[Book] Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

[terpkristin]

Has anybody here read this book?

It's driving me bonkers. It seems like there really wants to be a story here, but I'm on page 258 and the book has so far felt completely disjointed. Now, this book got all kinds of accolades and was named Time Magazine's #1 book of the year and the Book Sense Book of the Year, but at this point, about 1/3 of the way in, I can't see why.


To add to my frustration with the lack of anything *really* going on so far (I mean, things have happened, but not enough to take up 258 pages), the author's use of footnotes is asinine. She feels a need to tell a story that's not really 100% related to the story, so she footnotes it. There is one footnote here that starts on page 258. It takes up about 1/2 the page, in signifcantly smaller text than the main story. It continues on page 259, taking up about 7/8 of the page in the small font, and likewise on pages 260 and 261. Finally, on page 262, it comes to an end, still taking up better than 1/2 the page with the side-story, all in small font.

So, if anybody has read this book, can you please tell me if there's a light at the end of this tunnel? I'm ready to put it down, but with so much praise for the book, I'm assuming that I'm just not high-brow enough to read it or something, or that I'm missing something.

Can anybody give me a reason not to abandon hope on it?

/tk

[flounder]

The story definitely starts to come together more once you get into the Jonathan Strange part of the book. My wife read it and had the same question. After I told her to stick with it, she finished it and liked it.