The Night Circus: A Novel Paperback – July 3, 2012

A friend recommended this book to me. I had not read anything by this author, but I decided to try it after reading a few reviews. “The Night Circus” is a New York Times best seller and has had many rave reviews. Of course, there are always some readers out there who have no taste for this type of fantasy. I was glad I took the plunge and bought this book. I loved it!.The Night Circus is magical, surreal and utterly captivating. Originally, I bought the book on Audible. I was hooked by the Audible version. The narrator, Jim Dale, is excellent. He made the characters come alive and pulled me deeply into the story. I enjoyed the Audible version so much that I bought the paperback, from Amazon, as well. Incidentally, the paperback cover is beautifully done and is in keeping with the magic within. What a gorgeous paperback!Erin Morgenstern takes the reader on a journey of the imagination, a disorienting but exhilarating ride that juxtapositions reality and fantasy. It is like a fairytale that is set in the late 19th century. It could almost be one of Hans Christian Anderson’s tales, but it is certainly more intense and intricate.The circus suddenly appears in a field. A small boy, Bailey, waits for it to open, but he reads a sign that says it is only open at night. He thinks that is odd, so he hangs around the gate and sneaks in. He keeps coming back to the circus and is befriended by the twins Poppet and Widget who perform tricks with kittens. He is obsessed with the circus and feels like this is his real home. His family does not approve of his obsession with the circus, so Bailey has to sneak out at night when his whole family is sleeping. He meets a group of “Reveurs” or dreamers who follow the magical circus wherever it goes. He ponders whether he can run can away from home and even join the circus.The magician, Hector Bowen, Prospero the Enchanter, is surprised when he finds he has a daughter, Celia, and must care for her. He sees Celia’s potential in the art of illusion and trains her as a magician. In another location, Mr. A. H., the Man in the Gray Suit, rescues a young boy, Marco, from an orphanage and spends years training him in the magical arts.Celia and Marco are being trained for a challenge, a game in which they do not know the rules and do not know whom they are competing against. Every move they make affects all the people in the circus. Marco knows who Celia is and understands the game they are playing before she does. He starts playing tricks on her, but when she realizes Marco is her opponent in the challenge, she uses her powers to block his magic. They both work hard to increase their individual powers and defeat the other challenger.Marco and Celia, fight for control over the circus, a fight that will lead to death for one of them. However, as the years pass, they fall in love. They both want to give up the game and be together. When they see that is not possible, they each want to die and let the other live. Towards the end of the book, they know they have to break the rules of the game. Marco jumps into the circus bonfire, a bonfire that continually burns in the middle of the circus. Celia jumps in with him, and they become the core of the circus. They are neither dead nor alive, but they are together eternally. The competition is a draw; neither side wins the game.The circus is like an intricate clock that has to work perfectly, just like the large magical circus clock that is at the center of the circus and is essential to the circus’ operation. However, Frederick Thessien, the clock maker, is murdered. Mr. A.H., The Man in the Gray Suit, blames Hector Bowen, Prospero the Enchanter, for the murder. Marco and Celia stop playing the game, and the circus contortionist, Tsukiko, officially ends the challenge. The circus starts to fall apart and the performers hurry to catch the train that will take them elsewhere. Bailey had packed a few possessions and planned on running away from home to join the circus that night, but he took too long to get ready to go. When he finally reached the field where the circus had been, he found only the empty field. The circus had left town without him. Does that circus still exist somewhere or was it all a dream?Magic, danger, romance, jealousy, hate, and love are all here in this remarkable book. The characters are magnificent and memorable. I got so deeply into the twists and turns of the plot that I did not want to put the book down.

I loved the descriptions of the scenes. I hope they make a movie of it someday. Book arrived in great condition.

How can one book be so many things? A romance, a fantasy, a mystery--it is all of these things and more. In terms of my tastes, this book is perfect. Character development was deep and interesting; pacing was well timed. But by far the imagination of the author extraordinary. I was intrigued at every page, surprised at every turn, and so satisfied at its conclusion.

Ms. Morgenstern has created that sublimely rare gem of great narrative, compelling characters, and a superb setting using finely crafted writing; all of this accomplished in her debut novel. As I have noted elsewhere, there are a number of authors who are successful; they provide a good read and keep us connected to their novels that do one or two of these things well. They might provide good narrative and a compelling world of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Her characters are fine but the writing is just adequate. She doesn't carefully craft her sentences. Many people look down their nose at Ms. Meyers, but there are many, possibly most writers who are good at some of these aspects of storytelling that are still worthwhile to read. I've read the entire Twilight series as well as The Host. I'm glad I did. She is successful for a reason, but she doesn't execute on every one of these elements of writing.Morgenstern is one of those very rare authors who do it all. Each sentence, description and phrase is a marvel. She almost takes the care of a poet, but over many pages. We become fully immersed in her characters, her world and her story. We do so in the "air" of her exquisite writing. She is a delight to read. I will pre-order anything she cares to write. As she's noted in her blog, she won't be cranking out a book ever year; I'm absolutely good with that. Her writing is worth the wait (said now in the early cycle of waiting for her next piece).The Night Circus contains a number of threaded stories that weave together into a beautiful, whole cloth. The book would have been great just getting to the circus or just with the character studies of the principles and the unfolding of their relationships. It would be a great novel simply living within the magical elements or immersed in the parties at la maison Lèfevre. Not only does it have all of these elements but weaves them together in a beautiful dance that provides a coherent overall show. Of course, don't take my stilted words for it but let's see a marvelous example:"The Cloud MazeAn Excursion in DimensionA Climb Though the FirmamentThere Is No Beginning There Is No EndEnter Where You PleaseLeave When You WishHave No Fear of FallingInside, the tent is dark-walled with an immense, iridescent white structure in the center. Bailey can think of nothing else to call it. It takes up the entirety of the tent save for a raised path along the perimeter, a winding loop that begins at the tent entrance and circles around. The floor beyond the path is covered with white spheres, thousands of them piled like soap bubbles. The tower itself is a series of platforms swooping in odd, diaphanous shapes, quite similar to clouds. They are layered, like a cake. From what Bailey can see, the space between layers varies from room enough to walk straight through to barely enough to crawl. Here and there parts of it almost float away from the central tower, drifting off into space."[i]I will not go into the storyline (see Amazon's synopsis here) in fear of given away the plot. I simply will conclude with unfettered praise for Ms. Morgenstern's writing; she is absolutely fabulous.A couple of side notes: I jumped between the Kindle edition of this and the audible (despite the fact that Whispersync for Voice isn't enable on the Windows Phone 8 app - I'm looking @ you Audible development team). Jim Dale (of Harry Potter fame) does a wonderful job reading The Night Circus. If you like listening to audiobooks, I highly recommend his work.The second note I wanted to make is that reading this work gives me hope for a more civil, connected public discourse in an increasingly divisive America. I suspect that Ms. Morgenstern and I have starkly different views of social, political and theological issues. I don't know this, but a New Englander that graduated from Smith would not share the same worldview with a conservative Christian living in the South. Despite this, Ms. Morgenstern draws me completely into her world; I absolutely connect with her in the portion of her thought life she makes available in her work. This encourage me. If we can connect, surely we Americans can connect with one another better, have a more civil discourse in those areas where we diverge and listen to one another more often. I don't anticipate that we would change each other's views; I do believe we can respect each other without doing so. There seems to be this thought the tolerance for one another depends or either not believing there is an objective truth ("what you believe is true for you but not me") or we should not be strong in our convictions (if you are, you're a fundamentalist). I would rather have us acknowledge our stark differences and firmly, but humbly, hold our beliefs and yet be civil to one another. The connection engendered by Ms. Morgenstern and her work gives me hope that this is possible.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------[i] The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern, Kindle Edition, Location 3151