Book Review: The Night Circus

[ex_luredin634]

title: The Night Circus
author: Erin Morgenstern
word count: way too many
reviewed for theaviary Challenge 005
nest: birdsofprey 

This book has been on my wish list for some time now, so when an acquaintance on FB announced that she was reading it, I chimed in, and she suggested we read it at the same time. I had absolutely no expectations, and knew nothing of what the actual story would be about aside from the obvious: there is a circus, it must come alive at night, and it is full of magic. Having finished the three hundred and some odd pages now, I can tell you exactly what the book is about. There is a circus. It operates at night, and it is full of magic.

 

Oh, that my review could end there! I'm actually very, very torn about this book. While I didn't hate it, I certainly didn't love it, either. I found the author's tone very tiring, in a patronizing way. From the onset it seemed, to me, like she was entranced with the idea of using Big Words to convey small ideas. Like a child, trying to impress the grown-ups with her new vocabulary, she tosses out words like 'nomenclature' when name would suffice. The extra syllables are unnecessary, silly even in context. Perhaps this is just a pet peeve of my own, but it persisted most of the way through the novel, as did a nagging belief that the whole adventure was anachronistic (Big Word, there!). If you are going to write a book that takes place at the turn of the twentieth century, make it sound as if its the 1890s. Fleeting references to homosexual characters, to words not yet an existence, to situations that probably would not have occurred between genteel society at this time all give it an impression of being out of sync with the time. Was this intentional? I don't know.

Mostly The Night Circus is a work of adjectives. But not just adjectives! The story consists of what I like to call the almost adjective. These are vague, ephemeral phrases consisting of worlds like almost, nearly, akin to, sort of, etc. Sometimes they end in -ish, or worst of all, sometimes they are hyphenated. For example, one of the main character's eyes are described at least a half a dozen times as 'grey-green'. This is done, I can only assume, to convey an air of mystery, a sense of incompleteness, around our magician. Yet, his eyes don't change color. They aren't one minute grey, another green. They don't shift with his mood or adapt to his surroundings, or really do anything all. This is simply their color. Grey-green. And it irked me to no end. Had Ms. Morgenstern been slightly more able, perhaps his eyes would not have been grey-green at all. Perhaps they would have been the color of moss in winter instead.

See what I did there? Now you are intrigued!

But I haven't mentioned anything, really, about the story itself. This is a story about magic! If you are, however, in a Harry Potter mindset when it comes to the idea of magic, abandon ye Hogwarts now! The main characters, Celia and Marco are illusionists who practice a kind of magic that is both wondrous and willful, a self-serving manipulation of the world around them. There is no hocus-pocus, no incantations, no witchcraft here. There is only the slightest wave of a hand, or a thought, a hypnotic suggestion and the world just changes. What was there before is not...and so it goes on and on and on. There are no rules, no discernible history, and no explanation. I found this world frustrating. Though it is clearly based in our reality, it is nothing like our reality. There is nothing to ground it. Perhaps if there had been something, something concrete and believable, the impossible might have seemed possible, after all.

The two protagonists are pitted against one another in an endless duel, of which the circus is the venue. This is the whole of the plot, which, like Ms. Morgenstern's elusive descriptions, is never really grasped, not just by myself but also by the main characters. They stumble through three quarters of the book wondering what to do. I managed to muster up a little empathy for Celia, but felt nothing for Marco. I was shocked when I suddenly realized this was meant to be a love story, and yet, I was not moved at all. I felt a little sad, as if I'd missed out on a great secret, but I don't think I'm alone.

More than a love story between two people though, this is a love story about dreams themselves. The circus itself is an enchanted place full of surprises and twists and turns (and one too many treats involving caramel, if you ask me). When one is there, it becomes difficult to discern between reality and fiction. I give credit to the author for creating several wonderful places within the circus that I will not soon forget. But I felt more like I was watching a movie than reading a book--it was a few great images, strung together by a thin wire.

Of course, there are other characters, three of whom I did grow to care about. Perhaps if the book had a more traditional structure, I would have enjoyed it more. There is a time a place for eccentric storytelling, but I don't believe this was the time. The story takes place across time, traversing some thirty years, though the chapters are not linear. Jumping from year to year and back again, I found myself concentrating more on the story structure than the actual story. Point of view and tense and person change as well! At points the reader is even interspersed into the book! The circus is already magic enough, so in this respect, I think the author tried too hard to make her book more interesting than it really was.

By the end of it I wouldn't have been surprised if aliens descended from the sky and declared the night circus a profound experiment in human observation. Instead, the end of the book is much the same as the beginning, and I think this is its greatest failing. That there is little growth was disappointing. It was, in the end, just a story. Was it a meditation on storytelling itself, or an ode to time and our relationship with it? Was it a criticism on the dangerous notion of immortality? Perhaps. I don't really know. Some people might find this mesmerizing. I found it a bit like eating cotton candy. One moment it is there on your tongue, the next it is gone. Left with a sugary, sweet aftertaste. In need of something substantial to wash it down.

 

Comments

[everythingshiny]

ty! :D