The Invisible Circus
by Jennifer Egan
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 340)
Read in December, 1995
recommends it for:
Everyone
Why have the sixties been such an inspiration and a burden to generations since? This is the question at the heart of Jennifer Egan's gripping, luminous first novel.
Phoebe O'Conner, eighteen in the summer of 1978, is too young to have partaken of the riotous carnival of the sixties, but old enough to feel the anxiety of its influence. Living in San Francisco with her widowed mother, Phoebe drifts along the edges of her life, obsessed by the memory of her charismatic older sister, Faith, a true...more
Phoebe O'Conner, eighteen in the summer of 1978, is too young to have partaken of the riotous carnival of the sixties, but old enough to feel the anxiety of its influence. Living in San Francisco with her widowed mother, Phoebe drifts along the edges of her life, obsessed by the memory of her charismatic older sister, Faith, a true...more
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Read in July, 2008
All of the quotes on the front and back cover promised this would be a "brilliant," "mesmerizing," and "emotional" book about an 18-year-old who backpacks across Europe tracing her dead older sister's path to the place in Italy where she committed suicide.
Instead, I found it dull, predictable, and irritating. The main character, Phoebe, is woefully naive to the point where I had absolutely no sympathy for her. I wanted to smack her and yell at her to grow up. T...more
Instead, I found it dull, predictable, and irritating. The main character, Phoebe, is woefully naive to the point where I had absolutely no sympathy for her. I wanted to smack her and yell at her to grow up. T...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Rachel Brill
A beautiful, aching book about loss and how we live with it. Retracing suicide and girlhood, the 60s and innocence lost through a journey narrative, Egan blows me away with her ability to capture the awkward poignancy of being 18 and coping with the rawness of suicide and adulthood. If you liked "The Virgin Suicides," you'll like this book. Thanks to Rachel, I have an enormous soft spot in my heart for San Francisco---a city that figures prominently in the book---and travel stories sea...more
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
Flower child wanna-bes
The protagonist, a teenager living in San Fran in the early 70s, has lived her entire life in the shadow of her flower-child older sister, who has long been dead due to mysterious circumstances.
In what turned out to be an extremely satisfying coming-of-age novel, she goes to find out what happened, travelling to Europe in her sisters footsteps and encountering bohemian characters (and sometimes tragic burnouts, junkies and users) from her sister's life. The mystery's resolution was surpri...more
In what turned out to be an extremely satisfying coming-of-age novel, she goes to find out what happened, travelling to Europe in her sisters footsteps and encountering bohemian characters (and sometimes tragic burnouts, junkies and users) from her sister's life. The mystery's resolution was surpri...more
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Read in November, 2007
I love Jennifer Egan. I read her books in reverse order (starting with 'The Keep', then 'Look At Me', and then 'Invisible Circus'). I love that she explores different themes in each book -- all three are very different. 'Invisible Circus' gets a firm 3 stars from me. I loved the overall feeling of living in the world during a time of great change, but not being able to identify just what it is that is happening even though you still want to be a part of it. Still, she uses a lot of exposition an...more
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Read in February, 2008
I think this was one of those very rare instances where I liked the movie much better than the book. I saw the movie (with Cameron Diaz and Jordana Brewster) a few months ago and quite liked it. It's about a young girl who travels to Europe to retrace her older sister's footsteps and find out why she commited suicide in Italy. But with the book, I don't know, I just couldn't get into it. It's not that long of a book, but it seemed to take me FOREVER to read it. This was Egan's first novel and it...more
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Read in November, 2007
Solid, well-written, coming of age novel set in 1970s San Francisco and Europe. There's something about Egan's writing that pulls me in. I devoured her "Look At Me" too.
"Look At Me" is the stronger novel, if you're looking to chose an Egan book. "The Invisible Circus" has some predictable plot turns, and the constant childhood memory/flashback sections kind of wore me down. It also feels, like a lot of first novels, pretty autobiographical. I have no idea if it...more
"Look At Me" is the stronger novel, if you're looking to chose an Egan book. "The Invisible Circus" has some predictable plot turns, and the constant childhood memory/flashback sections kind of wore me down. It also feels, like a lot of first novels, pretty autobiographical. I have no idea if it...more
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Read in November, 2007
This book isn't particularly groundbreaking, and often the prose was overwrought, and sometimes the main character, Phoebe, was too much of a cipher for me to handle, her desires a little hard to identify with...but, damn I couldn't put it down! The revelations at the end were quite surprising to me, and there were about 20 pages of awesome sex! I wanted to leave this paperback in a rental beach house somewhere so that some lucky visitor could stumble upon it. A perfect vacation book.
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Read in July, 2007
I hovered between three and four stars with this one, but ultimately the somewhat annoying habits in writing style won out. Many moments in this book felt very true, though, and really spoke to things that have happened in my own life (I didn't grow up in the 70's in San Francisco, or have a crazy drug experience in europe, but still). So, since this is an early effort, I will look for more books by Egan. Hopefully her annoying writing ticks will have somewhat subsided.
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Read in April, 2008
A well-written, but not very satisfying book. The premise is a younger sister goes in search of the truth regarding the death of her sister, a sixties flower child. Less compelling than I expected. Littered with the usual sixties and seventies references, without transporting the reader into the "feel" of those decades. I finished it, engaged enough to learn the final outcome of her search, but felt I could have spent my time reading something better.
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I think this is the strongest of Egan's novels, certainly the most intimate, and it captures the naivete of a girl on the verge of adulthood and her desire to grasp the true meanings behind her obsessions of her childhood. I devoured it in a day - it's really magical. For some reason it reminded me a lot of Rupert Thomson's The Book of Revelation, although the two have nothing in common, except for a feeling of nostalgia, perhaps.
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Read in September, 2007
After a promising start, this book failed to go anywhere. I lost all patience with the annoying main character, and really had no interest in her quest to find "answers" about her sister after awhile. Her naivete grew wearying, and I longed for the ability to reach between the pages and slap her.
Egan has a gift for description, but needs work on her pacing. Perhaps that improved with her subsequent works.
Egan has a gift for description, but needs work on her pacing. Perhaps that improved with her subsequent works.
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Read in July, 2007
Beautifully written, but it doesn't capture the atmosphere of places like France or Italy (despite the fact it's about a girl backpacking through Europe) and the plot carries through in a too ponderous way. The characters are likeable enough, especially Wolf/Sebastian, but it feels like they, the writer, and later the reader are tired throughout the course of the book.
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Read in April, 2008
Eight years after Phoebe's sister, Faith, dies, she still lives in her shadow. She struggles to find any sort of meaning in her life without her sister. Her father has passed away as well and this just leaves her mom and brother and herself to pick up the pieces. On a whim she flies to Europe to find out what really happened to Faith and to find herself.
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Peg by:
Anne or Ashleyrecommends it for: females
Well written, subject matter compelling. Phoebe O'Connor at age 18 is obsessed by memories of her older sister, Faith, who died mysteriously in Italy eight years ago. The strange and twisted family dynamics of the now deceased father,and sister Phoebe are hard to believe. Phoebe's journey is also a journey of her coming into full understanding of herself.
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Read in January, 2005
This is the story of a girl who follows her dead older sister's footsteps through Europe in an attempt to make sense of her own life. When I first read it, I was intrigued partially because the older sister and I have the same name, and a lot of her exploits in Europe sounded like things I might have done myself.
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Read in January, 2000
i loved this book. it is a haunting tale of a young girl chasing the ghost of her older, free spirited, beautiful sister who died while traveling in europe. it takes place during the late 60's/early 70's and i love reading about that era.
not life changing or anything, but a really fast read.
not life changing or anything, but a really fast read.
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Read in January, 2004
The romance and high ideals of the 60s as reflected from the perspective of someone who came half a generation later, after the party has ended. Amazing debut - Jennifer Egan's command of regret and loss and innocence touched me deeply. Aim the search in this book ends in Cinque Terre....
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One of my favorite books ever...Egan eloquently conveys many different ideas at once: the suspicion that you never really "know" people (including your own siblings), the idea of "hero(ine) worship," the romance of European travel, and misguided political idealism.
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Read in November, 2007
This took me like two months to read. Why did this take me like two months to read? Seriously why. Too rich for my blood, is what I'm saying. Though I am looking forward to watching the movie with Christopher Eccleston sporting a ponytail.
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