Joint Musings: The Night Circus

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, is one of the most-anticipated novels of the year.  In it, two highly skilled magicians, Celia and Marco, are unwittingly ensnared into competition with each other.  Celia has been raised by her very self-absorbed father to be the greatest magician possible.  Marco, an orphan brought up by an emotionally unavailable man, has trained his whole life for the same thing.  Their venue?  The Night Circus, an incredibly imagined and gorgeously executed idea that they use to share their magical prowess with the world and with each other.  But as Celia and Marco become more intrigued by each other, the circus begins to wobble, and the two must choose whether to be together when everything they've worked for may collapse, or to collapse themselves under the strain of the circus itself.

Erin Morgenstern was an artist before she was an author, and so her descriptions of The Night Circus are stunning.  It's a fully realized and fascinating place.  I loved reading about it, but that was one of the few things that I truly loved about this novel.  Unlike many, I was not swept away by this book.

I read it with one of my best blogging buddies, Zibilee, and chatting with her about the book was so rewarding and really opened up many more doors to interpretation and discussion than I had originally anticipated.  Below is the second half of our joint review of this book.  Check out Raging Bibliomania for the first half.

3) Do you think that there was a message intended from the author that was hidden in the story? If so, what do you think it was?

Aarti:  Oh, gosh, I am so bad at these sorts of questions!  Um... is it a complete cop-out if I say no?  :-)  In a way, I feel like the author had a message about camaraderie, and the power that sharing an experience can have to create bonds between people.  But sometimes those bonds can be really wonderful, as with the Reveler circus followers, who were such a tight-knit community.  But sometimes, the bonds can become... well, binding, as in the case of all the circus performers who didn’t know what they were getting into.

Heather:  I liked your answer!  I think there were definitely messages that had to do with freewill and subservience, and certain ideas of exploitation and abuse of power were explored as well.  Another message that I got from this book was the idea that as much as we try to control and order our lives, there are some things that end up being entirely out of our hands, which can be wonderful at times, but also scary.  This last message is mostly what I picked up from the conclusion of the book, and also from the eventual fates of some of the people who were tied to the circus.

4)  My favorite part of this book were all the very vivid descriptions of the tents and other attractions at the Night Circus.  What part of the Night Circus would you most like to see and experience for yourself?

Aarti:  I think I am biased because one of my favorite characters was the clockmaker, but I would LOVE to see the clock, with all the intricate pieces moving together and creating a masterpiece.  I don’t have the book with me here, or I’d insert a description- but I think it would be a beautiful sight to behold, somewhat like the famous clock that is in Prague.

Heather:  I would love to spend ten minutes in the tent that held all the little bottles with the essences and smells trapped inside of them.  There was something so magical about that section of the book, and when I was reading those bits, I was playing games with myself about what kinds of things I would put in those bottles.  That tent fueled a lot of daydreaming on my part!

5)  What emotion do you associate with this book, either because of the plot, the characters, the circus itself or the themes that presented themselves?

Aarti:  I associate a sort of fatalistic melancholy with the book, if that makes any sense.  The whole book had a sense of inevitability about it, with two magicians who fall in love and are doomed to combat each other.  Obviously, that aspect of the story gives it a significant amount of melancholy!  But it seemed like everyone just did what they were told, as though it were written in the stars, even though none of them was particularly happy.  It was interesting to me that all the circus attendees thought the Night Circus was a beautiful, glorious wonderful thing, but those that worked in and with the circus thought it was exhausting and sinister, which contributed to my overall feeling of melancholy with this book.

Heather:  I also got a feeling of melancholy, and I agree with your statement about the futility as well.  It was such a layered and interesting book, but for all its imagination, it was also very sad, and certain scenes between the older magicians and the younger ones made me very upset.  There was a lot of emotion in this book, and though some of it was exciting and revealing and creative, a lot of it was sobering and reflective and sad.  When we were discussing this book, you brought up a lot of things that reinforced the feelings of pensiveness and even tragedy in some cases. 

Note:  This review is based on advanced readers' copies.  Heather and I both received copies of this book for free to review.