The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Another book 10 years in the writing, The Night Circus is centered around Celia and Marco, two magicians who hide the magical nature of their work as exhibits in Le Cirque des Rêves or Circus of Dreams.  The circus is fantastically imagined and beautifully described by Morgenstern, accounts of various tents and attractions scattered between story chapters as well as the impressions of minor characters’ visits to the circus are always welcome reading.  The chapters are also broken up along the plot’s timeline.  Jumps back and forwards in time are usually easy to distinguish, though I found one towards the end quite confusing.

The Night Circus has been criticized for prioritizing imagery over plot but, while I agree the plot is slow-moving, I’ll be remembering this story for a long time, not for the plot, but for the circus, which is so well imagined.  This gives the plot weight too, because the fate of the circus is directly interwoven with the fate of Celia and Marco.

Michael L.

The Trout Opera – Matthew Condon

It took ten years for Condon to write The Trout Opera.  The story focuses primarily on the lives of Wilfred Lamp, a 100 year old man who has lived his life on the Snowy River, and his great niece, Aurora Beck, a young woman struggling to create a new life for herself after escaping her junkie boyfriend.  

A multitude of secondary characters also have stories to tell in this novel and Condon takes the time to do service to these stories also.  The non-linear narrative jumps between characters and time periods without damaging the flow of the story.

The story is more than a whimsical history lesson however, Aurora’s junkie boyfriend is hunting her down and the drug culture is portrayed with disturbing realism.  All in all, The Trout Opera is a book that captures some of the simple highs and extreme lows of humanity and life.