The Ringmaster's Daughter
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Description
Panina Manina, a trapeze artist, falls and breaks her neck. As the ringmaster bends over her, he notices an amulet of amber around her neck, the same trinket he had given his own lost child, who was swept away in a torrent some sixteen years earlier.
This tale is narrated by Petter, a precocious child and fantasist, and perhaps Jostein Gaarder's most intriguing character since Sophie. As an adult, Petter makes his living selling stories and ideas to professionals suffering from writer's block. But as Petter sits spinning his tales, he finds himself in a trap of his own making.
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Never having read "Sophie's World" or another work by Gaarder, I was astonished by his variety of story ideas and how he webs them throughout the novel. The main character is a man who sells ideas for novels etc. to desperately uninspired writers because he has too many ideas and is unable to use them for creating something himself. The novel teaches us a lot about the literature world, the process of writing and rewriting etc. Of course there's also love, the love for a woman and the unknown child he has with her - but it feels like Gaarder forgot to mention this topic throughout the writing process. The relationship takes place at the beginning of the novel to be continued at the end. And the end was a real disappointment for me. Clearly, Gaarder got a little bit too inspired by Max Frisch's "Homo Faber" but didn't have the nerves to fully go into the topic of loving ones own daughter. All in all, still a great reading experience with a fantastic main thought: What if behind all the novels of the world is the same idea?
Description
Panina Manina, a trapeze artist, falls and breaks her neck. As the ringmaster bends over her, he notices an amulet of amber around her neck, the same trinket he had given his own lost child, who was swept away in a torrent some sixteen years earlier.
This tale is narrated by Petter, a precocious child and fantasist, and perhaps Jostein Gaarder's most intriguing character since Sophie. As an adult, Petter makes his living selling stories and ideas to professionals suffering from writer's block. But as Petter sits spinning his tales, he finds himself in a trap of his own making.
Book Information
Posts
Never having read "Sophie's World" or another work by Gaarder, I was astonished by his variety of story ideas and how he webs them throughout the novel. The main character is a man who sells ideas for novels etc. to desperately uninspired writers because he has too many ideas and is unable to use them for creating something himself. The novel teaches us a lot about the literature world, the process of writing and rewriting etc. Of course there's also love, the love for a woman and the unknown child he has with her - but it feels like Gaarder forgot to mention this topic throughout the writing process. The relationship takes place at the beginning of the novel to be continued at the end. And the end was a real disappointment for me. Clearly, Gaarder got a little bit too inspired by Max Frisch's "Homo Faber" but didn't have the nerves to fully go into the topic of loving ones own daughter. All in all, still a great reading experience with a fantastic main thought: What if behind all the novels of the world is the same idea?