Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Jun. 13th, 2005 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinI have finally finished the great tome that is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell!
All in all, it was an enjoyable book. The first 430 pages or so are entertaining and kept me reading despite the lack of throughline (unifying plot) ... I'm still not sure why, but I kept reading, so that has to count for something. The world Susanna Clarke has set up is very interesting and just as intricate as you'd expect from a book ten years in the making, but this all gives it an authenticity that lends a believeable historical air. The characters are interesting and well-constructed but at the same time one feels rather distant from them – this could be because lately I've been reading books that really get inside the character's head, so to have a more limited perspective would seem like a drastic change for me. My biggest disappointment was that none of them really had much of an arc. The only one who underwent any sort of change at all was Strange, and that can only be called an 'arc' if you feel comfortable applying the same term to Dr Jekyll when he becomes Mr Hyde.
Disappointments aside, there was plenty to like. Her style of magic – especially fairy magic, with its more psychological than physical effects – was not so much original as refreshing, if that makes any sense. It was traditional, but not in the wands-and-sparks kind of way that Harry Potter is. It uses enough magical traditions to feel familiar but the imagery is more subtle, almost scientific, as befits the age. Also, being a casual student of fairy lore myself, I was pleased again and again to see her get things right. The abductions, the brugh, the preoccupation with dancing, and, above all, the accurate view that fairies are vicious, evil, and slightly mad bastards rather than twinkly creatures of magic and light, were immensely satisfying. As far as I know there is no tradition of the Raven King or anyone like him, but she blended it all in so seamlessly that it didn't feel tacked on at all.
Then there comes the matter of what happens after the first 430 pages. I reached this point at about noon yesterday and immediately got a lot more interested as suddenly the book seemed to decide what it was about and picked up intensity. I took a break to eat dinner and doodle around a bit (the results of which you can see in yesterday's post) but picked it up again around 10:30 and when I next looked up I was staggered to find that it was one in the morning. I don't remember the last time a book did that to me. It was like a magic all in its own. That effect alone is enough to feel warmly towards the book, for all its lack of character development. Anyway, at that point I had about 150 pages left and thought 'what the heck, I'll finish it tonight.' Which I did. And I don't regret it.
Being me, I was always thinking, in the back of my mind, how to adapt it for the screen. It's too complex to get a movie out of without significant loss. In structure it reminds me of nothing so much as Gormenghast ... or at least the miniseries, which is all I know of it. Jonathan Strange &c would make a very good miniseries, as the beginning is episodic and the various episodes all contribute to the final climax. It was rather like a serial anime series that way ... common characters connected by a loose storyline that all comes together in the last five riveting episodes. Because it's been a bestseller, I'm sure someone's looiking at a film adaption already... I hope they do it well.
10:15 pm
I know there must be something seriously wrong with me because just reading the track titles on my(!) Going Postal audio book set is enough to make me extremely giddy. HELP.
On second thought, no ... it's much more fun this way.
All in all, it was an enjoyable book. The first 430 pages or so are entertaining and kept me reading despite the lack of throughline (unifying plot) ... I'm still not sure why, but I kept reading, so that has to count for something. The world Susanna Clarke has set up is very interesting and just as intricate as you'd expect from a book ten years in the making, but this all gives it an authenticity that lends a believeable historical air. The characters are interesting and well-constructed but at the same time one feels rather distant from them – this could be because lately I've been reading books that really get inside the character's head, so to have a more limited perspective would seem like a drastic change for me. My biggest disappointment was that none of them really had much of an arc. The only one who underwent any sort of change at all was Strange, and that can only be called an 'arc' if you feel comfortable applying the same term to Dr Jekyll when he becomes Mr Hyde.
Disappointments aside, there was plenty to like. Her style of magic – especially fairy magic, with its more psychological than physical effects – was not so much original as refreshing, if that makes any sense. It was traditional, but not in the wands-and-sparks kind of way that Harry Potter is. It uses enough magical traditions to feel familiar but the imagery is more subtle, almost scientific, as befits the age. Also, being a casual student of fairy lore myself, I was pleased again and again to see her get things right. The abductions, the brugh, the preoccupation with dancing, and, above all, the accurate view that fairies are vicious, evil, and slightly mad bastards rather than twinkly creatures of magic and light, were immensely satisfying. As far as I know there is no tradition of the Raven King or anyone like him, but she blended it all in so seamlessly that it didn't feel tacked on at all.
Then there comes the matter of what happens after the first 430 pages. I reached this point at about noon yesterday and immediately got a lot more interested as suddenly the book seemed to decide what it was about and picked up intensity. I took a break to eat dinner and doodle around a bit (the results of which you can see in yesterday's post) but picked it up again around 10:30 and when I next looked up I was staggered to find that it was one in the morning. I don't remember the last time a book did that to me. It was like a magic all in its own. That effect alone is enough to feel warmly towards the book, for all its lack of character development. Anyway, at that point I had about 150 pages left and thought 'what the heck, I'll finish it tonight.' Which I did. And I don't regret it.
Being me, I was always thinking, in the back of my mind, how to adapt it for the screen. It's too complex to get a movie out of without significant loss. In structure it reminds me of nothing so much as Gormenghast ... or at least the miniseries, which is all I know of it. Jonathan Strange &c would make a very good miniseries, as the beginning is episodic and the various episodes all contribute to the final climax. It was rather like a serial anime series that way ... common characters connected by a loose storyline that all comes together in the last five riveting episodes. Because it's been a bestseller, I'm sure someone's looiking at a film adaption already... I hope they do it well.
10:15 pm
I know there must be something seriously wrong with me because just reading the track titles on my(!) Going Postal audio book set is enough to make me extremely giddy. HELP.
On second thought, no ... it's much more fun this way.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 03:44 am (UTC)To be honest I hardly noticed the lack of chapters ... I was never very good at noticing chapters in the first place, but yes, the chapters in Going Postal are most humourous. I once stumbled upon a quote on a webpage somewhere (in my quest for an Ankh-Morpork flag) in which Mr. Pratchett purportedly says, about the then upcoming Going Postal, "It will have chapters, but not just any chpaters; they'll be the sort of finely-drafted chapters you just don't get anymore." (I'm sure I am paraphrasing the dickens out of that.)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 01:13 pm (UTC)A Treatise Upon the Honorable and Most Noble Art of Spoofing: Or, a Great Work By a Person Who Cannot Remember an Incredibly Long Title at the Moment.
Somehow, very long titles and chapter headings are so delightful!