Audiobook Review: The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

When I was eleven years old, I received Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for Christmas. Since then, I have been waiting for an owl to perch on my windowsill and deliver an invitation to attend school at Hogwarts. Even after I was long past the age of Hogwarts invitations, a piece of me still held on to the hope that one day I would discover that behind the veil of the "real" world, there lay a world of magic and wizards and spells and wonder.

Not since I was eleven have I read a book that has had me longing to enter the world about which I read, yearning for some tip, some clue, some hint of a world of secret things and objects of amazement lying in wait. Until The Night Circus.

The circus arrives without warning.  

No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.  

The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick. 

But it is not open for business. Not just yet.

These opening lines of Erin Morgenstern's debut novel set the tone for the entire book, inviting a sense of wonder, mystery, and an element of whimsy onto the page from the outset. Jim Dale's narration of the passage will send chills down any magic-lovers spine, and leave listeners tingling for more.

As the story develops, we learn that the circus itself is the public stage for a challenge between two magicians, both of whom display wonder after wonder to a wide-eyed and disbelieving audience. Here, then, is a place where magic is on display for all to see, but in a world where magic is believed to be the stuff of myth, the displays are thought to be nothing more than illusion, put on for the entertainment of a paying crowd.

What are the consequences of such actions? What happens when the illusion of illusions can no longer be maintained? What price must one pay to win? To love?

The Night Circus has not been as well-loved by all as it was by me, and perhaps that is because I listened to, rather than read, the story. Because in fact, it is not about the story. Just as the circus is a mere backdrop against which two illusionists can throw their challenge, the book is a backdrop against which Morgenstern can exercise her power of descriptive language and powerful imagery. It is a means for whisking readers (or listeners) away from one world and into one similar but slightly altered, carried along by a desire to discover this world rather than merely find out what happens in it.

Some of this reviewer disappointment I attribute to that dreaded hype machine, which has made this wonderful little skirmish of a book sound like something it is not. Though there are spells and duels and romance and love triangles and even a semi-evil magician, this is not what makes The Night Circus special. No, instead its power lies in the fact that is a book of setting and description, touched with a small but helpful dose of plotlines, wrapped in striped paper and tied with a flourishing black-and-white bow.

Set aside any expectations but that you will discover something new, and The Night Circus will deliver. Not surprisingly, Dale proves to be the perfect narrator for the novel, bringing Morgenstern's elegantly imagined world to life, coloring characters with unique voices, tones, and attitudes, enveloping listeners in the melodic sounds of whimsy.

And for those of you who have always had an inkling that Harry Potter really could be real, prepare to find yourself waiting for the sudden appearance of black-and-white tents, an elaborate clock, and a faint breeze carrying the hint of caramel on its back.

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Thoughts from other bookworms:
Jenny's Books
books i done read
Literary Musings

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Thanks to the Anne Arundel County Public Library, as always, for continuing to stock amazing - and current! - audiobooks for my listening pleasure.

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The Night Circus | Erin Morgenstern, nar. Jim Dale | Random House Audio | 978-0-307-93890-9 | $45.00 Compact Disc | 11 discs, 13 hrs 39 min | September 2011 | Buy from an independent bookstore near you

Book Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Two book reviews in one week - not bad, right? The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane came to me from my librarian-in-training cousin, who is working to get her Masters in Library Science and already practicing her book recommendations. And clearly she's doing well, because this book rocked.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane smacks of anything but first novel, which it is for novelist Katherine Howe. Descended from Elizabeth Howe, who survived the Salem witch trials, and Elizabeth Proctor, who did not, Howe turns her expert pen to the subject of witches and magic in both colonial America and modern day. Focusing on the story of Connie, a PhD candidate at Harvard, Howe explores Connie's studies and her search for the perfect primary source, overlaying Connie's modern-day story with the background of Massachusetts witch-hunts in the 17th century.

The extensive research that must have gone into Howe's novel shines through, and readers cannot fail to appreciate this. From the Salem witch trials themselves to the history and culture of New England to colonial lifestyle, Howe is thorough and complete, weaving historical accuracy in with a well-fabricated and well-conceived storyline.

My only complaint would be a small inconsistency in the story, in which a mysterious illness is attributed to two separate and completely distinct causes - but I can't say more without giving away too much.

Bottom line: While not the be-all, end-all of best books I've read in 2010, Physick Book of Deliverance Dane succeeds because doesn't try to be more than it is: a well-paced, accurate historical novel. In the search for a book of solid distraction but with enough weight not to feel like a waste of precious reading hours, Howe will satisfy your every need. Thorough research coupled with a plot of intrigue, magic and deception makes a chunky, relevant page-turner, and if you're anything like me, you'll finish the novel wanting to find about more about the Salem witch trials and the culture that surrounded them.

Any recommendations for further reading?

Book Review: The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

I picked up a copy of The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares, at a sales conference for work of all places. I had never heard of Casares, but with a prologue from a name like Borges, I was certainly intrigued.

It turns out that Borges was actually Casares mentor (so close that the original cover of the book was actually drawn by Borges' sister), and that Casares works of magical realism were (and are) revered by other well-known South American authors, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who is one of my favorite authors of all time. If you haven't heard me babble on about Marquez yet... maybe it's time for a Marquez post.

But I digress. The Invention of Morel is actually Casares' seventh book, but it was the one that he used to mark the beginning of his writing career. And upon reading this catchy NYRB edition, I can see why.

The story is told as the journal of an unnamed fugitive narrator, who has fled his homeland for reasons we are never entirely given. When he hears of a small island rumored to be the cause of a great disease, he ventures there to seek safety from his persecutors. Desperate, ailing, lonely and confused, he arrives on the island and seeks refuge in what is called "the museum." Resigned to his eternal solitude, he sets finding food, shelter, and the like... until strangers begin to appear at the museum and he flees.

Book Review: Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming

I picked up Kingdom of Ohio last weekend on kind of a whim – the galley had been sitting on my shelf for too long – and it turned out to be the kind of book I just couldn’t put down. It took my four days to finish, but that was only by sheer willpower, forcing myself to look away so as to keep the book from ending.

Yes, it was that good. Close on the heels of my review of E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, Kingdom of Ohio is another historic novel set in turn-of-the-century New York (despite its misleading name – see below). But unlike Doctorow, whose focus on the impending inventions of the 20^th century did so at the expense of the individuality of man, Matthew Flaming’s story focuses on the advent of machinery as a sign of an overarching pattern and rythym of life.

Kingdom of Ohio tells the tale of Peter Force, a runaway from Idaho who flees to New York, eventually finding work on the infant subway tunnel projects. When he meets a woman on the street who identifies herself as Cherie-Ann Toledo, heiress to the Kingdom of Ohio, Peter is swept up in a fast-paced adventure of love, machinery, time-travel and the meaning of life itself.