Nights at the Circus

I guess you can't do a story about a circus or a carnival without it being weird, quirky, and a bit dangerous. This story has all those things. Also it's taking place in turn-of-the century Europe when life was much harder for everyone.

The main story is a romance between Fevver, a woman with swan wings, headliner of the circus and former orphaned ward of a whore house and Walser, journalist and war correspondent. He's looking for a less dangerous occupation; she loves to be a star.

There isn't a strong driving plot. Most of this is incidents or episodes that take place as the circus visits various cities in Europe. A lot of the content is backstory about the various members in the circus troupe.

Carter sets up overarching themes of feminism, mostly showing various women who are better off without the men in their lives. At one point, readers meet a prison full of women who have all poisoned their husbands and probably for good reason.

The lead character, though, suffers a breakdown of her ego and doubt in her ability to defend herself so I'm unclear how that fits into the overall feminist “women don't need men” themes. I do see that the same thing happens to her male counterpart who loses his dignity, his mind, and his identity before he is finished with the circus and ready to join Fevver in love and partnership.

There is a lot of humor and I found the backstories of the characters very engaging. The writing style is very dense, despite the deceptively short length. It's also a bit uneven. Each part of the book has a different style, from one character telling a story to another, to third-person omniscient, to first person.