Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange
(This contains no "spoilers," in fact no discussion of plot at all, merely a recommendation that you read this book if you haven't already.)
Let me start by saying that if you are a book, I am inclined to like you from the start. I read trash and treasure with equal enthusiasm, and can find something interesting in the most terrible books. For example, who knew that the Da Vinci Code was such a delightful comedy?
I've read reviews in the past of books where the reviewer says that portions of the plot "snap into place like pieces of a puzzle, until the whole picture is revealed." Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange isn't like that at all. Instead it's a book like a mechanism where wheels smoothly turn and toothed cogs tick and you know that behind the scenes, everything has a purpose and is well thought out and has been constructed in such a way to reliably deliver, time after time, like an old pocketwatch.
It's one of those books that you hate to finish because you know that you won't have the pleasure of reading it for the first time anymore, and for days you'll be looking for something else to take its place.
Let me start by saying that if you are a book, I am inclined to like you from the start. I read trash and treasure with equal enthusiasm, and can find something interesting in the most terrible books. For example, who knew that the Da Vinci Code was such a delightful comedy?
I've read reviews in the past of books where the reviewer says that portions of the plot "snap into place like pieces of a puzzle, until the whole picture is revealed." Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange isn't like that at all. Instead it's a book like a mechanism where wheels smoothly turn and toothed cogs tick and you know that behind the scenes, everything has a purpose and is well thought out and has been constructed in such a way to reliably deliver, time after time, like an old pocketwatch.
It's one of those books that you hate to finish because you know that you won't have the pleasure of reading it for the first time anymore, and for days you'll be looking for something else to take its place.