To Rise Again At A Decent Hour, The Night Circus and The Whole Story and other stories

The premise seemed interesting, a New York dentist and devoted Red Sox fan has his identity stolen. To Rise Again At A Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris was also shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately these were dashed by the interminable forays into discussions about religion, sometimes three or four pages without a paragraph. I guess there was some cleverness here, and the odd joke, but that didn't make up for the long boring sections that eventually I had to skip over. The online identity theft was OK but the plot was only there in bits and pieces. In among the garbage there is some good stuff hidden in plain sight. This type of book is highly literate and may be fine for Man Booker prize judges, but not for me.

PS Cubs fans please skip the last couple of pages.

I normally steer clear of historical fantasy fiction, and if I had known the true background of this book I would not have read it. Especially as it is a one trick pony: a magical circus set up as the venue for a challenge. So there are lots of repetitive descriptions of a circus which is very unlike those we are used to. But just before halfway, the book did take on a different, more emotional feel as two new and more interesting characters appear.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is far too long for one that has so little plot, if the five hundred pages had been cut by a half or even a third, this might have been so much more satisfying. However, the writing is good enough that it flows well and it carries a certain spell on the reader. There was just enough to keep me interested in what happens next. And then was something on the penultimate page which made me gasp, part of a literary device that is suddenly explained. If only we had had more like that.

In 2003, this was Ali Smith at her most experimental. Two years before this she wrote the Booker shortlisted  Hotel World" which I thought was very good. But here her collection of short stories The Whole Story and other stories were mainly too bizarre for my taste. But there is one marvelous exception. "Paradise" is the longest story by far and is actually three stories in one, each probably about one of three sisters, although the last one doesn't have a name so we cant be sure.

However some of the other stories are too fantastical, although no one will ever forget the bagpipers who follow one of the characters around wherever they go. I guess it was meant to be funny, but it wasn't. All the stories have such a different tone from one another which is interesting. As a big Ali Smith fan, I had to read this collection, but unless you are, I would give it a miss, except that is for "Paradise". I added one star for this alone.