Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Jean Longo is a Research & Learning Librarian at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

When I picked up this book I remember thinking that I was not sure I wanted to read another book about a circus, as I had recently read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  How many circus stories could interest a person?  Well, now for me apparently, two.

The Cirque Des Reves (The Circus of Dreams) will appear suddenly at night in cities like New York, London or Paris.  The shows are only at night and people are overwhelmingly drawn to the black and white tents, some to the extent that they follow the circus from place to place calling themselves “reveurs” (who wear red scarves as their identifier).

The story unfolds with two young children Celia and Marco.  Each child is being raised by rival wizards and these two men are teaching their child all they know about illusion and enchantment.  Celia Bowen is being raised by her father Prospero the Enchanter while Marco Alisdair, an orphan,  the sinister Mr. A. H.  who picked him out of an institution. Celia has inherited her father’s stage talent for illusion with the ability to shatter items and put them back together.  Marco learns from books and kept locked up alone until he is sent to work for the creator of the circus.  Celia is hired as the circus illusionist, whilst Marco works behind-the-scenes in planning and protecting the circus and all its performers.  The two meet develop feelings for each other only to find out that they are meant to be opponents in a contest of illusionary skills.

This is a meticulously crafted story.  As we follow the paths of Celia and Marco there are also many intriguing characters and elaborate settings.  Although the overall story line is a bit on the dark side the descriptive writing of the performances, acts and environments make it a story worth reading.  It is an exploration between competition and cooperation.

Reviewed March 2013