RA Crossroads: What To Read After Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus
By Neal Wyatt Oct 6, 2011As Lewis Carroll's Alice so aptly points out, "What is the use of a book...without pictures or conversations?" Welcome to RA Crossroads, where books, movies, music, and other media converge, and whole-collection reader's advisory service goes where it may. In this column, a magical circus leads me down a winding path.
Begin:
Morgenstern, Erin. The Night Circus. Doubleday. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780385534635. $26.95. F
Morgenstern's much-hyped debut—it was previewed by Barbara Hoffert in Prepub Alert, garnered a starred LJ review, and topped the September 2011 Indie Next List—is a generous and unexpected novel, fancifully articulated through a time-spanning plot that unfolds in connected interludes. Readers are welcomed into Le Cirque des Rêves-the Circus of Dreams-on the first few pages: under the popping lights, through the spacious veil of stars, into a labyrinthine space of black-and-white-striped tents filled with such attractions as an ice garden, a cloud maze, and a bonfire of crimson, violet, and white. From this initial invitation, the story jumps back and forth in time between 1837 and 1903, exploring the interrelated tales of a handful of characters. The weaving creates a lovely, restrained pacing, allowing readers to stroll through the story the way they would through the circus itself. At the narrative's core are two magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been set among the circus tents as figures on a magical chessboard. They are to play a game run by Celia's father and his nemesis, Alexander, a game the two masters have orchestrated many times before. What is at stake, how the game is played, and even the length of the game are unknown to Celia and Marco, who at first compete, but soon cannot resist collaborating to create ever-more fantastical attractions for the circus. As they forge the sumptuous revelry inside the tents, the two slowly fall in love, and their relationship is as fragile as the folded-paper models Marco uses to keep up with the circus and the mysterious scrapbook he employs to ensure the circus doesn't unravel. But unravel it does, as the circus was not designed as anything other than a battlefield. As the fate of the citizens of Le Cirque des Rêves, and that of a few key outside supporters, hangs by a thread, Celia and Marco must figure out how to escape the game. Evoking a mood of wonderment complemented by a portentous feel, the novel's lush language and charming sensibility will lure readers in as surely as tent signs such as A Climb Through the Firmament lure visitors into Le Cirque des Rêves. Note to audio fans: Don't miss Jim Dale's extraordinary reading.
Read-Alikes:
Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Bloomsbury. 2004. 800p. ISBN 9781582344164. $27.95. F
Clarke's debut is also a generous and unexpected novel, one that is equally portentous and provides readers with a similar sense of wonderment. While darker than The Night Circus (which itself is not sweetness and light), Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell also explores the consequences of two dueling magicians (and is also available in audio, superbly narrated by Simon Prebble). Mr. Norrell is a humorless and judgmental man, wishing to lock the secrets of English magic within his library. Jonathan Strange is a more open, but no less complicated figure, determined to learn magic. The novel traces much of their relationship and rivalry in London and through the campaigns aboard during the Napoleonic War. The story line is complicated by a dangerously powerful being from Faerie and the allusive figure of the Raven King, whose history is given, as is much of English Magic, through a series of footnotes. Like The Night Circus, Clarke's novel is lushly written and languidly paced, building to a conclusion that leaves one going back a few pages to experience it again. Both books also share a similar approach to the details of magic, which are allusively sketched, and a writing style that is at once luminous and crisp. As a result, both books make readers wish that the pages were transparent overlays that would allow us to lift up the corners and peer inside for more.
Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Scholastic. 2007. 544p. ISBN 9780439813785. $24.99. F
The fantasy and surprise of The Night Circus is nicely echoed in the delightful mixture of forms that Brian Selznick blends in his story of Hugo, a 12-year-old orphan who lives within the walls of a Paris train station. While Selznick's novel is ostensibly for younger readers, it should please adult fans of Morgenstern with its invitation to wonder and its focus on characters that hold answers for each other. Both novels center on the creation of something grand and important. In Hugo's case, it is the quest to repair an automaton that he believes will write him a message from his father. As his story unfolds, he discovers far more than the message-he discovers something lost for too long. The two novels share a lush sensibility, which Morgenstern achieves through extravagant detail, while Selznick, an illustrator and writer, creates by blending visual detail and textual description. The same captivated feeling one gets figuring out just what Marco has done with his scrapbook of hair and signatures is present on every page of Selznick's masterwork. Hugo just might have grown up to be Friedrick Thiessen, the wonderful clockmaker of Morgenstern's novel.
Wrede, Patricia C. & Caroline Stevemer. Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot. Sandpiper. 2004. 336p. ISBN 9780152053000. pap. $7.99. F
If your readers enjoyed The Night Circus for its restrained romance (color-changing clothes infused with emotion) and fanciful overtones, then this collaborative novel makes a charming next read. Its epistolary form nicely complements the episodic nature of Morgenstern's novel, as both are created from allusive filaments of story that must be pieced together. Cousins Kate and Cecelia live in a world where magic is commonplace, and witches and sorcerers plot and attend balls. Kate is off to London for her first season, while Cecelia stays in the country. True to its Jane Austen roots, the story chronicles both women as they attract heroes and uncover villains. Somehow, involving an enchanted chocolate pot, all the key players engage in a deadly magical battle in which the cousins take charge. Kate and Cecelia will remind readers of Celia-all three women are strong, forthright, and smart. Combined with a languid sense of pacing, a strong stress on style, and attention to world building, this fun read will have Morgenstern's readers, to use Regency cant, in alt (to be ecstatic).
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Knopf. 2006. ISBN 9780375838309. $22.95. F
What will strike many readers of The Night Circus is its portentous, yet ethereal mood supported by an amazingly detailed world. While there are any number of books that can evoke similar feelings, Pullman's astoundingly rich world of Oxford, icy lands, and parallel realms is as unforgettable and breathtaking as the black-and-white circus Morgenstern creates. While all three novels in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy teeter on a knife's blade of darkness and loss, Lyra Belacqua's opening tale is the most luminous. There is magic in Lyra's world, along with religion and science and the inevitable clash for control of any element. But as the story begins, Lyra does not know this-all she knows is that her best friend has vanished (just one of many children who have disappeared), and her uncle, who is experimenting with strange particles known as Dust, is in danger. So 11-year-old Lyra sneaks out of Jordan College, Oxford, where she lives as a ward of the scholars, and sets off to save them both. Aided by her shape-shifting dæmon, Pan, plus witches, armored bears, and a rare alethiometer (which will guide her way if she can only figure out how to read it), Lyra uncovers a horrifying plot and the fate of the missing children. Pullman has created a world readers will never want to leave, sumptuously imagined and brilliantly told.
Read-Arounds:
Day, Cathy. The Circus in Winter. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2004. 288p. ISBN 9780151010486. $23. OP but widely held. F
While Morgenstern's circus is a magical one, it is no less a community with multiple stories playing out behind the tents. Readers get to encounter only a few of these stories, as most are kept in the background, but they can read about circus people in Day's deft and thoughtful collection of intertwined stories. Set in Lima, IN, which hosts the Great Porter Circus during the off-season, these tales range from the late 1800s into the 1900s. Day explores the lives of a number of performers, including the owner of the circus, Wallace Porter, who comes to life in the first chapter as a man who does not understand enough and will grow to know much sorrow. Day descends from circus stock and fills her stories with historical research and firsthand knowledge. She writes with a spare luminosity that manages the darkness of lost dreams, and the fragile joy of found hopes, with great grace. At times funny, at times tragic, often haunted and mysterious, these stories-of clowns, acrobats, and elephant keepers-weave their own spell, no less magical for being heartbreakingly real. For those wanting more circus reads, there is, of course, Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, Richard Schmitt's The Aerialist, Robert Hough's The Final Confession of Mabel Stark, and Stewart O'Nan's harrowing The Circus Fire.
Seamon, Tobias. The Magician's Study. Turtle Point Pr. 2000. 184p. ISBN 9781885586988. $16.95. F
Employing a narrative device similar to Morgenstern's, Seamon's novel invites readers to partake directly in the story, one disguised as a tour of "The Great" Rouncival's study. As items in the room are discussed, the tour guide slowly reveals Rouncival's life, pausing often to address the tour group and comment upon their reactions to his stories, and what a story it is. Rouncival began in a seedy carnival only to become one of the most famous illusionists of the 1920s. Along with his assistant, Sherpa the Silent, a pirate from Cuba, he created an act of dazzling achievement that left audiences gasping. Rouncival kept company with Houdini, H.G. Wells, and Frida Kahlo and wined and dined the best and brightest of the era. Set against a backdrop of a detailed Manhattan-particularly the Bowery-and infused with the city's history, the novel seduces as it explores, not only the deeds of "The Great" Rouncival, but also the world he occupied. While the real magic in this book is the writing style and imagination of Seamon, spending time touring Rouncival's study weaves a definite spell.
Watch-Alike:
The Prestige. 130 min. Christopher Nolan, dist. by Touchstone Pictures. 2006. $14.99.
Based on the book by Christopher Priest, The Prestige is a dark and chilling movie, as if The Night Circus took a huge step into the shadows and instead of collaborating Celia and Marco did, indeed, become deadly enemies. It matches well for readers who are intrigued by the suggestion of battle and the implied danger of Celia's father and Alexander. In fact, this movie might be seen as what Celia's father would have done if he could not have fallen back on magic-and if cutting Celia's fingers did not achieve his ends. Atmospheric, seething, spectacularly set, and grandly mysterious, the movie traces the rivalry of two Victorian-era magicians, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), who seemingly will stop at nothing to learn each other's greatest trick. In a convoluted slight of hand, Robert sets up a series of traps that ultimately leads to Alfred revealing his secret. Or does he? The pacing has the same developing feel of The Night Circus and certainly the eye for detail and world building is the same. The Prestige is for watchers who are looking for tricks and puzzles, rather than romance and warmth.
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