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Fearless Frangipan Circus Pie by Maggie Reid
With her dream of a life as an acrobat in tatters after a tragic accident, young bookish Emile turns away from the life she once knew. All is overshadowed by a sinister figure, Cesare, who follows her with a blade, turning her life upside down once again. Emile runs away from everything she knows, but then she is re-united with her first love after an unexpected twist of fate. A tale of thwarted ambition, desire and the echo of the circus, can Emile find her path and heed the words "in order to succeed, first you must trust yourself?"
Hardcover
First published June 21, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 11, 2013
Maggie Reid's tale of love, freedom, and loss is unlike anything that I have ever read. FEARLESS FRANGIPAN CIRCUS PIE is set in Ireland, but it is not the gleaming Emerald Isle most of us would recognize. It's a shadowy, hard-edged world. Imagine the stark, highly stylized lines of an Edward Gorey illustration or Tum Burton's stop action masterpiece THE CORPSE BRIDE.
It is in this surreal landscape that we meet Emile de Bosco on a deserted beach giving birth to a baby not destined to survive. We then go back several months. Clever Emile dreams of a life free of the strict expectations of her foster parents, one where she can soar free and be exactly who she is. She senses she might be about to take a step towards that longed-for future when she meets a young man connected to a travelling circus. However, fate intervenes in the form of a brutal assault by a local man. Through a twist of circumstance, Emile reunites with the young man and takes refuge with the circus. This sanctuary proves tragically temporary, which is how Emile ends up alone on that beach near her home. Afterwards, she tries hard to escape the past and build a new life for herself, even if it doesn't include the dizzying flights of spirit that she once dreamed of. But a darkness, represented largely by the continuing menace of her attacker, dogs her to the very end. The nature of that end is open to interpretation.
Emile's story is compelling and more than once brought me to tears. I do feel that some of the transitions (scenes/locations/time jumps)are a bit bumpy even for an experimental piece. I also wish that Reid showed us more of Emile's time with the circus. The actual circus scenes are the briefest part of the book, and yet the circus theme is central to the character's development and to the ultimate shape of the narrative.
Overall, this is an ambitious book by an author who is not afraid to take risks. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys their literary fiction with a Gothic twist.
It is in this surreal landscape that we meet Emile de Bosco on a deserted beach giving birth to a baby not destined to survive. We then go back several months. Clever Emile dreams of a life free of the strict expectations of her foster parents, one where she can soar free and be exactly who she is. She senses she might be about to take a step towards that longed-for future when she meets a young man connected to a travelling circus. However, fate intervenes in the form of a brutal assault by a local man. Through a twist of circumstance, Emile reunites with the young man and takes refuge with the circus. This sanctuary proves tragically temporary, which is how Emile ends up alone on that beach near her home. Afterwards, she tries hard to escape the past and build a new life for herself, even if it doesn't include the dizzying flights of spirit that she once dreamed of. But a darkness, represented largely by the continuing menace of her attacker, dogs her to the very end. The nature of that end is open to interpretation.
Emile's story is compelling and more than once brought me to tears. I do feel that some of the transitions (scenes/locations/time jumps)are a bit bumpy even for an experimental piece. I also wish that Reid showed us more of Emile's time with the circus. The actual circus scenes are the briefest part of the book, and yet the circus theme is central to the character's development and to the ultimate shape of the narrative.
Overall, this is an ambitious book by an author who is not afraid to take risks. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys their literary fiction with a Gothic twist.
May 1, 2017
4 star rating
This was something else, little weird and a little difficult to articulate into words at the moment. I really enjoyed it and would like to do a proper review so I can give some justice to the book so I'll be back with a more comprehensive review once I can figure out how to write it.
This was something else, little weird and a little difficult to articulate into words at the moment. I really enjoyed it and would like to do a proper review so I can give some justice to the book so I'll be back with a more comprehensive review once I can figure out how to write it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews