The Ringmaster's Daughter

2am 13th-April: Completed the book, more awake than I was when I picked it up, with a mind full of whats/whys/whos/hows spinning around in my mind, trying to digest what Gaarder intended to convey.

If you're a Gaarder fan this book is a must, if you're not (yet) one “The Ringmasters Daughter” is as good a (but darker) place to start as “Solitaire Mystery”.

This book is everything you'd expect and a little that you wouldn't. Take one precocious child (preferably from a broken home) weave an enchanting story around them, add in Alice-in-wonderland-esque fantasy elements, stir, sprinkle on some pithy ontological insights and you have a Gaarder novel. Although that doesn't quite cover it, Gaarder has a little more; elements of this book took me aback and left me wondering. The best way I can allude to it, is a gust of Artic wind blowing across you when you're on a beach trying to sunbathe. From his previous works I didn't expect parts of what I got, I couldn't help but think “Sophie would never do that”, “I hope Hans never gets to hear about this”. Gaarder is sticking his inimitable recipe but adding a bit more and it makes for a different yet appetising dish.

Gaarder tells the story in a way that glues you to the book. The main impetus of the story is Petter's auto-biographical narration, but Gaarder cleverly spins offs new threads, not least in the protagonists storytelling abilities. The loose ends are slowly weaved back into the main thread or cut off completely, leaving you guessing right up until the crescendo.


A web of mystery   January 22, 2003
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

The main character of this novel is Petter, an only child who has an amazing imagination which he makes use of by constructing complex tales. When Petter grows up, he decides to put his talent for telling stories to good use. Although he does not wish to become an author, he is aware that others do, yet may be prevented from a lack of ideas. Petter then begins to sell ideas for novels to aspiring authors, taking huge delight in the thought that much of what may be published is, in fact, his own work.
Yet despite the apparent control Petter has over his enterprise, Petter's construction begins to show flaws. As Gaarder describes in the novel, Petter has spun his own web, hence the nickname of The Spider which is attributed to him, and like a spider's web, Petter's world is fragile. His anonymity is endangered and more seriously something else threatens the stability of Petter's world, something from his past. As Petter states at the end of the novel, it is something even he could not have imagined...

That is really a very brief synopsis of the novel. I have tried not to give too much away, as this book develops suspense as it progresses. As with all of Gaarder's novels, The Ringmaster's Daughter, is complex. There are a lot of ideas put forward for a relatively short book as the brief descriptions of possible book ideas are included within the storyline.
Having read all of Gaarder's novels, I was certainly not disappointed with his latest. The reason why I only awarded 4 stars is that the ending, for me, was not as good as I had hoped. The ending echoes Petter's brief book synopses meaning that not all questions are answered for the reader. My problem with the ending was at times I felt Gaarder was being perhaps a little too oblique (the chess references, for example, left me a little lost to say the least).
However, fans of Gaarder shall not be disappointed. An interesting read.


Yet another amazing book   January 20, 2003
Ophelia (England)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a definite must for fans of Gaarder's dpeth of style. He uses his 'story within a story' formula once again to great effect, and it is very subtley woven. Like with Gaarder's other books, you are drawn right in and oly released after the very last page. He lets you think you can predict some elements of the plot, but you soon realise that that is never possible with one of his books. It improves with successive readings as the layers of intrigue are so great.