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Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

I'm in love. I certainly understand the frustration many readers seem to have with the initial slowness of the pacing but once you get dipped in her beautiful prose the pacing is just perfect. It's like a train ride through the country the train may be the slow way to get there but the scenery is gorgeous. At page 200 or so (where I am) the characters are beginning to all come together and tension is building. Clarke's humor becomes a lot sharper too as the story progresses. I'm finding the developing plot intriguing and I'm turning the pages quite a bit faster. This book definitely is not for everyone and I've never read anything like it, in style and pacing, before. It's a little Dickensian (if that's a word).

I'll be watching this thread for any other tenacious reviewers and I'll post a complete one when I finish. I have the next 3 days off so it might not be too long.
 
Dull. I hated all the characters and the story dragged itself along like a legless zombie. I got to halfway through and abandoned it. It's on a shelf at work in case I get so painfully bored that reading it will be an improvement, but it's been there for months now and as yet things have not got that dire. In all honesty I think I'm more likely to burn it for entertainment rather than read it. I could get quite a nice little blaze going if I soaked it in methanol first.
 
I really enjoyed JS&MN, I thought it had a real atmosphere and, although it may be a little slow in parts, was a book you could really immerse yourself in. If you stick with it, the ending is a treat.
 
Life's too short to struggle through a book that long on the offchance I might enjoy the ending when I didn't enjoy the whole of the first half and don't care what happens to any of the characters. It would have to turn into a zombie book to make it worth my continuing with.

I'll wait till it's reviewed on book-a-minute.
 
Bovine_Belle said:
I really enjoyed JS&MN, I thought it had a real atmosphere and, although it may be a little slow in parts, was a book you could really immerse yourself in. If you stick with it, the ending is a treat.
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Yes I've heard other reviewers say the same. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks!
 
I bought this book the day it came out in hardback, so must be a couple of years back now. I can remember reading the first hundred or so pages and was enjoying it to a degree. But I gave up on not long after the action had moved to London. I can remember a scene near the opening within a church where a character causes some magick to happen; other than that, very little.

I suppose I will read it one day as one of my little ambitions is to read all the books I actually own, which I know is never going to happen.
 
I think it's worth the struggle. I'm not sure I could read it again, but in places the prose is truly beautiful and the humour is wonderful.
 
Well I've finished up. I'll admit that this book requires some commitment to complete, but in finishing JSMN I feel as if I've read a classic. It really is a beautiful book. I loved the typically english setting, dark, spooky castles, rolling countryside, mischevious faeries, all of it. The characters were complicated and colored in inumerable shades of grey. You really have to re-examine every character in the final section of this fabulous book. The ending is not tidy, something else I also appreciated.
None were good, none were bad. All were vulnerably human, even those that weren't! All in all a great book. Read it! Read it!
 
I saw this book lying forlornly in a wicker basket at my local charity shop. As fantasy isn't gnerally my thing I decided to search the forums here to see whether or not it was recommended. Needless to say after perusing this thread Ｉ　ｗｅｎｔ　ｂａｃｋ　ａｎｄ　ｂｏｕｇｈｔ　ｉｔ．　Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｕｐ　ｕｎｔｉｌ　ｎｅａｒｌｙ　３ａｍ　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　ｈａｄ　ｔｏ　ｆｏｒｃｅ　ｍｙｓｅｌｆ　ｔｏ　ｃｌｏｓｅ　ｉｔ．
 
Dogmatix said:
I loved the typically english setting, dark, spooky castles, rolling countryside, mischevious faeries, all of it.
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Is "mischievous" really the word for those fairies? I found that main fairy guy rather more sadistic than mischievous. A real big pill.
 
Inkheart said:
I saw this book lying forlornly in a wicker basket at my local charity shop. As fantasy isn't gnerally my thing I decided to search the forums here to see whether or not it was recommended. Needless to say after perusing this thread Ｉ　ｗｅｎｔ　ｂａｃｋ　ａｎｄ　ｂｏｕｇｈｔ　ｉｔ．　Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｕｐ　ｕｎｔｉｌ　ｎｅａｒｌｙ　３ａｍ　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　ｈａｄ　ｔｏ　ｆｏｒｃｅ　ｍｙｓｅｌｆ　ｔｏ　ｃｌｏｓｅ　ｉｔ．
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Ah, I love the feeling. :) Congrats on finding something you really love! :)

ds
 
This is strange.. We in SA only got to know about this book late last year. I wonder why?

I bought it in December and got to roughly page 100 and just couldn't got into it. I gave up and will give it another go after I finish Half of a Yellow Sun.
 
Well, its certainly a slog, but well worth sticking with in my opinion. The writing style is something that takes a little while to get to grips with, especially in the first few hundred pages or so when the story drags, but it has some brilliant moments.

Definately not a casual read, but stick with it and it has the power to delight right up to the end. Her new book of shorter stories might prove a better place to gauge whether you like the style of writing or not.

Phil
 
Have had it lying around for quite a while, and after having finished reading Love and Louis XIV ~ Antonia Fraser, this a.m., started to read JS&MN this p.m. I am really enjoying it and am off to bed to read for a couple of hours.
 
My favorite thing about this book is that the pages are all uneven...

I generally liked this book, but I don't see myself reading it more than once. Its beautifully written and the characters are really well done, but I had to push myself to finish it. I didn't feel like there was a main climax or a point to it - things just kept happening. But its worth reading at least once.

Stick with it readreadread.
 
I've reached about 400 pages now and I've lost the will to read it. I did enjoy it immensely but the plot doesn't seem to be going anywhere and I'm getting impatient. I haven't picked it up in a couple of weeks now.

:eek:
 
BooknaMug said:
My favorite thing about this book is that the pages are all uneven...

I generally liked this book, but I don't see myself reading it more than once. Its beautifully written and the characters are really well done, but I had to push myself to finish it. I didn't feel like there was a main climax or a point to it - things just kept happening. But its worth reading at least once.

Stick with it readreadread.
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Well BooknaMug, decided to take your advice and have finally finished it. It won't be going onto my 'to be read again' shelf, but I'm glad that I did stick with it. I enjoyed it more the further I got into it, and I enjoyed the style in which it was written.
 
I read a while ago - back in late 2004, I think, or early 2005. It did take a while to get into the world of "Regency England with magic," but I loved it when I did. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is my favorite book, period.

I generally liked this book, but I don't see myself reading it more than once. Its beautifully written and the characters are really well done, but I had to push myself to finish it. I didn't feel like there was a main climax or a point to it - things just kept happening. But its worth reading at least once.
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I'm planning to re-read it sometime this year and am very much looking forward to it. (I'd have re-read it already, but all these library books keep coming in that need to be finished before their due dates.)
 
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