behindtheax

books

I thought I would attempt to write a book review. I looked through the recent books I read and decided on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. At first I thought I would visit Amazon or Indigo and read the reviews they had up just so I wouldn’t get too far off the beaten track with mine. See at first what others thought but then I figured that was cheating and anyway the hect with the beaten track, give me my hatchet, I’m going through the overgrowth. Don’t mind me, I don’t think I’m well.

I did hear though that this was one of those books that was often selected for a book club read and I would agree that it would make a good book club book. It does have the ability to churn up a lot of conversation. It is definitely a book you want to talk about.

I enjoyed it immediately, from that very first chapter. I thought her writing was so fresh, imaginative, humorous and detailed. I love fantasy and Susanna Clarke does it very well in a quirky, intelligent way. However, it is a thousand pages long and I did find once the story was underway and the main characters were introduced, that the book slowed right down and I spent a fair amount of time during the middle of the book, hoping something substantial would happen. There were several nights that I could only read four or five pages before my eyelids started drifting shut and I began to wonder if I had the stamina to get through this book. This being said I am so glad I pushed forward because the last four hundred pages came to life again and I ended up truly enjoying it. When I was in the middle of the book I would have said this book could lose three hundred pages easily without affecting the story but after I finished it, I wasn’t convinced of that anymore. It was the world she wanted to build and she put a lot of detail and history into it, and in the end it made the story richer.

This is the second novel I read this year with footnotes – the other being “The Amulet of Samarkand,” by Jonathan Stroud (Monica and I are reading that series) - and if this becomes a trend than I will need to find away to read footnotes without it slowing down the momentum of a story for me. I am drawn to read each footnote I come across and at times I was jumping back and forth, reading several different things on the same page. I don’t enjoy that. Although, Susanna Clarke’s footnotes about certain books of magic and fairy stories were great reads all on their own. Little miniature short stories here and there but still so many footnotes was very distracting for me.

Anyway, I recommend “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell”, especially if you love fantasy. Actually, I recommend it even if you don’t.

posted by mary j. @ 10:17 AM