The Name of the Wind

It’s hard to write a review after I’ve just named Night Circus as my favorite book of the year. Reading something else isn’t hard, and falling in love with it isn’t hard either, although I’m sure some sort of literary cheating is occurring. I’m willing to risk that though to talk about The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss’s debut novel. This book is a genius example of how the ideas of storytelling can still change and it was truly a pleasure to read.

            The reader first meets an innkeeper called Kote, standing alone in the “three part” silence of his empty inn. The silence, delicately imagined with a variety of imagery, falls back into this man, as though he were a black hole. Rothfuss writes, “It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.” What the hell sound a cut flower makes, I couldn’t begin to tell you, but the fact that Rothfuss makes it make sense in this context says a lot for his newly revealed literary talent. From the beginning of the novel I had a sense of foreboding, but not the heavy handed foreshadowing that so often fantasy novels fall prey to in some sort of prologue. That sense is heightened as the usual crowd gathers in the inn, only to be interrupted by one of their fellows bursting in covered in blood and holding the corpse of what can only be described as the most terrifying spider ever imagined. Think legs like razor blades and a body like stone, nearly impossible to kill and out for your blood. Yeah, I agreed with the local men when they dubbed it a demon and was happy they were dealing with it in the confines of the book. But I digress.

After the high impact demon filled opening of the novel, it settles into a more subdued pace, as Kote, now known to us as Kvothe, begins to tell the story of his life to a scribe who has sought him out. We learn that Kvothe is a legend and curiosity is piqued as to how a man who has killed a dragon and entered the University at a crazy young age somehow ends up in a backwater tavern. Kvothe spins his tale carefully, telling Chronicler (the scribe who is way more important than is let on) of his childhood as a traveling player, his days of poverty in a frightening city and finally his acceptance into the University. Most of the novel’s action takes place at the University as Kvothe begins to grow up and learn about the great and dangerous powers of the world that are his to control. The story seems to meander through time as Kvothe remembers particular things, and yet the through line of the narrative remains clear and moving steadily forward. There is even a wonderful meta-narrative sort of thing happening, as Rothfuss artfully takes us out of the story Kvothe is telling and reminds the reader that this novel is a layered experience with brief interludes taking place in the novel’s present time.

This novel is a brick and I’ll do my best to not make this review a reflection of that. I didn’t feel like I was reading over seven hundred pages though, and I believe that it is a testament to Rothfuss knowing how to pace himself that didn’t have me throwing the book down half way through. He knows that an adventure story gets boring and so he gives Kvothe a romantic interest that keeps things lively. He knows that only using one setting stagnates a story and so his tale takes us through mountains and cities, universities and taverns, tapping into the characters populating each to create a rich world that rivals that of Middle Earth and Westeros. Rothfuss isn’t following the traditions of epic high fantasy to the letter, but he’s clearly been inspired by them and I look forward to his next novel in the series to see how these base themes he’s laid down hold up over a longer story arch. In particular I look forward to his continued treatment of magic as more of a science than a mystical force of the universe. I think this concept will slowly be abandoned for some reason, although I can’t quite put my finger on why I think so. Maybe any of you who read this can let me know your thoughts on the matter afterwards.

Oh dear, I’m quickly heading towards brick-ness. I’ll finish off with a quick run down of my likes and dislikes, to help you know what you’re getting into. I like Kvothe, his outlook on life, his intelligence and refreshing normalcy. I like the university in general and his life there. I like that he notices girls while still living up to the greatness we know he is destined for. I’m not a huge fan of the moments in the present, since that story has yet to come together as well. I’m dying to know why Kvothe and Kote are such different people despite being one man. I think that I don’t have dislikes so much as I have questions that need answers. That’s not a terrible place to be after finishing a book though, so I’ll take it. So there you go. Check it out; go on an adventure and perhaps you’ll find The Name of the Wind draws you in the way it did me.

Night Circus

The advent of a new year often brings about a great deal of reflection about the one slipping into the past. What milestones occurred? What were your favorite movies, songs, sporting triumphs and other such listable things? Of course, here at Musings from a Leather Chair, what I really care about is the best books of 2012, at least out of the ones I read. It seems almost serendipitous that I would read what I hands down consider to be the best book of this year (and perhaps this decade) right at the end of the year, just in the nick of time. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern enthralled me for the last week of 2012 and is how you should usher in 2013.

            Night Circus was a novel I had been hearing about for quite a while. I would see it in bookstores and be drawn to its artsy cover that uses only red, black and white. I wouldn’t know this design was important to the actual plot of the story, but somehow I would feel connected to the book. Of course, I would then hem and haw about paying full price for a hard cover and walk away empty handed. That is until I was in my favorite used bookstore and found a paperback copy. I had it up at the counter as fast as I could move and dove into it as soon as I got home. Instead of then continuing to frantically read, flipping pages in a frenzy of energy, I slowed down. Night Circus is the first book in a long while that I savored. I read carefully, the plot pulling me along at just the right pace, keeping me engrossed in the story but not hurling too much at me at once. I had time to get a feel for each of the different characters and to understand how their lives would intersect by means of the most extraordinary circus ever imagined. It definitely helps that I happened to be on vacation when I was reading the majority of Night Circus. A beach in Jamaica will make anyone pause and linger over something enjoyable, and so I spent my days in the sun with Night Circus in hand, not wanting the story to end but dying to know what would happen next.

            The novel focuses on two competing magicians and their respective protégés, both of whom are pitted against each other in a lifelong competition of endurance and skill. The two young competitors know they are playing against each other but the scope of this test takes time to sink in, and as they each work within the circus to create wonders that are actually magical but taken as enchanting tricks, they slowly fall in love. It is an all-encompassing love that fills them and drives the second half of the novel to its thrilling and completely unexpected conclusion. It is also a relatively believable love, as far as stories go. Marco and Celia, the two illusionists, go through separation and jealousy and all the rest of the hurdles life throws at lovers, and it is their struggle that makes them human. There is something incredibly erotic about the dark setting of the circus and their competition against each other that suits the adult who wants to be enchanted but not coddled. Marco and Celia may possess magic of sorts, but magic isn’t a savior in Night Circus. It is more of a tormenting force kept at bay and twisted for good instead of consuming the world for evil.

            Most of the story takes place within the confines of Le Cirque de Reves, or the Circus of Dreams, a creation thought up by an English theatrical producer and several intriguingly quirky dreamers who attend his infamous Midnight Dinners. What the creators do not know is that one of those dreamers, the mysterious Mr. A.H, is actually Marco’s teacher and building up the circus as the arena for the competition. Still, competition space or no, the circus thrives when it finally becomes a reality, delighting audiences’ world wide with its mystery and its wonders. The circus only opens after dark and while it holds the same features of a circus in the late 1800’s, it also hides magic behind every corner. Think the circus from Water for Elephants plus an infusion of The Prestige type magic with a dash of Harry Potter for flavor. All in all, a delightful space for a novel to tell its story.

            Morgenstern takes an interesting approach to novel writing, splitting her sections into the past and present and working from multiple points of view. Her sections in the present are written in second person and immediately gripping, while her sections in the past are written in the present tense and seems to involve the reader more intimately than other stories. She is skilled at leaving mysteries for the reader to figure out. A character is never presented from all sides. There are parts to everyone that are left in the dark and we never fully get to figure any one person out. This makes for an active reading experience, as I was certainly always trying to piece things together and figure out the puzzle before the story would let me. I believe it is the mark of Morgenstern’s elegance and craft that this mystery did not distract me from the story but made me love it even more. Her words are straightforward but intoxicating, poetic but crisp at the same time. By the end of the novel I agreed with every review that was calling Night Circus “hauntingly beautiful” because that is exactly what it is.

            If you want magic, love, adventure, growing up, deception, action, dark fairytales and a down right beautifully suspenseful novel, read Night Circus. I am dubbing it the best book of 2012 and certainly looking forward to any more work Morgenstern produces in the future.