Karen S Wiesner: {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

In my past review of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I talked about how the author Susanna Clarke signed up for a writing workshop in which students attending were expected to come with a short story they'd written. All Clarke had were "bundles" of materials for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. She extracted a piece of it about three women secretly practicing magic who are discovered by Jonathan Strange. That story is the title one in this collection of eight short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, set in the same world as the larger novel, a fictionalized 18th/19th century England in which magic is becoming popular again, thanks to the efforts of Mr Norrell and his pupil (and later rival) Jonathan Strange. In that very in-depth novel, the duo themes are 1) that magic is given or bargained for from powerful and not necessarily moral beings that exist in another realm (faerie) and 2) that magic sometimes manifests in ways the wielder isn't intending.

In all the stories in this "off-shoot" anthology, the overwhelming themes are 1) the commonalities of magic in different time periods, 2) the undeniable (and, at times, even more diabolical) power of "women's magic", something that was taboo in this world, and 3) the ways in which faerie folk infringe on the real world--as if their own isn't exciting enough (and that may well be the case, considering their mischievous deeds).

In the title story, Jonathan Strange visits his brother-in-law, a country parson, where he's challenged by three female magicians. The author has said of this story that she wanted to find a place for these characters within the larger novel but, having read it now, I'm convinced it simply didn't and couldn't fit there. As a short story on its own, it has a compelling connection to the novel that made the author famous.

The second story, "On Lickerish Hill", is an interesting retelling of Rumplestiltskin. The unfortunate, young bride is placed in the demeaning role of wife to a monetary-seeking groom and has to find a clever solution to save herself. While the "archaic spellings" of the plucky heroine's speech were hard to read and decipher, the twist on one of my favorite fairy tales was particularly satisfying.

In "Mrs. Mabb" (the Queen Mab),  an abandoned woman is determined to get her fiancé free of black magic while everyone around her assumes she's hysterical (after being jilted) or insane, which was very common to presume about women of the day.

Interestingly, "The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse" is actually set within the village of Wall, which has its origin in Neil Gaiman's Stardust novel. (For those who didn't read my review of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, the workshop co-host that read the extraction of Susanna Clarke's work from her novel was so impressed by her work, he sent an excerpt to his good friend, fantasy author Neil Gaiman who was astounded by her "assurance" as a writer: "It was like watching someone sit down to play the piano for the first time and she plays a sonata."). In this particular story, I was fascinated by what was considered common women's work being utilized by a pompous duke to bring about a fantastical conclusion.

"Mr. Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower" was a favorite of mine in this anthology, as an amoral faerie aristocrat has to be put down (by his own bastard son!) in order to save five sisters that strongly resemble the distinctive Bennetts from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Three other tales cover fairy culture, including a fictionalized account of Mary, Queen of Scots, learning how to use magic to undertake her political machinations, along with featuring a central character in Jonathan Strange (John Uskglass, aka the Raven King) as Christian peasants revolt against pagan faerie.

While Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was both compelling and unforgettable, this anthology of parallel stories that were published (separately) while the novel was being edited and prepared for publication and later (after the novel became a hit) collected in one place are much lighter and certainly more subtle--nevertheless, they're undeniably enchanting in their own right.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner {Put This One on Your TBR List}: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

by Karen S. Wiesner

Published in 2020, Piranesi by the celebrated author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke, is labeled a fantasy, but it's far more than that. I purchased it because I love the previous novel by this author, which I reviewed earlier in my Alien Romances Friday column Put This On Your TBR List.

It's hard to even know how to review this story. It gracefully evades attempts at accurately describing and pinning down its premise or true nature, as the main character Piranesi himself does. Set in a strange, labyrinthine world called the House, there are seemingly infinite halls and vestibules that are filled with one of a kind statues, clouds, an ocean, along with a being called by Piranesi "the Other", a mysterious man who provides useful items from the outside world, though never explains where all these things come from (and Piranesi never seems to wonder, nor question where the Other disappears to half the time). Incidentally, I pictured the Other as The Architect from the Keanu Reeves' movie The Matrix and didn't trust him from the very first mention of him, though I couldn't really be sure at that point whether he deserved my swift judgment.

Piranesi fills his days exploring, gathering food and the items he needs to live, tracking the tides, and indexing and writing about his home and simple life in journals provided for him by the Other. This being has asked Piranesi to help him search for the Great and Secret Knowledge--whatever that is. In the process, Piranesi discovers journal entries in his own handwriting that he doesn't remember writing. The Other has told him that the House erodes memories and personalities, and that a being called "16" will seek to cause madness in Piranesi if they don't kill him. But Piranesi is a gentle soul, content to live where and how he does, in isolation except for birds that come and go, the tides that only he knows the rhythm of, and searching for signs of the 15 other beings that once lived in the House (two of whom are long-dead skeletons Piranesi cares for).

To say nothing is as it seems in the novel Piranesi is to imply that we ever truly know what reality is in this unique world. Readers will only ever glimpse fringes of such a thing through Piranesi's diary and the fragments of discovery he comes across on his journey.

When I picked up the story, I was keeping company with two people who were watching a football game I had absolutely no interest in. Would I have become so engrossed in the book if not for that? I don't know, but I'm so glad I did read it at that time when there was nothing else to do and therefore I could allow my interest to blossom slow but sure--because that's the unfortunate thing about this wonderful tale: It starts so incredibly weirdly, so sedately, I think anyone who doesn't give the story time and force themselves to push past page 100 may not continue reading. That would be a tragedy. It isn't until after the first and well into the second part of this tale that Piranesi and his unsettling life, as he begins piecing together a troubling mystery, really becomes something a reader can't put down.

The Los Angeles Times called the protagonist one "with no guile, no greed, no envy, no cruelty, and yet still intriguing." Piranesi as a character devastated me the further along I got into his story, discovering troubling truths, but more to the point, I agree with Lila Shapiro who said in her review of the book that "Piranesi will wreck you."

I can't recommend this tale highly enough, and, if I could giftwrap it and silently hand it to every reader, so (as Erin Morgenstern has said of it) "they can have the pleasure of uncovering its secrets for themselves", I would. In a way, that's what I'm doing here. Piranesi is an unforgettable treasure you may never recover fully from reading.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

by Karen S. Wiesner

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke is an epic "alternative history" fantasy that was the author's debut novel. Clarke spent ten years writing the book, which has an interesting history of its own. Clarke first developed the idea while she was teaching English in Spain (lol). She'd had a waking dream about a man in 18th-century clothes…and felt strongly that he had some kind of magical background--he'd been dabbling in magic, and something had gone badly wrong."

Shortly after returning to her home country, she signed up for a writing workshop, co-taught by a man she would eventually become romantically involved with. Students attending the workshop were expected to come with a short story they'd written, but all Clarke had were "bundles" of materials for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. As the tale goes, she'd extracted a piece of it about three women secretly practicing magic who are discovered by Jonathan Strange. (Later, this tale was published in the Starlight 1 anthology as well as included in the author's own collection called The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories.) The workshop co-host was so impressed by this work, he sent an excerpt to his good friend, fantasy author Neil Gaiman who was astounded by the author's "assurance": "It was like watching someone sit down to play the piano for the first time and she plays a sonata."

Interesting to note that Clarke's agent sold the unfinished novel in 2003 to Bloomsbury. They were so impressed with and certain it would be an international bestseller that they gave her a £1 million pound advance as well as printing an unheard of number of hardcover copies in three separate countries simultaneously while having 17 translations begun before its first English publication.

Learning how Clarke went about writing this book explained a lot to me. Apparently, she didn't write it start to finish but in fragments that she then had to "stitch" together. I found everything about this long novel meticulous and well-written, if a little slow moving and, at times, lacking in finely honed purpose and action. It was also written in the style of many 19-century books, like those written by Jane Austen. Not surprisingly, I love stories like these, and Clarke's felt authentic to me right from the first page, as it's set in a 19th-century "alternate" England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. At the time the story opens, magic use has faded into the past, but Mr. Norrell intends to bring it back. How he does that involves raising a woman from the dead in a highly public way that puts magic back in fashion, as well as summoning an army of ghostly ships that terrify the country's enemy. Another novice magician (introduced much, much later in the book, other than in a footnote in the first chapter) emerges in opposition to the first, and one who is the very antithesis of Norrell.

In what I consider a stroke of genius, the author puts her own invented magical history in 200 footnotes throughout the book, something that apparently Clarke didn't expect to be published but which added an authenticity that the story might have otherwise lacked without it. The author believed that grounding magic in real life surroundings was what produced realism in the fantasy aspects of her story.

I don't deny that some reviewers and readers were put off by how "the plot creaks frightfully in many places and the pace dawdles" and insisted that trimming was necessary. Still, others like myself found it an engaging read filled with imagination and style. The origin and/or the source of magic has thus far almost always been left uncredited in countless works of fiction, as if somehow magic just appears in the fingertips of some people. How can that not beg a thousand questions about where it came from and what was done to put it there? Here in this novel, we're at last clued into the fact that magic is given or bargained for from beings that exist in another realm. That's one of the things I liked best about this book. Additionally, there's an exploration here concerning how magic sometimes manifests in ways the wielder isn't intending. These two concepts make Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell the logical favorite of mine because there's an eerie backdrop that questions the morality and lack of responsibility magicians give their art as a whole.

One other slightly off-putting aspect of this story is the way it ends. To me (and other reviewers and readers), it felt like the story was started here; by no stretch of the imagination was it finished. After I read it, I was fine with that because I assumed the author intended either a sequel or a series. I've since learned that Clarke had begun a follow-up novel in 2004 (the year the first was published) set a few years after Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell ended, continuing the tale. Because it took her ten years to complete the first, it made sense that the second might also take at least that long. But, with Clarke being plagued by chronic fatigue syndrome, she chose to write a simpler story that required less of her, and that became her second novel in 2020 (16 years after her first). As to the fate of the sequel, the author herself says it's still “a long way off” completion. Or it may simply not be forthcoming at all. I've made my peace with that, even if I hope the author has the strength to complete it someday. I suspect part of my disappointment with the way the novel ended was that I simply didn't want it to end. I wanted more of the characters and their story. However, that doesn't make the novel any less tremendous. It's one that lovers of magic and fantasy would be remiss if they didn't pick up. If the 1000-page-plus novel intimidates, the book was very faithfully adapted for a BBC miniseries in 2015, and that is also definitely worth watching.

Check out my newly released novel!

 

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/bloodmoon-cove-spirits-series.html

https://www.writers-exchange.com/bloodmoon-cove-spirits-series/

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/