Susanna Clark's elegant new novel Piranesi is a major departure from her last book; Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which she published in 2004, is a massively footnoted faux-historical tome on magic during the Napoleonic Wars-- it's fantastic-- but I think her new work is something special as well; it reminds me a bit of Nabokov's Pale Fire . . . or a more abstract Eternal Sunshine . . . or Inside Out for adults . . . or none of that, it's unusual and surreal, but precisely written-- I'm not sure if I fully understand the mystery-- or if that's even possible, but I will say this, without spoiling: it's the perfect book to read in quarantine.
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So many references in one sentence. I read Pale Fire in college and I remember nothing about it (or college really) except that it was confusing. BBC made a TV series out of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I'm sure you can stream it somewhere. They only made one season but it was fun.
i didn't know either of those things! i will have to find that series . . . the poem at the start is the best thing about pale fire.
i didn't know either of those things! i will have to find that series . . . the poem at the start is the best thing about pale fire.
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