It has FINALLY occurred to me who the character of Chrestomanci in Diana Wynne Jones’ Charmed Life reminds me of, both physically — the dapper outfits, the mysterious descriptions of his past and mysterious power — and I swear, it’s Gatsby. As in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The similarities between them (polar-opposite genres aside!) are mostly through the feeling I have gotten from them through readings. (I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Charmed Life the other day, thus Chrestomanci has been kicking around my subconsious.)

In both novels, these men are not the “narrator” character — Cat/Eric in Charmed Life and Nick in The Great Gatsby — and both men without doubt dominate any scene in which they appear. Also, the time period (and by extension, the costumes and settings) are also similiar. Charmed Life is set in this strange time period that is at once late nineteenth century, 1911, the 1920s, or some other vague time (hints of the ’40s/’50s, maybe), mostly because it’s set in an alternate reality that diverged from ours some time in the past and because of the existence of magic has inherently evolved differently. Gatsby is of course very straightforwardly a Roaring Twenties novel of society, classes, money, power, lost love, etc. Really. The suits, top hats, dressing gowns, big houses, and stuff… they really remind me of one another. Is that really strange?

I know. These characters are more different than they are alike but they remind me of each other. The same way Disney’s Beast in the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast evokes Robin McKinley’s Corlath from The Blue Sword. (Robin McKinley’s personal novel affair with the Beauty and the Beast retellings notwithstanding.)

On the NaNoWriMo front, I am struggling to get to 50,000 words by next Tuesday — before I leave for Thanksgiving. Oh, dear. I hope I can write 15,000 words (or slightly less) by then.