(no subject)

i finished jonathan strange and mr. norrell last night. it's definitely a bit of a slog, but not in an uninteresting way, just because it's long and kinda slow and formally written. i found myself thinking in the verbiage and rhythm of the text, so my brain basically morphed into a thackeray book. it's a good story. the length is necessary, both as a tool to create the sense of time and as a way of appropriately aping the style of 19th century literature it models itself after. the characters are interesting -- all the major characters have distinct plot arcs and aren't used just as filler. all in all, it wasn't very deep, and it certainly didn't blow me away, but i thought it was good and entertaining.

i'm currently reading madeleine is sleeping by sarah shun-lien bynum, which i am NOT enjoying. i don't think it actually qualifies as a novel. i'll talk more about it tomorrow when i'm finished.