Literary Updates

One of the finest examples of fantastical literature I've ever read is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

For people who love history books, this is one of those that, like The Lord of the Rings, imitates a historical style. One very long footnote that I recall in particular renders three opposing accounts of an obscure event in Faerie: a Faerie King's offer to a visiting English Magician of a pair of old shoes and a long, odd speech. I laughed immoderately.

Ms. Clarke created an imaginary world in which Christianity co-exists with and stands above a whole lesser realm of things ordinarily considered superstitious. It's flawless and seamless and set the stage for a story of staggering originality and delight.

Other virtues:

An Englishwoman's unabashed love for things English, which she succeeds in communicating to her audience. Her world of magic is so eminently an English world of magic.

A writer's imagination that creates clever, vivid details and with them forms a story whose shape resembles the shape of reality. Her characters are both believably idiosyncratic and transcendantly typical.

An ending that stays true to the world she's set up; that ties all loose ends and gives space for the triumph of justice; and that enlarged my feeling for the ideals of kingship and the awe in which a person worthy of such authority must be held.

Her excellent, deeply involved plot involves many people of various stations and both sexes. But it centers on two protagonists - Jonathan Strange, an arrogant young man in love and Mr. Norrell, a peevish old gentlemen torn between the desire for notoriety and the desire for privacy.

Mr. Norrell mentors Strange, while he himself is almost undetectably rendered more human by the contact with his pupil. They do many great and brave and witty things, including reinventing Modern Magic in England and dooming a number of their loved ones to dance nightly at a wicked Faerie's Ball. Oh yes, and they help to defeat the French under Napoleon. What more could one ask of an English hero?

Eventually they quarrel and go their separate ways. However, at nearly the last moment these men, by collaborating on the most heroic effort of which they are capable, reveal that they are not really the Heroes at all - there are two other men to whom that is reserved, one an Ancient King and another a black servant who functions as his type.

I will not tell you who the villain is, because although this is not a book of suspense, and the villain operates in plain sight the whole book long, it requires a certain amount of moral sense to detect him and that is half the fun of the book.

These highlights, I am unashamed to say, were carefully selected by me to make the book appear most appealing to my husband, who has not yet read it.

And now a note on the Harry Potter predictions. I was supposed to call myself to account after reading the book but I am holding back because Josh is still working on Half-Blood Prince. Let's everybody cheer him on.

Ian and I will be alone this weekend as Josh is going to his first monthly drill since returning from basic training. Everyone is invited to a large, noisy, party that will start Saturday morning and continue into the wee hours.

(Just kidding.)