Demons in Princeton!!

[delphipsmith]

Comments

[mimimanderly]

Have you ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke? It has the elements that you love ( It's written as a history, complete with footnotes referring to other -- fictional -- texts. Actual historical figures are mixed in with the fictional ones. Plus there are kidnappings conducted by those who reside in Faerie... which coexists with our reality. The main characters, though heavily flawed, are not unlikeable. In fact Jonathan Strange reminds me so much of Doctor #10, and Mr. Childermass seems very Snapish. It was almost like coming home.) It's a very long book, but I loved it immensely. From your description of this book, I think you would like Jonathan Strange.

[delphipsmith]

Funny you should mention Jonathan Strange... because I was just thinking I need to re-read it. I read back when it first came out, and yes, I loved it for exactly those reasons :)

[squibstress]

Just bought this and am eager to get started on it.

I have much the same reaction to Oates's work that you do. I admire her tremendously, but I can't say I always enjoy her work (although I certainly do sometimes!) I've also noticed lately some rather fanciful punctuation choices, which I've found a little distracting. I'm not exactly a prescriptivist, so I'm usually able to ignore such things, so maybe it's simply an indication that I haven't been as engaged in the past few things I've read.

[delphipsmith]

Interesting. This one had that, along with some odd grammatical quirks as well. The first time or two I didn't really notice it, but after a while they started to nag at me a bit. I'll be curious to see what you think of it.