...I love big books. Its a problem I have had for years. Robert Jordan´s Wheel of Time series, 10 books at about 400-500 pages a pop? Freakin' Christmas to me! So, needless to say, I am a pleasantly surprised fan of JS & Mr N (anyone else notice how there's no . after Mr the entire novel?- my OCD was not happy).
Anyways, yes I agree the first 100 or so pages could have accomplished the same thing in, eh, three paragraphs. The whole Magician's of York Society and the introducing of Mr Norrell was veeerrryyy drawn out. Which I think was probably just a clever ploy by Susanna Clarke. At first you are so bored that you're automatically enchanted by whatever else she writes next. I did think it is odd that she chose to have Mr Norrell be such unlikeable little man. I am sure she has some reasoning for making him so dull but I couldn't figure it out. I wanted him to be captivating like the fairy. But then again, I also could see how maybe she was trying to introduce a whole new perspective on what magic really entails. We all have to romanticized views of characters like the Raven King and mystical, malevolent woods growing out of nowhere that Mr Norrell's complete scholarly dullness made me open my eyes a little bit.
I'm not going to lie, at first I was a little resentful as I lugged this massive tome with me on the flight home for Spring Break as I thought about how terrible the first 50 pages I read in the airport were and how I had 800 more to go. In the end, this book got me though. I got so wrapped up in the characters (I love you Stephen Black!) that I didn't mind reading so much about them. The footnotes should have been separated into their own novel considering how they were a little excessive.Yet, some of the little side stories I thoroughly enjoyed, especially the one about Laurence Strange's new manservant. Off the wall I know, but it stayed with me the whole book. I like the idea of just rewards. Speaking of which, what was with the prophecies? They did not work out at all like I thought they were going to.
Anyways, I'm pulling a Clarke and writing forever and we've got three weeks to talk about this so I'll contain myself. Bottom line: thumbs up!
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3 comments:
LOL at the "pulling a clarke" comment
I agree. I felt that the entire Magicians of York Society was entirely too long and did very little to further the point of the story. It establishes that Mr. Norrell is a miserly sort of man, but looking back in after finishing the book, I can hardly say that it was even needed. When those same magicians were called to order by Childermass at the end, it was sort of a 'oh, yes, I had forgotten all about them' moment.
I thought that that part was drawn out at the time, but after getting through the entire thing, I feel like I have a complete understanding of everything that went on, whereas in other stories I've felt like I didn't know enough of the background story. I'm sure she gave us too much information, but I think I'd rather have a little bit too much than not enough to understand the story at the end.
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