Hello and Happy New Year!
The year has kicked off positively for the book club with all the book clubbers making significant progress through our current book, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
It’s a door stopper of a book but it reads fluidly and the pages fly before you even realise you’ve spent half a day pouring on them.
We have set the book club discussion date for the 1st of February, but we have been using the read along feature on The Story Graph, so we’ve kept a closer contact than with other books through regular check ins, questions to answer and opinions to share.
If you’d like to take a peek, here’s a link to the forums.
The book is Susanna Clarke’s debut novel and it took her ten years to finish it. I do wonder with books like this if the author is aware at the time of their writing that they’re creating a classic.
The book was adapted into a mini series in 2015 and it even has its own board game:
I promised the group I would refrain from providing a review until we have all read it. I can say that I appreciated the drawings and sketches that seem to be scattered around the book at random, depicting scenes of varying degrees of importance.
One aspect that I am looking forward to discussing with my group is how we pronounce the names of the characters, starting with Mr Norrell. I find that all characters’ names are full of meaning and they’re all play-upon-words that reveal some of their personality. Nothing is left to chance, and there is so much material to analyse: Mr Honeyfoot, Childermass, Drawlight, Strange…, Vinculus.
The virtual read along, my first proper experience of this kind, has been very helpful in breaking down the book, stopping and checking what everyone else feels is happening, banding theories around and exchanging thoughts. It’s definitely a good idea for a lengthy book such as this.
I have read Piranesi from the same author and absolutely adored the writing, the idea and the mind-blowing perspective into a realm that is so unfamiliar and yet so probable at the same time. Going through JSMN, as it’s known in the community, has offered me some glimpses into what later became Piranesi and I can say it’s opened up my appetite to reread it.
Watch this space for a review coming soon.
The top 10 best debut novels of all time
Here is a hard one to decide on 👆. Who makes these lists? I struggle with such rankings, I always have. But I would probably put Susanna Clarke’s on there, just because JSMN is not your average novel, regardless of your genre-preferences.
What do you think? What other book would you add to this list? Would you take anything out?
Post Christmas bliss
My friends and family know me well enough to gift me book-related presents at Christmas, and nothing could make me happier. I received beautiful bookmarks, some very interesting titles that I will be writing about soon, no doubt, and the ever-appreciated open-gift of bookstore vouchers.
Like I needed an excuse to go to the bookstore!
Apart from the book gifts I received, I was also offered some ideas for books to read, one of which is another door stopper of a book at 902 pages, by author Nino Haratischwili, The Eighth Life which seems to be making the rounds at the moment. Here is the Romanian edition of the contemporary German novel:
The current read of the local book club
I came across the local book club that belongs to a local bookstore started by a couple of book-loving ladies; I’ve been keeping an eye out for their reads, wondering what other book clubs are finding interesting. The book they’re starting the year with has had me curious because I’ve seen the reactions of the readers on social media. Everyone seems to be shocked and mind-blown so I looked into it.
The book is Tender Is The Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica, and I started it this week, to see what the fuss was about.
It reminds me of my early Creative Writing classes when every now and then we would get bored or tired of the usual conventional characters and worlds and would, off the cuff, write something intentionally striking just to stir some reactions from the audience (made up of fellow students). I am not sure the premise holds scientifically (people don’t get enough nourishment from plants, they can’t eat animals so they recur to eating human meat), but it’s engaging and filled with scene after scene of shocking details that feel amateurish and unsubstantiated. I might just follow it to see where it goes.
I would take out of the list the books that are a debut novel and the only novel of the author. Only because I would like to see an evolution from debut onwards. Not questioning the term "debut" here, just defining my own scale ☺️