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alundeberg 's review for:
The Circus Train
by Amita Parikh
The best thing about Amita Parikh's "The Circus Train" is that it's a fast read, but even that couldn't propel me beyond page 217. This is one of the most cringe-y, shallow, and tone-deaf novels that I have read in a while. Well, since I read Colleen Hoover. This is a story about Lena, wheel-chair bound, who is raised by Theo, her widower, illusionist father (with secrets) on a circus train that travels throughout Europe in the late 1930's. One day Alexandre, an orphaned Jewish boy (with secrets) who has all the hallmarks of becoming an illusionist himself, is found in the dining car. They decide to keep him and train him as a magician. Love blossoms between Lena and Alexandre, as she dearly wants a friend and he, too, is friendless. Together, they and the rest of the troupe continue to travel around Europe performing while THERE IS A WAR ON. Through acts of betrayal, Lena's father and Alexandre are arrested by the Nazis and sent to Theresienstadt, a town built for Jews to demonstrate to the world Nazi benevolence-- a smokescreen to show that they aren't "that bad". I don't know what happens after. My guess is that Alexandre escapes, finds Lena, whose "indomitable spirit" and "iron will" has made her an accomplished young woman, and they live happily ever after. My eyes had been progressively rolling throughout the book, but the part that made them roll to where they couldn't roll anymore was when the circus manager decides that he will take his circus to Asia, "to the land of spices and tropical birds and beaches". No mention of the fact that the World War is happening there, too, to equally devastating effects.
There has been a surge of WWII and Holocaust-themed books lately, and this movement has a real gimmicky ick-factor propelled by "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". By page 217 of this 376 page book, only one Jewish character is introduced, Alexandre, and he has Aryan features and generally escapes notice. When he and Theo are sent to Theresienstadt, they are more intrigued than horrified by their surroundings. It's like this moment in history is treated as a plot device. Also, everyone on the train is cushioned from the war; they still have opulent meals and costumes while everyone else is starving, doing without, and losing their livelihoods. No one comes to real harm. For a good portion of the war they travel through and perform in Nazi-occupied territory, profiting from those regions-- under the guise of bringing people a brief moment of happiness, but in reality, profiting from other people's suffering. And, in effect, that is what the authors of these types of books do, too. They provide a superficial, sanitized, and sentimentalized version of history that will not upset their readers' sensibilities too much.
There has been a surge of WWII and Holocaust-themed books lately, and this movement has a real gimmicky ick-factor propelled by "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". By page 217 of this 376 page book, only one Jewish character is introduced, Alexandre, and he has Aryan features and generally escapes notice. When he and Theo are sent to Theresienstadt, they are more intrigued than horrified by their surroundings. It's like this moment in history is treated as a plot device. Also, everyone on the train is cushioned from the war; they still have opulent meals and costumes while everyone else is starving, doing without, and losing their livelihoods. No one comes to real harm. For a good portion of the war they travel through and perform in Nazi-occupied territory, profiting from those regions-- under the guise of bringing people a brief moment of happiness, but in reality, profiting from other people's suffering. And, in effect, that is what the authors of these types of books do, too. They provide a superficial, sanitized, and sentimentalized version of history that will not upset their readers' sensibilities too much.