Scan barcode
A review by lelia_t
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
4.0
Such unapologetic voluptuousness. Sophie Fevvers is tall, buxom, winged and larger than life. We meet her, along with reporter Jack Walser, in her dressing room after a show, where she burps, farts, eats, drinks and tells ribald stories and seemingly tall tales about her life as winged woman.
There’s an earthy sensuality to the aerialiste and Angela Carter is refreshing in her willingness to talk about the true turning points in a girl’s life. Whether you sprout wings and live in a brothel or not, developing breasts and the onset of menstruation (or as Fevvers describes it, “when my, pardon me, woman’s bleeding started up along with the beginnings of great goings on in, as you might put it, the bosom department...”) initiate most girls into a new world of sexual availability that can be both terrifying and empowering. Sophie Fevvers responds by betting big on herself, besting lechers, and unabashedly blossoming in the limelight. “Look at me! With a grand, proud, ironic grace, she exhibited herself before the eyes of the audience as if she were a marvelous present too good to be played with.”
With Fevvers’s winsome audacity, and compassionate heart, I was happy to follow along with Walser in her wake, sneaking into the circus and experiencing the carnival atmosphere among the tigers, strong man, clowns and monkeys. The book did drag for me a bit towards the end, as Walser is recovering from amnesia among Siberian tribes people, but I loved this story of a woman who’s unapologetically herself, wings and all.
There’s an earthy sensuality to the aerialiste and Angela Carter is refreshing in her willingness to talk about the true turning points in a girl’s life. Whether you sprout wings and live in a brothel or not, developing breasts and the onset of menstruation (or as Fevvers describes it, “when my, pardon me, woman’s bleeding started up along with the beginnings of great goings on in, as you might put it, the bosom department...”) initiate most girls into a new world of sexual availability that can be both terrifying and empowering. Sophie Fevvers responds by betting big on herself, besting lechers, and unabashedly blossoming in the limelight. “Look at me! With a grand, proud, ironic grace, she exhibited herself before the eyes of the audience as if she were a marvelous present too good to be played with.”
With Fevvers’s winsome audacity, and compassionate heart, I was happy to follow along with Walser in her wake, sneaking into the circus and experiencing the carnival atmosphere among the tigers, strong man, clowns and monkeys. The book did drag for me a bit towards the end, as Walser is recovering from amnesia among Siberian tribes people, but I loved this story of a woman who’s unapologetically herself, wings and all.