The Invisible Circus

By: Jennifer Egan

Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert

Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

In Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan's highly acclaimed first novel, set in 1978, the political drama and familial tensions of the 1960s form a backdrop for the world of Phoebe O'Connor, age eighteen. Phoebe is obsessed with the memory and death of her sister Faith, a beautiful idealistic hippie who died in Italy in 1970. In order to find out the truth about Faith's life and death, Phoebe retraces her steps from San Francisco across Europe, a quest which yields both complex and disturbing revelations about family, love, and Faith's lost generation.

This spellbinding novel introduced Egan's remarkable ability to tie suspense with deeply insightful characters and the nuances of emotion.

©2012 Jennifer Egan (P)2012 AudioGO

Too Many Metaphors

I love metaphors, but his was too much. Every action and object seemed to require one. This style slows down the story and keeps the reader at a distance. From such a talented writer this was disappointing. I usually enjoy reading in print more than audio books but this one would have frustrated me had I read it as a paper book.
The story is...okay. The characters are not as well developed as in other work by this author. So, just pretty good but not really good work from one of my favorite writers.

interesting story

it was an interesting story about a younger sister's quest to find out what happened to her older sister when she died, but I cringed when I heard the narrator pronounce Corniglia with a hard "G". it's pronounced Kor-nee-lee-uh. not Kor-nig-lee-uh. Also Moscone's name is pronounced wrong, and the locals never call Los Gatos the way she did, the correct Spanish way. It's Loss-ga-tis. Someone from San Francisco would know this.

I can't actually decide...

I was entertained by the book. I enjoyed the narrator. The story? I can't decide if it was incredible or completely contrived.

Underwhelming

Narration had some issues: Barry always sounds congested, and Phoebe’s voice is frequently too over the top. The story just wasn’t very compelling.

Hard to beat Jennifer Egan

Her writing is like listening to music. She makes it seem easy the way the story flows along. True genius!

So wanted to enjoy this book

I couldn’t even finish a free book. Its just completely flat and not remotely engaging.

Feeling Melancholy

A heart wrenching glimpse into the turmoil left behind by family trauma during the 70s while paralleling with the romanticized but troubled 60s while simultaneously following one young lady on a journey for understanding, closure, and self. What a beautiful story.

Loved the Story

I very much loved the story,, but the narrator was way too much for me. At times I felt like she was just screaming the whole storyline of the main character and I didn't knew if I was going to make it through the whole book.

Metaphor upon metaphor

This early Egan novel, set in the 70s, tells a story of growing up and family tragedy. It could have used a mighty editor who could have pared down the habit of describing every sound, sight, and atmospheric fact in clunky metaphor. The story kept me going but it was annoying. And I couldn’t quite forgive the narrator for pronouncing Chianti with a Ch like Charles….

Must be better on the page.

This might be a good read (I've liked other books by Egan) but was nearly done in by the narrator. It's not that she lacks feeling, it's just that she sounds better suited to a thriller. And yes there is certainly a whodunit (or, more accurately, whydunit) factor, but she reads the entire book in a tone of great urgency rather than reflecting the constantly shifting and evolving mindset of the main character. The narrator also flubs some really critical pronunciations (of place names and more). All I can conclude is that she didn't have time to read the book in advance. So it's hard to know whether the main character would be as annoying on the page.