?Magic is Not Respectable?
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| Our Favorite: Kay Engilsh |
Susanna Clarke’s bestselling novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, is tearing-up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. She admits, however, that her opinion of our Art matched the sentiment ?Magic is not respectable.? That was before she began her odyssey of writing the 800 page monster of a great read. Now she respects us; sort of.
We?ve been following Ms. Clarke?s book since it was still in galley-print and we were in England. Initially, the UK press dismissed the early notices of this book: ?A Harry Potter for Adults,? or ?Harry Grows Up and Tells All.? Consequently, the U.S. press considered the book carefully, read every page, considered the greats of literature and their product through the years, and then proclaimed: ?A Harry Potter for Adults,? or ?Harry Grows Up and Tells All.?
We?re not saying the New York Times Book Review or Publishers Weekly are sycophants. We?re just saying they revere their brethren on the other side of that which we call the Atlantic. Which is okay. It was just that they were wrong. It?s a great book and deserves what we call ?respect.?
Heck, it made the list for the prestigious Booker Prize. It was knocked out of the shorter list and the British Press, now a big fan of the book, was outraged.
We?ve never met Ms. Clarke. We hope to one day. We?d tell her that we admire her story and her love of magic. She told the press, “I’d been writing all of my adult life but I’d never finished anything,” she said. Frustrated, she decided to give up writing, she…
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