The Night Circus

When I finished Erin Morgenstern's debut novel The Night Circus I sat back, caught my breath and sighed, my first thought being "This is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read." Followed quickly by "But what the hell was it about?" Below you will find the running discussion I had with my own brain:

Was it "Contemporary Fantasy"?

Well no, it is set in the end of the Victorian period and into the Edwardian period, hardly what I would call "Contemporary".

The circus is an ongoing duel between wizards from differing schools of magic, so it must be a "good vs. evil" novel.

But that does not fit either, there are no truly evil characters, Marco and Celia the two wizards involved in the duel are both good characters, so good in fact that they fall in love.

Ok, they fall in love so it must be a romance novel.

That does not really work because for 90% of the novel, they don't even know about each other, except that there is a rival magician in the circus. Marco and Celia make attractions at the circus using a combination of magic and Victorian building methods using cogs and pulleys They collaborate on some and make others of their own, but most of the time they are not even in the same country, and only see each other maybe a half dozen times in the entire novel. They do fall in love, but the novel can hardly be called a romance.

Cogs and pulleys, Victorian age. Steampunk! It's a Steampunk novel!

Not exactly. Although the attractions have the feel of steampunk, with all the talk of cogs and clockworks, it still somehow fails to reach the level of a true steampunk novel. There are no dirigibles, no steam powered computers, no futuristic technology. The mechanisms are not the focus of the novel.

Well now, you said the attractions were magical, magical in the real world, "Magical realism".

I'm so sorry but only the magicians and some of the circus performers know about the magic, everyone else is just charmed and amazed by the "Ice Garden" display, and the Cloud Tent, and all the other attractions. Only if magic is acknowledge by society in general can it be considered magical realism.

You know what, you SUCK! And your theories SUCK! And this book SUCKS! AND THE WORLD SUCKS! NOW GET OUT OF MY HEAD, AND STOP PICKING ON ME!

Ok, calm down Crazy Voice Inside My Head. I am going to tell you the secret of this book, and you are going to let me talk and not say another word until I finish:

Remember the time we were trying to get from point A to point B, and we turned onto this beautiful tree lined street. The houses and the parks on that street were so pretty they made you want to cry and you felt a little jealous that some people got to live there all the time, but you were only going to get to visit, but by the time you got to the end of the street you were happy you were able to experience that street even if it was only for a little while.....

Yes I remember that street, but what was the book about?

Ok Psycho, cool your jets I'm getting to it. This book is about a magical circus. That's it. The characters are just a part of this world. The author wrote a novel about a beautiful magical place I would like to visit. The characters are there because a circus has to have people to be a circus. There is no story except how the circus came to be. The circus is the reason for the book. Not the magical duel, not the romance, none of it. It's the old saying "it's not the destination, it's the journey" And at the end of the novel The Circus of Dreams is the one and only star, but oh what a star it is!!

5 out of 5 stars.