When you're stuck in A&E at 1am, having already been there for three hours, I can assure you that you are very glad of something to read once your companion and I-spy partner has left for the comforts of home and bed. Ideally that something should require little brain power and not have a ridiculously small font, but frankly any distraction from the pain in your kneecap is a good one. My accomplice kindly left me her copy of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, one of her favourite novels. No pressure then.
My previous experience of Carter was The Magic Toyshop, which I generally liked as a bit of a fairy tale kitchen sink drama. This was not dissimilar in blending together elements of the fantastic with personal tales, but on a much larger scale. Both the Russian setting and the circus backdrop gave the story plenty of zest and life and worked well for the biggest freak of them all, the protagonist Fevvers, a Cockney girl with wings. It also serves as a vehicle to express ideas on women's rights, class and social outcasts and misfits. The almost anachronistic placing of more modern ideas onto traditionally Victorian characters highlights the problems of society both then and now and adds a layer of complexity to the cast and the novel as a whole.
The blurring of reality and the constant need for questioning of what we're told works to create a tale that delights in playing with conventions. And the language is fantastic. Carter is clearly a top drawer writer as the prose oozes with splendid turns of phrase or memorable descriptions, building up further layers of perception and deception. So perhaps not the ideal material for the circumstances, but certainly well-written and gripping enough to hold the interest and certainly a novel worthy of praise and study.
Book number: 74
Title: Nights at the Circus
Author: Angela Carter
Category: Book club/recommendations
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