Ellen Baker

The cover and synopsis sell this like it’s a circus book so that kind of set me up for disappointment as I expected this descriptive, atmospheric coming of age experience in a circus in the 20’s and 30’s. Cecily is sold to a circus at seven years old, you see her hanging out in the stables, you see her living in a train car, you get the tiniest glimpse of her training here and there for a horse act, but beyond that, if you’re craving sights and sounds and getting to know more than a couple other characters in the circus, that is not this book.

This book juggles a few different timelines and POV’s, it isn’t confusing, though I did wish the voice had seemed more distinct for each character’s viewpoint and for each age we see Cecily at, her thoughts, her vocabulary, etc., varied little from age seven to teen to senior citizen, she mostly just seemed a naive, sheltered adult no matter her age.

While this story has minimal circus content to offer, there is plenty of domestic drama going on, aging and illness, the affect of miscarriages on a marriage, a recovering alcoholic, racial identity, interracial romance, the ugly truth about homes for supposedly wayward girls, etc., all of which held my interest well enough but were never quite as affecting as I’d hoped, maybe a case of simply too many issues to really have enough pages to dig that deeply into any of them.

Maybe that’s why for me the last seventy or so pages were when I felt most engaged, when more of that baggage was out in the open, being discussed between characters rather than held in, getting into the emotion of things a bit more, it gave the book more of a feeling of forward momentum than it previously had to the point where I wondered if maybe I would have rated this book higher had it been less concerned with gradually revealing Cecily’s hidden life and instead started at the moment where everything is exposed, as the messy aftermath, to me at least, proved more absorbing, the family dynamics then more deserving of exploration really than what came before it, yet it was then that things were somewhat hastily wrapped up.

I received this book through a giveaway.… (mehr)

Make no mistake, Baker’s engaging novel takes some effort to truly appreciate. This tale of long-simmering family secrets performs many somersaults from one era to another and weaves together multiple POVs. Readers who prefer more linear storylines might suffer a minor bout of literary whiplash. That being said, a book that skillfully blends life in a circus, young love and DNA explorations into a twist-filled story that’s partially set in the Great Depression ultimately rewards readers. Could I have occasionally used a “cheat sheet” that reminded me who was who in this complex saga? You bet. Were there a few subplots that could have been trimmed? Absolutely. But in the end, this multi-generational story treats readers to unique insights about resiliency, friendship, family bonds and the true meaning of personal identity.… (mehr)