Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Have you ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell? What is that book about?? What is the point? I read umpteen pages just to get to the end and NOTHING HAPPENS! I thought I was just being picky. Or maybe I didn't get it. So I checked reviews on Goodreads and found I was not alone. There are mixed reviews on Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Some absolutely love it, the magic, the detail, the characters, the world that Clarke created. Others had the same reaction I did. WHAT IS THE POINT?

Nothing really happens in the book. There is no resolution at the end. We are still waiting to see if Strange and Norrell come out of the black cloud (in which they seem none too eager to leave). I don't know if the point is to relate to that type of person or creative who gets so involved in their work they fail to notice whether it's night or day. I enjoy that type of person. I fantasize about being that type of person. I might even dare to say that I've achieved it once or twice, getting so involved in my work that the world around me disappeared, that is. But, come on!, I don't want to read over 700 pages about that.

The book is full of ramblings and rabbit trails and detours and explanations and footnotes (of which seem to be copied out of the author's notes on writing the novel), a bunch of things that we don't want to read and have no interest in. Others of them are interesting but are so long that they seem like a painful delay in the telling of the real story. The only problem is...THERE IS NO REAL STORY!

Just so I don't make this post one long, mean rant about a book that took ten-ish years to write, I will say that I loved Jonathan Strange's character. If he were given something to do that actually had an impact on the ending of the book, I would have liked the story a lot more. As much as I felt the book was a waste of time, my disappointment with it did not affect how I felt about Strange. His character was genuine, had his own kind of quirkiness (instead of mirroring the quirkiness of every other character in the book), and I loved reading about him. It was just everyone else in there that made me mad.

I also can't end this post without mentioning that some of the descriptions in this book are a writing dream. Clarke describes a cold, wintry day in a way that you can feel the sting of snow on your cheeks, see the whirling, blustering clouds in the cold, gray sky and want to rush inside to the warmth of a hot cup of tea and toast while sitting beside a roaring fire on the stone hearth of some dark, English manor. The writing was what pulled me into the book. Strange is what kept me reading to the end, not out of interest, but out of loyalty to his character. And that I had made it this far and I would be damned if I couldn't mark this monstrous tome down on my Done list after all the time I had already invested in it.

So that is my love/hate story about Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Have you read it? What did you think? Are you one of the magic lovers who fell all over the book? Or do you share my sympathies of a long, rambling plot that goes nowhere?

If, after all this, you'd still like to check out the book or purchase it, you can do so here.

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Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you again soon for more reviews and recommendations, and maybe a rant or two. Bye!

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