I listened to The Night Circus
just after Christmas, but I've been holding off writing about it. Partly it's
because I've been busy freelance writing, but also because I was still swimming
through the currents of the book long after I'd finished listening to it.
Author Erin Morgenstern, whose website is titled, "erin's emporium of
discount dreams & well-worn wonders," and offers a free mystery with
purchase, has managed to create something that, for those who are susceptible,
is very alluring and seductive, yet hard to grab hold of. Reviewers seem split
on the book, with some outright disliking it, and others liking it, but having
a hard time explaining why. I'm firmly camped in the latter category but I have
a very hard time describing what it's really about.
Released in September, 2011,
The Night Circus is a quirky tale of a mysterious circus, Le Cirque des Rêves, that suddenly appears overnight, the illusionists who work
there and create earthly illusions to mask the real magic that underlies each
of the tents. The circus itself is an organic being and the people who work in
it and the patrons who would follow it to the end of the earth are the blood
and heart of it. The story is about a contest between two old magicians, who
pit their very young apprentices, Celia and Marco, against each other in a dual
to the death that will last for decades, and that they are unaware of until it
is too late to get out. The competition becomes more complicated when Celia and
Marco fall in love.
This book, and Jim Dale's
excellent narration, got under my skin. I may need to re-listen to it to see
what else happens the second time around. I can't imagine it would be the same
twice.
I downloaded The Night Circus from Library to Go. You can listen to an excerpt below.
Listen Up:
The Night Circus, Random House Audio (13 hrs, 40 mins), 2011
