Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark

2/5 stars

I bought JSaMN on of a recommendation. It’s a Victorian novel, written in 2004. And when I say Victorian, I mean the style and voice, as well as the setting.
I’ve never been a great fan of Jane Austen’s writing. I love the stories but the way they’re written bores me to death.
And unfortunately, the same can be said of JSaMN. I only actually started enjoying it after chapter fourteen, 159 pages in. To be fair, the book is a touch over a thousand pages (It’s bigger than a house brick and almost as heavy. It’s an example of where the Kindle version may actually be better.)
But that’s a lame excuse, and an overused one at that. No-one should have to wade through that many pages to get to interesting story. While I can appreciate it harking back to the style of its intended time, writing has come on a lot since then and for a very good reason.
For instance. There are two main characters: Mr Norrell (whom I consider ‘the boring one’) and Jonathon Strange. Strange doesn’t actually make an appearance until chapter fourteen and even then he’s in the background.
Despite all this, once JSaMN does get started, it has some entirely original and ingenious ideas about magic.
But I can’t say it ever wades out of the dull drums of mediocrity and I’m sorry to say I got around a quarter of the way through and gave up. I realised I was having to make myself read it and that I wasn’t really enjoying it despite the interesting ideas it put forth.
This is a bit of a one-sided view. I'm somewhat predisposed to dislike the style. So, for those of you that love the Victorian novel, feel free to sample JSaMN’s delights. For those of you who feel the same as me, give it a miss.