This is Jennifer Egan’s first novel, and from what I could gather, her suceeding works were somewhat bolder and more unconvential in their treatment of the novel form than this one, which is basically a straightforward realistic narrative about a girl growing up and stepping out of the shadow of her older sister who had been determining all her previous life.The Invisible Circus has “first novel” written all over it: While it is very cleverly constructed, there is a certain awkwardness in the way it shows off its themes, makes its motifs and imagery rather too obvious and blatant; it is trying a bit too hard to impress its readers, putting one in mind of an over-eager puppy. But then, just as with cute puppies, we tend to be lenient towards first novels and look on their good sides first, of which The Invisible Circus indeed has many, by far outweighing the few small niggles.The novel’s first part takes place at home in San Francisco and is centred around the memories Phoebe, the novel’s protagonist, retains of her father and the way he always favoured her elder sister Faith and ends with her mother destroying the image of him Phoebe always had held; in the second part Phoebe is travelling through Europe following the traces of Faith and it ends with Phoebe throwing her sister’s picture and postcards into the Seine; finally, the third part (taking up about half of the novel) is about Phoebe almost literally becoming her sister and ends with her letting go of Faith after learning the truth about her and, in a way, finding herself. The novel’s latter half falls somewhat apart, at least in contrast to the tightly structured first one, and I think I stumbled across several editorial oversights in that part, too (and they must have been quite glaring if I noticed them), unless there is some problem with the e-book missing parts which I suppose is also possible.The Invisible Circus captures the mood and atmosphere of the late seventies and their sixties-nostalgia perfectly (one nice touch is how Phoebe is so wrapt up in her pining for the Sixties past that she completely misses the exciting things happening in her present – there is only a single, very brief mention of a punk during her stay in London and she barely even notices him). Egan also paints a very vivid picture of both the heady enthusiasm and the utter cluelessness of youth, of what it feels like to pass the threshold into adulthood, both the joy and pain of it. I think The Invisible Circus works even better as a coming-of-age story than as period portrait, Jennifer Egan’s depiction of Phoebe’s growing-pangs so keen and intense at times that it got under my skin and made me feel outright uncomfortable.Despite some minor flaws, I liked The Invisible Circus very much. In fact, now that I am writing this, I cannot help but notice that those flaws I mentioned earlier, classical first novel flaws, are also a sign of a novelist growing into her craft, growing up as a novelist – in fact, there does seem to be a very marked analogy between the novel and its protagonist, both struggling to stand on their own feet, to find their own voice (which makes me wonder whether there might be some writing idol whose overwhelming influence The Invisible Circus tries to escape?). So maybe the flaws are not flaws at all, but a kind of metafictional mimesis, form imitating subject matter. In either case, this is as a very impressive debut, and Jennifer Egan another author I will have to read more of.
Pretty disappointing. I loved Good Squad and thought her style was really interesting so I randomly picked another one by her. It seemed pretty interesting at first, with an interesting premise of a girl living in the shadow of her dead sister – a flower child of the 60s – (and father) and deciding to go to Europe to follow her final trek. However, it just seemed that the entire story, built on and revolving around a character who is never alive, really bogs down. The character Phoebe doesn’t really seem that real to me, and – not to give anything away, but… -- what she discovers in Europe is A) not surprising and B) not believable. It’s like the author is using an assignment or prompt from a writing class to creative “new fiction” and explore “new writing styles” with a story based on a dead girl or the psychology of a girl who wishes to be and ends up reliving life or becoming like her sister. I will say that the author’s other main message was to kind of denounce the 60s by showing how the movement when awry, with the flower child Faith dying (and how) and Phoebe representing the 70s and rejecting Faith’s views. That was interesting, the way it was portrayed, with all the major players representing the 60s admitting that they wanted something but they weren’t sure what, and after Kent State it all started to fall apart, and the die-hards fell into radicalism like the Dead Weathermen (is that right? The ones building bombs in their apartment in NYC when they went off?) and whatnot. Like the Good Squad – which tried to portray the different decades and their mentalities, though tied through music – I like how it tried to define/explain the 60s and 70s and put some context behind the basic history though I’m sure many people already know the highlights and this may not be that much more informative. In the end, I guess I liked it. I read it pretty quickly, found myself thinking about it, and was kind of interested to see what was going to happen next. It just seemed so average by the time I was done with it, not as mind blowing in substance or style as Goon Squad, not as enlightening, and felt really predictable in a weird soap opera way – not to mention kind of ridiculous as Phoebe meets up with someone (all too predictable in a book trying to be ironic) and they – what – fuck their way to Faith’s scene of the crime, fucking 50 times in 4 days while they go to visit the place where Faith died? All right, whatever. 2 or 3 stars? I liked reading it but afterwards I feel like I didn’t like what I read. I guess I like artists that try and push boundaries, and even if everything here didn’t work, I like the fact that she tried something new, and it did keep me pulled in, so I’ll round this 2.5 up this time.
What do You think about The Invisible Circus (2001)?
Like, oh my god. This soooo reminds me of the time I deferred my enrollment at U.C. Berkeley to go traipsing around Europe in an attempt to retrace the footsteps of my crazybeautiful older sister who's untimely suicide from an Italian sightseeing spot served as the catalyst for my burgeoning maturity and stuff. And I slept with people. (Sorry.) Just a pretty obvious "good but not great" first novel from a young author; super heavy on extraneous descriptions of buildings/cafes/European streets that serve very little purpose. That being said, while I didn't feel this showed hints of what an awesome novelist Jennifer Egan would eventually become, I'm glad she got this one out of the way and moved on to bigger and loftier things.
—Kit Fox
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. The plot twist at the beginning Part 3 is practically expected, but the execution is too coincidental to be anything except poor writing, especially when it easily could have been made more plausible. The plot twist in the end was something I saw coming from the very beginning of the book. The romance that occupies the last 1/3 of the book is just awkward and ill-explained. Probably not even a book I would have read if I hadn't enjoyed the author's The Keep, I should have trusted my instincts here.
—Brooke
I picked this book to listen to on a recent road trip because I loved Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad. Her writing is inventive, fresh and a little edgy. In The Invisible Circus, 18-year old Phoebe wants to understand the death of her older sister, Faith. Phoebe embarks on a journey though Europe, retracing her sister's path. Along the way, she learns about her self, has a scary acid trip, finds love (maybe more like lust) and is able to finally put her sister's death in some kind of perspective. Phoebe was only 10 years old when her sister died. It's fascinating to read how she reconciles her childhood memories and the facts that are presented to her later as an adult.
—Laura Trachtman
