Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The short review of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - It's absolutely fabulous.

However, a 1008 page book deserves a little more than that, so I will start my review. I first came across Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell through limyaael, whose advice, as I have already noted, I find highly suited to my tastes. I was even more overjoyed to find this book in a local book shop, but it was a big book and an expensive one, and I dithered a lot before deciding on whether I wanted this book. Finally, after finding nothing else I wanted to buy in that entire bookstore, (except for Blyton's Naughtiest Girl in School, which I bought on the same trip, and my review of which can be read here) I finally decided to forget about waiting to read some more reviews and I just bought it.

My verdict? Jonathan Strange, as a character, is a more than sufficient reason to read this book. Mr. Norrell, the other principle character in this story, is another. Mix in some magic, mayhem, history, and a certain Raven King, along with a few creepy gentlemen with thistle-down hair, a certain nameless slave, Childermass and Arabella and you've got enough to make you want to re-read the book plenty of times. Clarke is a brilliant writer, and this clearly shines through her characters. She writes is many different perspectives - and whether she's writing through the eyes of cautious, fussy Mr. Norrell, or the crazy and daring Mr. Strange, or the confused but genuinely concerned Stephen Black, or even through the perspective of Childermass, Mr. Norrell's servant-cum-assistant, Clarke never fails to dazzle.

Set in 1806, this book covers the span of many years, and many important events - a war between france and england, the revival of english magic, and the biggest magical showdown for many years. Writing with skill and finesse, Clarke manages to build a startlingly beautiful world - mixing just enough of the real and the fantastical to create a setting that is amazingly fun to read. The setting manages to create a base for the story without actually proving to be too obtrusive to it, which I appreciate, because ultimately I believe this is a story about people rather than about the setting and I really felt that Clarke understands this delicate balance. Her setting is made even deeper and more real by the clever use of footnotes. These footnotes are a lot of fun to read, because they tell you stories and tales and add some spice to the world. (For another use of amazing footnotes, especially for humor unlike in this book, check out Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy - my review of which can be found here.)

Clarke is a great writer. She knows how to make a reader feel interested in the fate of even a character who might have been boring in any other hands. (Mr. Norrell, who has been described as the following by the author herself - "He hardly ever spoke of magic, and when he did it was like a history lesson and no one could bear to hear him." ) To convert this and the half-crazy, passionate, daring, charming guy Jonathan Strange is into a novel of this perfection is absolutely amazing. Her book is divided essentially into three parts - the first, of Mr. Norrell, the second devoted almost entirely to Mr. Strange, and the third being a combination of the two of them and a culmination of a large range of other plotlines into a dazzling finish. However, Mr. Strange is not entirely absent in Mr. Norrell's part of the story, and neither is it the other way around. Through footnotes, and introductory chapters, and small references, Clarke introduces us to Mr. Strange before he appears in the story proper, which is great because otherwise I might have lost interest in him long before the third part.

The plot is really well-crafted. It has a prophecy at the heart of it, and even though I do not generally like prophecies (too often in the hands of an inexperienced author you can tell what is going to happen long before the end, which is the worst way to have prophecies) but Clarke subverts this so cleverly and pulls such plot twists that it is a delight to read about this particular prophecy. In fact, in many ways this actually adds to the book, because by the time I reached the third part, I was actually getting goosebumps just reading the titles of the various chapters. (You can only understand this if you read the book till the second part, and then decide to ration the rest of the book by reading a hundred pages a day.)

Overall, this book is must-read for any serious fantasy enthusiast, and perhaps a must read for a lot of people. It's interesting, it's serious, it's funny, it's dark, and it's absolutely beautiful. It's a study into human nature. It's a well-researched book. It's a book to admire. It's a book to treasure. It's a book to fill your bookshelves and a book to read quickly, and slowly, to talk about and to spend some time with, a book to spend stormy afternoons with. It's a book to ration the pages off because despite its length you will feel it got over too soon.

In short, it's a book to love and a book to add to your bookshelves, like I added it to mine.

Final thoughts: Great writing, brilliant characterization, excellent plotting and great settings. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell will captivate you, it will make you think and it will make hours disappear before you know it. It's the kind of book you read till midnight - telling yourself you'll put it down after the end of the chapter but realizing only twenty pages into the next chapter that you forgot all about that. Need I say more?

Of course, if you don't believe me, check out reviews of this book by other great people, chief among which is Neil Gaiman, whom I also admire very much. It might also be great to check out what Mr. Strange and Mr. Norrell have to say about the story. Of course, it might also be great to get some information on the film being made on this particular book.

And Thereby Hangs a Tale by Jeffrey Archer

And Thereby Hangs a Tale, by Jeffrey Archer, was exactly as I had expected it to be: Fabulous.


A little background. I have read almost every Archer novel or short story collection. And naturally, when my mother mentioned that he had a new short-story collection that had come out, I was very excited. But I did forget about it at the time, until I went to the bookstore recently and saw the book. And then there was suddenly a light-bulb on my head, and I bought it almost immediately. But then I got to reading Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman, and my mom and dad started reading this book, so I left it alone for a while. Until yesterday, when I read the whole book in one day straight.

What can I say? The master has not lost his touch.

I love Archer first off all for his ingenious plots. He always has a unique story to tell (or at least a crazily unique twist on a seemingly normal story idea). He is able to right on a large variety of topics: from, to give you an example from this set of short stories, the story of a boy who falls in love with a girl as a light changes from red to green, to a story of how a golf ball can change a man's life, to a story of an amazing jewel theft with a stick of chewing gum as an accomplice. No matter what he's writing about, Archer never fails to astound. In this collection, there are a set of stories that seem, on the surface, pretty straight-forward, but really get you thinking at the end - not only about the plot but about the well developed, interesting characters whose story we are reading.

The writing, as always, is of amazing quality. Succinct, simple, and moving, his language is beguiling in its plainness. He writes tersely, keeping the plot moving (which is even more important in short-stories than in a full-length novel) and there is never a moment in the books where you feel like you're bored and want to skip ahead a few paragraphs - in fact, the book will often make you feel like you want to slow down and think a little bit about what's going on - only you will not want to stop till the final page is turned. While I was reading the book (and my mother has expressed a similar reaction) I would often stop for nearly ten minutes after each story just to process what all had happened, which is of course one of the characteristics of a good Archer story.

His characterization, as I mentioned above, is pretty spectacular. As an author who writes mainly about characters who are doing crimes, and that too in the relatively constrained format of a short-story, he is able to bring his characters out of cliches and make them unique, and (in the case of most of them) even like-able. Even though his characters often do bad things for bad reasons (love and money are the two top reasons - they are not in any way justified by stuff like "he needed the money for his little sister's heart operation) you can still empathize with them because of the way Archer writes - by making us go deep into the mind and the life of the character.

In this collection you will find love, crime, money, fraud, law and golf - all packaged very neatly in Archer's spectacular writing. Definitely worth buying for hours of entertainment, followed by more hours of entertainment after some time when you re-read the books and discover that you missed something crucial in your first reading. Read for a fun roller-coaster ride type experience, for page-turning suspense, and to be blown away.

Last words: Archer is one of the best fiction writers ever, and this collection proves that he hasn't lost his touch. Read only if you're prepared to look up at 1 am and realize, "I meant to sleep hours ago but time just flew away when I was reading the book."

And Thereby Hangs a Tale.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things is an odd book.

I knew it was going to be an odd book the moment I picked it up. The point was whether it was going to be a good kind of odd or bad kind of odd.

It turned out to be a good kind of odd.

A little background. I had heard of Neil Gaiman, mostly in connection with George R. R. Martin. I was planning to read a book by him sometime, especially because he's one of the few fantasy authors whose books come in the book store here. Of course, my buying this book would have involved days of research, days of reading reviews, and days of deciding whether this was the best book to start with. However, what ended up happening was this: I saw the book, with its shiny white cover, lying on the bookshelf. It called to me. I picked it up, read the back. I was intrigued. I sat down to read to read the introduction.

I was hooked.

The book called to me, and I'm so glad I replied.

Fragile Things is a book about, well, Fragile Things. Like Neil Gaiman puts it in the book - "It seemed like a fine title for a book of short stories. There are so many fragile things, after. People break so easily, after all, and so do dreams and hearts."

But for a book that is about transitory things, Fragile Things is still a very hopeful book. As a book, Fragile Things seems to be celebrating the beauty of all the soap water bubbles in the world that are so beautiful and so easy to break. At its heart, Fragile Things is a book about hope, and fairy tales, and about writing that lives longer than the person who wrote it.

There are many strange stories and poems in this collection, from a story about a boy who makes friends with a ghost that is told by the months of the year, to a poem about what to do when you're in a fairytale, to a story about Susan, from C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels, the dismissal of which Gaiman (and I, incidentally) found very problematic and irritating. There are stories which don't make sense immediately. There are stories which leave you thinking. There are funny stories, sad stories, scary stories. There is some 'upsettling' stuff in this novel, as well as some extremely sad stuff.

Read this book if you're not afraid to try something a little different. Read this book if you can deal with (or relish) a little bit of oddness. Read this book with an open heart and mind. Read this book without thinking about any 'fantasy' that you may have read before, because this book is not going to be like any of that. Read the introduction of each story/poem right before reading the story or poem because it will really add to your appreciation of the poem or story. Read this book if you're in for something new.

Don't be put-off if you read many unfamiliar names in the introductions. I can assure you that I did not know about 90% of the authors mentioned in the introductions, and that did not stop me from enjoying the book at all, though now I'm tempted to read all the authors mentioned and hear all the songs mentioned. I'm sure that a knowledge of the mentioned literature adds richness to the book, but it is not a prerequisite to reading the book.

This book is great (and quick) way to know whether or not you like Gaiman's style of writing. My verdict? I definitely want to read more. Maybe American Gods.

Last words: Read this book only if you're fine with things being a little bit out of the ordinary. Don't judge too quickly. Read it with a sense of humor. And get ready for a few hours of pure fun.