“….782 pages, and I enjoyed every page, and when the book was done I could happily have read 782 more.” Neil Gaiman, writing about Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a beautifully lucid magical fantasy about the tales and travails of two English gentlemen, categorised as the only two magicians in England, and the sprawling journey that starts with respect, torrents through jealousy, and settles on friendship. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and one I keep going back to now and then, as it has become a comfort read for me, to feel angry at the incompetent yet arrogant duo of Lascelles and Drawlight, to feel frustrated at the actions of Mr Norrell and on occasions Jonathan Strange, and to submerge myself completely into the world of an alternate England where magic has returned.
The book is clunky, though. It is 782 pages, and it often meanders and fluctuates, and some storylines are more interesting than the others. Clarke takes her time to build the world, and one has to mention the footnotes (!). The footnotes, for me, are one of the best parts of this book; it builds on the lore and the myth that Clarke alludes to but does not elaborate in the story itself. The usage of footnotes in this book was a revelation for me, as I had not previously thought that they could be utilised in such a way.
Magic in literature has been extensively covered, but Clarke adds a new dimension to it by making it breathe. By this, I mean the amount of fictional books and writers mentioned in this novel make it seem real and academic; often it feels like we are in the process of researching about magic and to my mind that exacerbates the realness of the world Clarke has created.
For me, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is near perfect. It is funny and brooding at the same time, and I barely felt the weight of the book I was holding as I was reading it; it made for a quick read. I read Clarke’s other book, Piranesi, and felt let down. Not because it is not good, but because in my mind I was comparing it to one of the finest books I have ever read. Piranesi is good but it veers off into a direction that I did not imagine it would and as such, one which I cannot say I particularly enjoyed. But more importantly, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell feels like a jigsaw puzzle that fits together perfectly by the time it finishes, and for a 782-page book, that, in my eyes, is an astonishing achievement.
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