Skip to main content

Nerdsville Book Club #4: Invisible Circus, by Jennifer Egan


Invisible Circus, available via Amazon

Last months book choice was made by my kindred spirit, Marie, so I was really looking forward to seeing what she had chosen. Marie chose Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan.

The story is about 18 year old Phoebe who is haunted by her older sister, Faith. During her travels, Faith fell to her death in an apparent suicide in Corniglia, Italy and years later, Phoebe reaches an age where the demons left by the memory of her sister really start to get to her; she decides to travel around Europe and follow her sisters footsteps up to her untimely death. The decision comes as a complete shock to her family but as the book is written in a first person narrative, it becomes clear before she tells her family that Phoebe was always going to take the leap. 

I found Phoebes relationship with her sister quite unsettling. It is made very clear in the beginning that Faith was the treasured and favoured one. I can relate to that personally as my older sister is too the favoured one, but the way Phoebe describes her feelings towards her sister are incredibly contradictory. In one instance she is talking about her obsession with Faith, but in another instance she is describing the lack of emotion she feels when her sister comes to harm when trying to impress their dad. There is an undercurrent between the two of them and Phoebe seems to really struggle with whether sometimes she even likes her sister.

While Faith was travelling, she wrote postcards to her family, so Phoebe uses those postcards to plan her route through Europe. The thing that really frustrated me about Phoebe was her seeming lack of self care. She often puts herself in situations where as the reader, you just want to shake her (y'know, this fictions character!) and ask what on earth she's thinking; but it felt like Phoebe wasn't thinking, it felt like she was resigned and was just going through the motions until the end. She harks back to the 60s and assumes Faith must have had a much better early adulthood than she did because she constantly consumed drugs and was constantly surrounded by likeminded peers. As a 70s child, Phoebe feels like she has lost out. There comes a moment in the story where Phoebe has to decide whether she wants to continue mirroring her sisters life or make her own path....

I really enjoyed this book. I can't believe this is a first novel and as a amateur fiction writer myself, I can only applaud this marvellous effort. However, one thing that irked me a little was that sometimes the plot seemed a little too easy. Some of Phoebes encounters are almost unrealistic and a little too convenient considering there were around 8 years between her travels and her sisters. Also the brother Barry is almost a backdrop, just a glimpse into what the "alternative/ normal" life is - I'd had loved to have read more about him.

But all in all, it's a really good read and I'll be on the lookout for more of Jennifer's work.

Don't forget to check out my fellow Nerdsville crew:

Marie
Charlotte

Labels:

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

Success

In the blogger world, success is often in reference to money or exposure. Often these two things go hand-in-hand, in that the more exposure you get the more you are in a position to ask to be paid for your work/ name/ face, etc. Blogging has become a business for many and an aspiration to even more, but are we being realistic? Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to have ambition and to work and strive for a goal or goals, but I also think it's important to be realistic with those goals. There are so many factors that come into trying to make a blog a business. For example, bloggers whom have been able to make their blog their sole source of income are often white, slim/ slim passing, a small fat, able-bodied, cis gendered, and/ or with euro-centric beauty. There are of course other examples that correlate, but that's the starting point. Not every blogger is going to fall into that blueprint, nor should we, but unfortunately we have not yet reached a point where s
Post a comment
Read more

Like Royalty

The plus-size world of the vintage persuasions audibly exclaimed when Georgina Horne of Fuller Figure Fuller Bust , announced a range of fabulous dresses she had designed for  Lady Vintage London , called Lady Voluptuous . There are four styles in total with a variety of colours and patterns, and being a 50s bunny who practically lives in swing dresses, I immediately set eyes on the Cosette , particularly after seeing Lucia in it. WOW, right?! But there was another dress that was catching my eye.....enter, the Medusa. The Medusa is another 50s sensation, but a fitted design. I have been hoarding wiggle/ fitted dresses in one of my two wardrobes for a few months now and realised how much I loved my silhouette after wearing this 'out of comfort zone' dress. I'm naturally an incredibly curvy (I know many hate that term, but I know what I mean) woman, but I have often avoided dresses like this through fear of the VBO; but during my continued journey to self-love a
11 comments
Read more

When a photo shoot is about more than just the pictures

There have been a few things that have made the last year and a bit, difficult. I have a life mantra: keep the legs pumping. This has been my life philosophy for as long as I can remember and it’s what has kept my head above water at the worst times. I am well aware that anything I might be going through is nothing in comparison to some others, so I have always tried to suppress whatever has been going on, believing that my “trivialities” were not worth worrying about or bugging other people with. It is only until very recently I have actually realised that my feelings are worthy of acknowledgment, that I have every right to be upset about things, and I was doing myself more damage by pretending I was ok when I wasn’t. I have Sian and a cluster of other wonderful friends to thank for this epiphany. They have no idea (until now, I guess) what their encouragement for me to feel what I was feeling and not feeling guilty about it, was ok, means – I’m so grateful to them fo
10 comments
Read more