Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
(Audio)

Years and years ago, a coworker recommended this book to me, so it has been on my radar for a while. I finally ended up puttig it on hold at the library to make myself read it. When I was about halfway through this book, I asked a friend who'd read it is there was a plot. She said there was, it just took a while to get to it. I wasn't quite expecting the format of this book. And I was expecting to like it a little more than I did. Which is not to say I didn't like it. In fact, I really enjoyed it. I just expected to absolutely love it and fall for it from the start.

This book seemed to be a chronicle of the history of magic at the turn of the nineteenth century. It begins with a meetup group of sorts of men who called themselves magicians, but only understood the theory of magic. Then along comes Mr. Norrell, the first practicing magician England (and, indeed, the world) has seen for a long time. He blows them all out of the water with his powers. He also takes steps to intimidate everyone who shows a glimmer of interest in practicing magic, so that he can be the only magician. This sort of backfires when an important man needs his help in healing his dying wife. Knowing his limitations but not wanting anyone else to, Norrell calls upon the help of one of the fae folk to perform the needed magic; but he bargins away half of the woman's life in the deal and she slowly goes mad from it. Then comes Johnathan Strange, another practicing magician, who Norrell cannot intimidate or quiet. he tries to quash the man's abilities, but Strange is a natural and soon his talents are employed in fighting Napoleon in the war.

There are a number of interesting characters in play, apart from the magicians. There's the fae man, aka the Man with the Thistle-down Hair, who becomes sort of an antagonist. There are friends and servants and wives. And there is a complexity not of plot but of ambition. Each character has his own agenda. And each character has his faults. The problem is, when the failts are those of a powerful magician, things get bad quite quickly.

One of the brilliant things about this book is how real it feels. it feels as if this is really the way history unfolded. Real events and people are woven smoothly into the story. And the situations are interesting enough that it doesn't matter that there really is no plot. There are dramatic things that happen. There are complications. There are conflicts. But the main characters are almost completely unaware that there is an antagonist at all. And the antagonist thinks that he's taking down people actively working against him. It's all so complex and indirect that it's interesting to see how the story unfolds.

Clarke is a great writer. Everything is described so well, so realistically. It's as if this is a true account of the history our history books ignored. It's enjoyable to read something so clever and thought out, even if I kept anticipating some big something that never came the way I'd expected. I would definitely read other books by her in the future.