgs.

I am also not enough of a book-nerd or a fantasy-fetishist that I want to study the scale of maps of fictional lands, nor am I compelled to have to memorize a set of impenetrable genealogical charts, nor am I filled with a pressing need to learn elvish. Yet, credit where it's due, Susanna Clarke succeeds in crafting so richly detailed a World that halfway through this book I googled "John Uskglass" to determine if he was a real historical figure, or at least a real character in folk-legend. (Pure invention, for the record.) But that kind of total immersion in a fictional world is rare for me, and supremely satisfying.

The reality with which Clarke grounds her fantasy makes the difference; you feel as if this is almost a comedy-of-manners or an adventure novel, and the existence of magic is basically commonplace. It's ALMOST not so much a fantasy novel as it is an adventure-romance set in a world almost exactly like our own, just with that one tiny difference. Think: Bronte meets Austen, twisted through the lookingglass just slightly.

It takes a pretty masterful work to engage my fractured attention span over such a prohibitive length. Clarke fills Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell with enough incident, mystery, tension, character, and humor that this is one of those rare epics that's actually FUN to read from beginning to end. (Plus, now I can cap my next three books at 300pgs, rip through them at light-speed, and not have a twinge of guilt about it!)

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