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Synopsis
The protagonist of this novel is "a six-foot-two-inch woman aerialist with wings. The setting is turn of the century London, St. Petersburg, and Siberia. An American journalist, Jack Walser, has been sent to interview Sophia, known as Fevvers to her friends, and is so intrigued by her account of her childhood that he joins the circus as a clown. Then begin the . . . 'nights at the circus,' with a train derailment in Siberia, where Walser starts his apprenticeship as a shaman." (Libr J)
Carolyn See
Mrs. Carter, who is the author of seven previous novels and two collections of short stories, might have remembered that at the circus, or in a book, the real trick is to quit while you're ahead, to get off stage with the audience begging for more. Nights at the Circus is a class act, drawing as it does on a mad mixture of Mary Poppins, Djuna Barnes's Nightwood {BRD 1937}, Greek mythology and reruns of 'The Bionic Woman.' It's wonderful to read, but there comes a time when you long for the circus to be over so you can go home toyour quiet bed. For me that point was reached when a Siberian shaman, trailing an amnesiac Walser, fitfully slalomed from tree to tree, asking each if it was appropriate for drumming; 'This is what the drumming tree said to the Shaman: "Yah! Fooled you!"' -- New York Times Book Review