Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

I said to my mom, "It's kind of like Harry Potter for grownups. Except that the writing is better." (No tomatoes, please! I love HP too, and there is no doubt that JKR is a story-teller par excellence. But the writing in this book is better. More adult, more complex. Less tied to the plot, more writing for the sake of good writing.) And no one in their right mind would want to actually be one of the heroes of this story. And the characters are far more complex. And there is no wizard school, at least not in the beginning. So maybe the two stories aren't so much alike after all.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke is a story about magicians, and the impact of magic on the world. Magic has left England, and the only magicians left are "theoretical" magicians, men who study the history and theory of magic without actually practicing magic. Until Mr. Norrell, who has worked so diligently to revive the art of good solid English magic, demonstrates his talents and Jonathan Strange becomes his pupil. In order to make his entrance onto the stage of world-movers and shakers, to get the politicians to take his claims about the revival of English magic seriously, Norrell performs an astonishing magical feat that opens the door to a force far more dangerous to England than the French. And so the story unfolds. Clarke does a lovely job of weaving together the pieces of the complex story of the two English magicians and a servant, two wives and a butler, an amoral fairy, and even the Duke of Wellington, and their fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.

I love a good fairy tale, and clearly Clarke does too. She weaves elements of the old fairy tales into this adventure using old lore and tales about Faery and fairies, and creating her own tales that follow the traditional fairy tale elements so closely that the tales ring true, especially those created around the possibly real, possibly mythical Raven King.

One of the things that I appreciate the most about Clarke's writing in this tale is the development of the characters. The only truly despicable characters are Lacelles and Drawlight, useless social leeches. Even when Norrell is at his fussiest, Childermass at his creepiest, Strange at his foolhardiest, Clarke manages to surprise us and to convey the qualities that help us to sympathize and identify with them. It's so satisfying to read a story with well-developed characters, especially in stories about magical worlds where so often one's character directs one's destiny. While a classic hero tale where the "good triumphs over evil" outcome can be quite satisfying (think HP, as a matter of fact, since I mentioned it above), a story where the characters are allowed to be flawed gives us the opportunity to forgive them their faults, and we identify with them differently because we are also flawed. Think of all of the young (and adult) Harry Potter readers out there who love to pretend to be Harry. Few people would choose to imagine themselves as Strange or Norrell. Clarke reminds us that even the magical villain in this story is following his nature. He does appalling things, and yet she leaves it to the reader to judge whether or not he is evil. And yet the traditional fairy tale character-as-destiny as an element of this story....well. You'll just have to read the story yourself.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a good fun magical adventure. It's intelligent, witty. Sometimes dark, sometimes surprising. A must for adult fairy tale lovers, and a good adventure story for the rest.