Michelle Neal ’12

The story begins in the Westeros, a medieval kingdom based on England during the War of the Roses, but spans across many cities, countries, and cultures. The book sharply veers away from traditional, cliched fantasy plots and embarks on an epic tale told through multiple points of view and woven with countless sub-plots. While some readers may be disturbed to discover that the series realistically depicts medieval era societies and contains graphic violence, rape and sexism galore, the frenzied hype surrounding this series and the associated HBO show illustrates that many readers have no such qualms.

The story revolves around the Stark family from the frigid North of Westerors and the Lannisters, the wealthy family who largely controls the kingdom’s Iron Throne. At the novel’s opening, King Robert Baratheon comes north to visit his old friend and loyal bannersman, Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark. However, hehind this visit lurks the suspicious death of John Arryn, Ned’s wife’s brother-in-law. The king requests Ned to come south and investigate, and in the span of the first few chapters, royal treason is revealed: one of Ned’s children is attacked and crippled for life, Ned’s bastard son makes a life decision that forces him to abandon his home and family, Ned’s daughter is engaged to the prince heir, and Ned and his two daughters head south with the king and his entourage. A whole host of other fascinating characters are introduced, including the sardonic dwarf and brother-in-law to the king, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen, one of the last surviving members of the royal family that Robert and his allies overthrew to conquer the Iron Throne.

Every character is brilliantly crafted and presented as an original, well-developed individual, including many strong female characters. Most notably, all of the characters are morally complex and cannot comfortably be branded as either good or evil. As the countless deaths throughout the story reveal, any of these characters, minor or major, from well-loved children to sinister nobles, can be killed or maimed. The raw mortality of the characters makes the novel excitingly unpredictable and reveals a sense of stark realism beneath the romanticism of the court and the noble tourneys.

As rampant violence and treachery occur, the realm spirals into political and social disaster in one of the most gripping novels I have ever read.

A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book1)
George R. R. Martin
Bantam $32.00
704 pages

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The cupcake craze has hit the bookshelves. Cute, simple, delicious and typically less dense than a slice of cake, cupcakes have become a sensation. Cupcake television shows, cupcake ATMs and cupcake stores are springing up everywhere, and inspired Meg Donohue, a cupcake fanatic, to create the perfect theme for her first novel, How to Eat a Cupcake. The book is sweet, delightful and pleasantly filling in every way, shape and form.

I chose the book because I needed a relief from epistolary novels of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and Chaucer’s middle English poetry. And How to Eat a Cupcake hit just the spot.

The novel is narrated by two women in their mid-twenties, Annie and Julia, who are completely different. A messy baker who walks dogs for extra cash, Annie Quintana is proud to hold two jobs and happy with her exhausting yet charming life. Meanwhile, Julia St. Clair has followed in the footsteps of her fabulously wealthy parents, landing a high-profile job in New York and getting engaged to a handsome and devoted philanthropist. Their lives are separate and fulfilling, until they both return home.

The St. Clair mansion was home to both Annie and Julia growing up. Annie was the daughter of the St. Clair’s housekeeper and she was Julia’s playmate. But as time and differences passed between them, the girls became divided in interests and opinions. For years they had no contact, until one day, Lolly St. Clair asks Annie to cater one of her extravagant parties and Julia attends as a guest.

After meeting for the first time in years, Annie and Julia embark on a business venture that changes their lives forever. As the tale unravels, How to Eat a Cupcake develops into a novel of intrigue, passion and delicious recipes.

No, Meg Donohue will not be the next Tolstoy or even Jane Austen. Her writing is basic, her style is plain and her technique is unimpressive. However, does that really matter? In the end, the story was good. I loved reading about Annie’s ideas for new cupcakes, trying to figure out Julia’s mysterious story and watching the relationship between the girls blossom. How to Eat a Cupcake is a perfect read to take your mind off work.

Beware: you will want to run to Uncommon Grounds and grab the most delicious item for sale. How to Eat a Cupcake is yummy and satisfying. Don’t expect excellent prose, but get ready for a fantastic beach read. Thank you Meg Donohue, for the best stress-reliever I’ve read in awhile.

How to Eat a Cupcake
Meg Donohue
William Morrow Paperbacks $14.99
320 pages

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A star of the novel is Babe Walker herself. She is a ridiculously rich girl whose only true friend is her stay-in nanny. Now at a rehabilitation center, Babe partakes in the leisure of purging out all of her misadventures in a journal. Those familiar with #whitegrlproblems might note that writing her very own memoir had been in Babe’s web of narcissistic pursuits since the first inception of her Twitter account.

Most of the stories in her “memoir” are purely anecdotal, while others genuinely make you feel a little sympathetic toward the girl who has everything (and who is also being treated for a shopping addiction, no less). The novel was unfairly promoted as a watered-down version of a Sophia Kinsella novel, but White Girl Problems has a life of its own.

Babe is unapologetically rude and is not afraid to be unlikeable. Her narrative is filled with hilarious lines that, unlike other novels of this genre, are more  about laughing with her than at her. It’s hard to praise the book in all of its hilarity without sounding like a cookie-cutter Gossip Girl fan, but I’d start with the fact that the narrator is laugh-out-loud funny, charismatic and entertaining. Reading Babe’s words makes you want to keep her in your purse so that she may readily dispense a quip or two about every fashion disaster that your eyes encounter.

Admittedly, this is not an inspired novel, but more of an inspired character created by brothers Tanner, 25, and David Oliver Cohen, 31, along with their friend, Lara Schoenhals, 27, who explains that “[Babe] is an amalgam of everything that is going on right now in pop culture, all the socialites and real housewives and these women that we kind of aspire to be, but we also think their lives are ridiculous. She is an accumulation of all of that in one explosive package.”

This character, as unpleasant and rude as she might be, is really a brutally honest individual who is more than willing to tell it like it is. While I don’t always agree with her acerbic and sometimes distasteful humor, I also couldn’t help but root for this bratty character. Babe’s presence undoubtedly drives the entire book and makes it interesting. Unsurprisingly, her character has become somewhat of a pop culture phenomenon; Babe Walker the person is never really shown, or would ever be known, but her persona shines through in every interview she’s been in. The book doesn’t lack funny stories, but it’s definitely Babe who leaves a lasting impression and not the novel’s plot.

As a word of warning though, this book has also gained a considerable amount of condemnation from various organizations for its “bad influence” and twisted approach of lauding a “mean, hedonistic lifestyle.” One Yale undergrad went so far as to dissect the entire White Girl Problems brand as a threat to feminism. Frankly, I think these critics need to calm down. As for me, I would recommend it to those who are willing to keep an open mind; this novel is satire, and if you can’t get past that then you may have a more serious problem than purchasing a Birkin on eBay.

White Girl Problems
Babe Walker
Hyperion $13.99
288 pages

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As she joked with a highly captive audience about their slightly nerdy way of spending a Saturday night, the central argument of her book emerged as one that certainly deserves a portion of every citizen’s time. As the dust jacket proclaims, Drift examines “the unmooring of American military power,” as the United States has grown accustomed to a perpetual state of war. This disconnect between the public and the military has involved an expansion of executive wartime powers as presidents have superseded Congress by declaring secret wars.

Maddow explains that this disengagement is the result of an avoidance of congressional debate, as presidents have sought to ignore the constitutional division in power afforded to declarations of war. Because these long debates often mobilize the public and threaten proposed national security tactics, these formal declarations are often eschewed.

Most recently, this carrying out of secret wars has meant an outsourcing of military functions to private corporations, whose casualties are not included in the official military statistics. Maddow argues that this has contributed to the growing divide between the armed forces and the public they defend.

The argument Maddow builds in Drift is familiar to those who watch her show – smart-alecky to be sure, with plenty of informal euphemisms. The tone is even set by the dedication, which reads, “To former vice president Dick Cheney. Oh, please let me interview you.” For some, this jocular tone may be distracting, but the argument Maddow seeks to make is distinctly less humorous. By explicitly denying any position of military expertise, Drift instead serves as a starting point for dialogue by focusing on the political implications of a disengaged public.

In making her points, Maddow raises critical questions about the larger ramifications of the United States’ growing involvement in secret, foreign wars. As our national budget groans under the weight of our defense allocation, readers are left to ponder the human collateral such conflicts entail. For instance, some minds may jump immediately to Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who is believed to be guilty of the massacre of 17 innocent Afghanis, including nine children, last month. Maddow explains that with growing public disassociation from these wars, less than one percent of American families are directly impacted by military involvement. As a result, this state of perpetual war is taking a greater toll on the few who are bearing the load. Although Maddow is careful to avoid advocating a draft, she points to the lack of parades and celebrations marking the end of a nearly decade-long war as a signal that something is terribly wrong.

Although Drift explains that these secret wars have continued under Obama, who has permitted the continued use of targeted drone killings, its partisanship is nonetheless apparent. Although Maddow builds an argument that clearly points to Obama’s culpability, she refuses to indict him the same way she does President Reagan, for example. Even for Democrats, this lack of follow-through will lend a sense of incompleteness to the book.

Also missing is an acknowledgement that this continuation of secret wars is against a different type of enemy than in the Vietnam War, which Maddow uses as an early example. These stateless actors, who wield terrorism in their warfare, have resulted in a more nebulous enemy worldwide. As the United States navigates constitutional restrictions and violates principles of international law, the role of Congress in declaring imprecise terms like the War on Terror must be clearly established. For college-aged readers of Drift, whose political consciousness has been shaped by the new era of global counter-terrorism, this absence is even more apparent.

Regardless of these shortcomings, Drift is a must-read for everyone, regardless of political affiliation. The questions raised in Maddow’s opus are universally engaging and point to necessary solutions for the disconnect between Americans and the wars fought abroad in their name. Fans of Maddow’s show will enjoy a more in-depth investigation of a complex topic central to modern politics. At its most basic, Drift serves as a statement of the constitutional inheritance Americans are currently frittering away, a process that every citizen is complicit in and has the power to stop. This book serves as a jumping-off point for that re-engagement, so pass your copy on once you finish!

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power
Rachel Maddow
Crown $25.00
288 pages

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In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins has taken a great idea and done nothing with it. Since its publication, the book has garnered a storm of popular support and has since taken up Twilight’s mantle as the latest young adult series phenomenon. This popularity is not entirely undeserved: the story is riveting. The novel is set in a country known as Panem, which emerged from the ruins of the former U.S., and is ruled by a markedly cruel dictatorship. Every year, the districts of Panem are forced to send their children to compete in the Hunger Games.

The story centers around 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who becomes a leading contender in the futuristic gladiatorial combat of the Hunger Games. As Katniss befriends her competitors, Collins raises questions about the value of human life and the extent to which one will go to survive. Unfortunately, these questions are left largely unanswered. One of the competitors, Peeta, is from Katniss’ district, and the public declaration of his love for her leads the two to be cast into the nation’s eye as star-crossed lovers, despite Katniss’ secret ambivalence about the ruse and her true feelings for Peeta.

Katniss is confronted with the possibility of having to kill sympathetic characters, including her friends, to survive the games. Collins swiftly sidesteps this issue by allowing other combatants to do the moral dirty work, leaving our heroine to dispose of the more villainous characters. Peeta’s presence represents an added dimension to Katniss’ moral quandary, and is the source of much of the tension throughout the later half of the novel. Collins’ decision to make Katniss’ romance the focal point of The Hunger Games Katniss’ romance is disappointing at best and demeaning at worst. Aside from being largely underrepresented in literature, female protagonists are notable across genres for their dependence on romance. Collins continues in this grand tradition by not only embroiling Katniss—a seemingly strong female character—in a romantic plot line, but presenting her feelings towards this love as fear and denial.

Considering this is a young adult novel, the aforementioned authorial cowardice is expected and largely understandable. I was even prepared to forgive Collins for it. However, the story is rife with pacing problems, predictability and a general lack of respect for the reader’s intelligence. The novel starts off painfully slow, with a prolonged interlude about Katniss’ life in her District followed by a drawn out period before the games’ ceremonies. The setting comes across more believably as a fantasy world than an alternative future America, and is only vaguely established by the author. Once in the games, the story moves quickly and is ripe with adventure and tension that can captivate the reader. The various obstacles faced by the tributes in the games adds some spice to an otherwise predictable story.

Unfortunately, Collins’ writing flaws, when stripped of the original novel’s brilliant concept,  result in a tedious, monotonous read. All in all, The Hunger Games is a good book to get out of the library.

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In Katniss Everdeen’s world, it’s either kill or be killed. Author Suzanne Collins crafted a futuristic, cruel world in her bestselling series, The Hunger Games. Her ideas and creativity paid off. The modern literary obsession with vampires and werewolves is exhausting, but The Hunger Games takes an entirely different approach on young adult science fiction and fantasy.

The Hunger Games is set in the future, at a time when the United States no longer exists. Instead, a single nation called Panem rose out of what can be assumed was a time of mass chaos and war. Panem is surrounded by 12 outlying districts, and each are governed by a cruel game. Every year, one boy and one girl, called “tributes,” are selected from the 12 districts to go to the capital and compete to the death in the Hunger Games.

The protagonist is 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is from one of the poorest districts, with a dismal record in the Hunger Games. Katniss’ younger sister is chosen to compete and, in an unthinkable and selfless decision, Katniss volunteers to take her place in the games.

After this fateful choice, Katniss and her district’s other tribute, Peeta Mellark, are cast into a whirlwind of excitement, love, fear and deception. Katniss and Peeta are forced to play a game with no winners, only consequences and lies.  Collins does a superb job of portraying emotions and situations that most adults cannot comprehend, let alone teenagers.

The Hunger Games has grown rapidly in popularity since its release in October 2008. The novel and its sequels have been reviewed by various newspapers, online sites and TIME magazine. Collins’  effective ability to draw the readers into her fictional world has allowed the book to become so famous.  John Green of the New York Times wrote, “This makes for an exhilarating narrative and a future we can fear and believe in, but it also allows us to see the similarities between Katniss’ world and ours.”

On March 23, The Hunger Games comes to the big screen as a full-length movie. Arguably, the last major successful book-to-movie franchise was the Harry Potter series. Anticipating The Hunger Games to meet their great expectations, audiences across the country are looking forward to this film and banking on its box office fame.  The Hunger Games is part one of a three book series; the other two books, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, are also very popular and have been well received by the press. It is unclear if there are plans to make those two into movies, as it may all depend on the success of The Hunger Games.

Adapting a novel for the big screen is always tricky, but it can be done successfully. If the directors and producers are victorious, people across the country and the world will be drawn into a futuristic universe where children are battling for their lives as their entire world watches.

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Although the Victorians referred to Adah Isaacs Menken as “the Naked Lady,” authors Michael and Barbara Foster constructed the identity of the influential actress beyond her scandal when they wrote A Dangerous Woman. Many details about Adah are unknown, such as her ethnicity. Adah may have been born in New Orleans, or it could have been another city such as New York or Havana. While her mother’s identity is known, Adah’s father is not publicly documented. Despite the ambiguity of her parentage, she had African-American roots and converted to Judaism around the age of 21 when she met and married her first husband.

Adah had five husbands in total, including a musician, a heavyweight boxing champion and a poet. Her marriages were short lived and often filled with sorrow, disappointment and, sometimes, physical abuse. Her first marriage ended because she dared to smoke cigarettes. Despite her conversion to her husband’s religion, he could not come around to the idea of his wife smoking publicly. Adah lived out loud, and she insisted on an unfettered existence.

During the mid-19th century, Adah Isaacs Menken thwarted convention. After her second marriage ended, she capitalized on her boyish figure, adopted a short haircut and dressed in men’s clothing. At this stage of the game, Adah endeavored to garner a larger audience to her spectacle. The Victorian period was just beginning to take shape, an era that nurtured the idea of the stuffy prude, and the Menken, as she was commonly known, bared more than just her ankle. The Menken scandalized her audiences by wearing tights on stage, or nothing at all, at times.

Michael and Barbara Foster posit that without the precedent of Adah Isaacs Menken, Marilyn Monroe would not have risen to such great fame and public honor. The Fosters believe that Adah paved the way for iconic women in show business. Unlike their subject, who focused solely on entertainment and stardom, the Fosterswrite a compelling narrative—not only to entertain but also to inform. The tone of the book is academic light—not too dense, but still cerebral. Adah Isaacs Menken is a multifaceted individual, and her story can appeal to readers keen on women’s studies, gender studies, African-American studies, film studies, religion and history, to name a few. Adah Issacs Menken, who seems to have pioneered utilizing celebrity gossip to her advantage, does not fit into any one category. And the talk that stemmed from all aspects of her life was parlayed into box office sales.

Adah created a buzz and she capitalized on it. But the woman who composed poetry with Walt Whitman, inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Irene Adler and entranced Dante Rossetti died virtually penniless. She amassed and forfeited large fortunes. Adah did not seem to care about the money she made from her career, profiting instead from the rich life she lived. In other words, she lived fast and died young. In the final stages of her star-studded life, Adah Isaacs Menken simply offered gratitude for her rich and full experiences, “more than what most women had,” she said, and slipped away.

A Dangerous Woman: The Life, Loves, and Scandals of Adah Issac Menken, 1835-1868, America’s Original Superstar
Michael Foster and Barbara Foster
Lyons Press  $24.95
368 pages

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Don Draper makes me melt. Tea length dresses have come back into style, and I’m waiting for pill box hats to follow suit. I have devoted a whole Pandora station to Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett and my grandmother’s favorite, “Frankie.” I want to wear white gloves just because. For just one day, I want to buy a newspaper for a dime and for once not have everything be so instant. Most of all, I want to fly PanAm.

I can never figure out what I find more alluring about JFK: pictures of him in his Ray Ban wayfarers, with a cigar clenched between his teeth, or his top hat, suit and tails in pictures of his wedding day. What a charmer.

As if Marilyn Monroe’s infamous rendition of “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” was not enough of an indicator, I am not the only one who finds him handsome. After reading Mimi Alford’s Once Upon a Secret, I am sure I am not his only fan. I use the term “fan” loosely.

I came upon the book at Barnes & Noble and did a double take at the subtitle, My Affair With President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath, and snatched it off the table. The whole trip to the book store was supposed to be a homework session. Well, some obscure character suddenly claiming she lost her virginity to our hottest president is a little bit more important.

Mimi Alford has just published her memoir, which reveals intimate details about her 18-month affair with President Kennedy. The last time she saw him was a couple of weeks before his trip to Dallas.

At age 19, Mimi Beardsley was a New England debutante. After her graduation from Miss Porter’s School, she took a train to Washington D.C. and began work as an intern in Kennedy’s Press Office at the White House. By her fourth day on the job, she was undoubtedly “swept away” by the world of politics, elegance and privilege. She found herself on a private tour of Kennedy’s bedroom with her guide, Jack, unbuttoning her dress. As the affair progresses, she is flown down from Wheaton College every other weekend and forges, as Alford calls it, an “imbalanced” relationship with President Kennedy.

There are dark sides to him that we see in small doses. He essentially began to see her as a playful child and a nice escape from the daunting stress of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There were some points in the book where I did not know whether to be shocked, impressed or totally sick to my stomach. While he was negotiating with Khrushchev, Mimi was eating breakfast in his bed. While he was supposed to be on vacation with his family in Hyannis Port, Kennedy was taking Mimi to parties and popping pills with her at Bing Crosby’s ranch.

Jack Kennedy may have used his role as President as a power play with Mimi, but I think he loved her. He taught her to cook, starting with scrambled eggs. He did not shower her with money and gifts, but surprised her with sentimental items. One of the most emotional scenes in the book describes a weeping Jack after the death of his day-old son, Patrick. Mimi is the only one there to cry along with him.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is imagining how this all stayed under-wraps. In such a technologically dependent world as today, if our President was extra friendly with his intern, someone would have tweeted about it by now. Secrets sell. We already know that from how fascinated teenage girls seem to be with television shows like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. Mimi Alford is going to make a killing off this book, and many are probably skeptical of her story. She cannot fact-check or cross-reference with anyone mentioned in the book because, besides her current husband, they have all passed away. However, she has been outed in multiple Kennedy biographies, and her story aligns.

This book is juicy and a total guilty pleasure, but it also examines the social dynamics of marriage and power in the 60s. It becomes clear that Jack and Jackie may not have loved one another—their high profile marriage was more of a safe arrangement. Mimi talks about keeping the secret from her closest friends, because it was taboo to talk about intimate relationships, a commentary on privacy for that generation. I still have a crush on Kennedy, and I will probably not stop watching The Kennedy’s on Netflix anytime soon (despite Katie Holmes’ painful portrayal of Jackie). Mimi’s story is eye-opening.

Read it and overanalyze every decision Kennedy makes. Read it and conveniently forget who Jackie is. Read it and feel bad for Mimi. Pack it for spring break and read it on the beach after a couple drinks.

I can hardly picture everything mentioned in the book actually happening. So now, I just wish I worked in the White House Press Office during the summer of 1962.

Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath
Mimi Alford
Random House  $25.00
208 pages

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However, Gemma Hardy’s backstory has much more background detail than Jane Eyre’s. As an infant, Gemma grows up in Iceland with her sailor father and her mother. When Gemma is barely several months old, her mother is walking home with Gemma in her arms and loses her footing. While trying to protect Gemma from the fall, she hits her head on the ground and shortly thereafter dies from swelling. Only a few years later, her father dies at sea. Unlike Jane, who grew up without ever knowing her birth parents, Gemma spent her early years with familial love and care—but sadly, her memories of this time are faint.

Livesey’s writing style is more in line with Emily Bronte’s writing style than with her sister Charlotte’s: rich, flowing prose and no character development or satisfaction. The Flight of Gemma Hardy intimately describes the atmosphere and environment of the locations where Gemma lives throughout the novel. Livesey’s strength as a writer comes from her ability to invent and describe places and moods with clarity and whimsy; it calms the reader’s senses. The downside to Livesey’s descriptive abilities is that her details build the novel’s page numbers without ever really contributing anything to the book’s substance.
This frustrated me because the novel could easily have used that length to further flesh out Livesey’s completely flat characters, such as the wicked aunt and cousins. However, it simply defines characters in basic terms and leaves much to be desired. Livesey missed a lot of interesting opportunities for moral and personal complexities in her characters. She defeated the hope of any progress in character development.

I am all for the re-tellings of classics, as there have been some interesting examples in the past. In this case, however, just read Jane Eyre. Modern novels based on classic stories are a way to share a cultural identity and story with a new generation. These re-told stories allow us to connect through universal themes and the emotions of characters in a context that contains more similarities to comtemporary life. In fact, many scholars believe that Jane Eyre borrows from many classic fairy tales, including Cinderella. However, Livesey doesn’t add any new dimensions or perspectives to an already interesting story. Jane is a quicker read and has more substance than Gemma could ever have.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy
Margot Livesey
Harper $26.99
464 pages

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Jamin Chan ’14

Smith alumna Erin Morgenstern ’00 manages to add the element of surprise to her nearly 400 page fictional debut about magicians. There are performances one would expect from a circus, but Morgenstern adds a twist. Set at the turn of the 20th century, the circus her magicians perform in is only open to the public at night. From dusk until dawn, Le Cirque des Rêves (the Circus of Dreams) entertains its audiences with nature defying displays of magic.

Within the black-and-white striped tents, a sweet-smelling greenhouse contains an intricately detailed garden constructed of ice. The fortune teller reveals the future with stars instead of a crystal ball. Paper and mist serve as the construction of the circus’ animals. Morgenstern’s details and imagination reinvigorate the familiar territory of magic. But, her circus utilizes fragile elements. The ice, stars, paper and mist are temporary, just like the circus itself. The Cirque des Rêves travels the world and blows into cities like a dandelion seed. Once the show is over, the circus packs up as quickly as they appeared and disappears to the next destination.

Despite the regular movement of the Cirque des Rêves, the circus has an established fanbase. Devotees of the Cirque des Rêves declare their love to the circus as well as their favorite magicians. Their choices are Celia or Marco. Celia, an illusionist with natural ability, is taught by her father, Prospero the Enchanter. Marco, an orphan trained to cultivate the innate talent Celia possesses, is the ward of Mr. A.H—. Prospero the Enchanter and Mr. A.H— are competitors, and their protégés are set in opposition to each other. These two magicians form the heart of the story.

Celia and Marco meet and fall in love. To tell their tale of love, Morgenstern borrows from well-known stories and plotlines. The two magicians are from rival houses, an idea straight out of Romeo and Juliet. The spectators that support a side, either team Celia or team Marco, seem lifted from Twilight’s spirited fandom of “Team Jacob” and “Team Edward”. Another familiar thread weaves through the story: the exploited orphan. Celia and Marco, the wards of Prospero the Enchanter and Mr. A.H—, respectively, seem to have taken notes from the Artful Dodger. But, it eventually comes down to Shakespeare. The two magicians enamored with each other are unaware that their guardians, Prospero the Enchanter and Mr. A.H—, have challenged each other to a duel, and Celia and Marco are the individuals intended for the battle.They are participants in a death match revealed in dramatic irony.

Celia and Marco’s overzealous keepers view the two illusionists as if they are disposable. Prospero the Enchanter and Mr. A.H—raise questions about the relationship between a parent and a child. They use their children to fulfill their own ambitions regardless of the cost. The Night Circus is just as much about romantic love as it is about the love between a parent and a child. For all of the magic created within the tents of the circus, Morgenstern presents very real issues that anchor her novel in magical realism.
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern
Doubleday $26.95
400 pages

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