The Life She Was Given

The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman.  356 pages  due out in July, 2017

On a summer night in 1931, Lilly Blackwood glimpses circus lights from the window of her attic bedroom.  She's not allowed outside, ever, and Momma insists it's for her own protection because people would be afraid if they ever saw her. She's an abomination, after all. However, on this night, Lilly is taken outside for the very first time, by Momma, and sold to the circus sideshow.

More than 20 years later, 19 year-old Julia Blackwood has inherited her parents' estate and horse farm. Hoping that her return will erase her childhood memories of an unhappy home, Julia becomes immersed in the care of the horses. However, her attention soon turns to her family's history when she discovers a hidden attic room and photos of circus scenes and notes featuring a striking young woman.

This book gives two perspectives, so you have Lilly's story from 1931 and beyond, and then Julia's story as she's in the present but also digging into her family's past.  Lilly's introduction to circus life is pretty brutal and while she eventually makes friends and then becomes the circus' main attraction, her life has a lot of difficult and tragic moments. The author gives a lot of realistic details about circus and sideshow life at the time, and I appreciated that there was this realism; there's no candy-coated dream here of running away to join the circus and having it all be spangles and spotlights.  Realistically, as well, is what one of the circus proprietors points out to Lilly: the way that she is, her life would either be one of being locked in an attic and abused (or worse, put in an asylum) or it could be traveling with the sideshow, where she would be among other "different" people.  I think it's difficult for people today to think about what sideshow life was like, but in 1931, people who were different didn't always have a lot of choices. Sideshow life could give them an opportunity to work and have some control over their own lives (at least, that was the best-case scenario.  Sadly, it wasn't always like that for many of the sideshow performers). The author also gives heartbreakingly accurate details about what life was like for many of the animals in the traveling circuses of the time, so if you're sensitive to sad animal stories, maybe skip this book.

The dual perspectives and timelines made this an interesting read. You're learning about Lilly's life through her perspective, but also discovering things about her as Julia delves into her family's past and discovers the connection.  I know you're wondering what makes Lilly different -- but no spoilers here. You'll have to read the book!

Freak Show

Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit by Robert Bogdan.  299 pages.

While the idea of attending a circus or carnival freak show is distasteful for many of us, from 1840 to 1940, these shows and displays were common across the U.S.   Author Robert Bogdan writes in his preface that "The meaning that disability has in our culture has been an interest of mine for a long time.  This book on 'freak shows' flows directly from a project in which I examined villains in horror and adventure movies."   Bogdan has done a lot of research and in this book presents the history of the traveling show in America, but also discusses the people, themselves.

I found the book to be interesting, and the author's take on this part of history to be sympathetic.   I knew some of the people he wrote about, like Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren (a/k/a Mrs. Tom Thumb), and the Doll Family, but I didn't know much about the Hilton Sisters, or the history of "tattooed exotics."  The author included information on many people, including the managers and promoters of these shows.  It was also interesting to learn about how, as time went on, the ascent of professional medicine transformed these people from being seen as marvels to pathological specimens.   Bogdan did a lot of research, and his extensive notes at the back of the book are very helpful and insightful.

I thought Bogdan's philosophy to be thought-provoking.  He states, ""Our reaction to freaks is not a function of some deep-seated fear or some "energy" that they give off; it is, rather the result of our socialization, and of the way our social institutions managed these people's identities. Freak shows are not about isolated individuals...they are about organizations and patterned relationships between them and us. Freak is not a quality that belongs to the person on display. It is something that we created: a perspective, a set of practices - a social construction."  (Preface, p, x).

The Grace Keepers

  

The Grace Keepers by Kirsty Logan     308 pages

           The timeframe for this novel is obscure. It could be the near future or the far past. Whenever it is, land is scarce. Most of the world, it seems is covered with water. There isn’t the overcrowding of today’s time. In fact people are classified into two groups: the landlockers (those inhabiting the mainland) and the damplings (those who float on the sea). I got the impression there was no “mainland.” Instead, people traveled from island to island via boat, and not a motor boat either.

There are two main protagonists. First in North. She is a young girl of about sixteen. She works as a circus performer with the Excalibur, a floating troupe of acrobats, clowns, dancers, and trainers who sail from archipelago to archipelago, entertaining in exchange for food. North, whose parents are dead, performs a dance routine with a bear.

Then there is Callanish. Also a young girl. Her role in the world is to administer Restings to the dead. That is, she performs burials as sea for those who have died. I didn’t really get the part the birds, or graces, play in the ceremonies. Each time a person is laid to rest, a grace is starved to death. When the bird dies, the mourning period is over. I wish Logan had given a more detailed description of the birds. They are small, which is about all the readers learn of them. Callanish lives alone.

There isn’t a strong, suspenseful plot. There are peaks and valley in the storyline and a couple of gasping moments. I didn’t find myself staying up late, reading one more chapter to find out what happens.

The gorgeous cover and the link to Scottish myths and fairytales are the main reasons I wanted to read The Grace Keepers. The cove is evidential of Logan’s lyrical writing style. I don’t’ know much about Scottish myths and fairytales, and there is nothing in the text that indicates what the inspiration is. Logan is a Scot living in Scotland, so maybe you have to already have this knowledge to make the connections. 

Although this rather dystopian novel doesn’t have a strong plot, its other qualities are why I rate this novel four out of five stars.

I received The Grace Keepers from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.