Catching Up... "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

It's been ages since we posted anything, other than my very extensive notes on Cloud Atlas. Since we've missed updates on several months worth of books, I'll start with the latest and work backwards.

Our most recent read was The Night Circus, a "phantasmagorical fairy tale set in an ahistorical Victorian London in a wandering magical circus that is open only form sunset to sunrise," according to Wikipedia. While that description is actually a very nice summary and basically accurate, it leaves room for a lot of debate. Our group gave it mixed reviews. Some people really didn't like it because it was too confusing, the magic was too over-the-top, the nonlinear storyline was hard to follow. Others were more forgiving, agreeing on the aforementioned criticisms but finding some entertainment value in it. We all greed that the author has quite an imagination to have come up with the illusions and tricks described in the book. And while the nonlinear plot was very hard to follow, combined with trying to figure out what story elements were "real" and what were "magic," if you let go of those as distractions and just plow through the story, it's kind of captivating.

A Final Gripe (SPOILER ALERT):

The author leaves too many things unexplained, or at least unclear: Why did Celia and Marco even need the circus to play out their competition if, as in the last one 83 years ago, there was no circus? How was Isobel tempering the circus? How was Celia controlling the circus? Why was Bailey, who seemed like such a tangential character, so important to the future of the circus. Did Tara accidentally get hit by the oncoming train or was she pushed by the man in grey? Why weren't the people directly involved with the circus not aging and how long would that last?

In any case, for those of you who are knitting your red scarf, that secret sign of a follower of Le Cirque des Reves, do not despair. The film and TV show were optioned to different sources and Le Cirque des Reves will be appearing in your neighborhood soon!