Customer Reviews

The Catch Trap

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me say at the onset that THE CATCH TRAP has a number of flaws. It is unevenly written; the storyline is somewhat repetitive; the characters are sometimes poorly motivated; the relationship between central characters Mario Santelli and Tommy Zane betrays a certain innocence on the part of the author. But for all its flaws and failings, THE CATCH TRAP is simply one of the most compulsively readable novels I have ever encountered.

The thing that makes the novel so impossible to put down is that everything about it is vividly, vividly alive. Set in the world of the circus of the 1940s and 1950s, the novel tells the story of teenager Tommy Zane, the son of a lion tamer, who dreams of becoming a trapeze artist--and who is taken under the wing of a famous family, The Flying Santellis. Bradley not only gives the novel tremedous sweep, she is so meticulous in her portrayal of circus life that you can smell the popcorn and feel the sawdust; the environment lives and breathes around the characters in a most remarkable way.

But no novel survives on atmosphere alone. Bradley's story is equally unexpected: the star flyer, Mario Santelli, is homosexual--and he and teenage Tommy embark on a passionate love affair. But not only is Tommy underage, this is the 1940s and 1950s; the secrecy their relationship requires proves devastating to both, driving them into a downward spiral of guilt and despair even as they risk their lives on the trapeze with every performance. And around the two swirl a myriad of colorful characters as brilliant as a storm of confetti: the tempetuous Santelli family itself, the movers and shakers of their profession, the contrasting high flyers and lowlifes they encounter as they move from carny midway to center ring, from stardom to disaster.

One of the most surprising things about the novel is how romantically Bradley presents the relationship between Mario and Tommy and--for all her rather elementary assumptions about gay men and their relationships--how effective her approach is. You believe in them, you believe in the world in which they move, and page after page you want to know what happens next. This is not a book to place on your nightstand... because you'll never get to sleep. Surprisingly powerful, amazingly memorable, and very strongly recommended.

Those who are familiar with Bradley's Darkover works know that she has tackled the theme of homosexuality before, but those works are set in a future, almost alien environment. This book's setting is one that almost everyone has had at least some contact with, that of the circus and the high-flying trapeze act.

The period is the forties and fifties, a time when such relationships were never, ever talked about, criminalized in most states, and ruined many careers and lives if they became public knowledge. To this setting Bradley brings a remarkably apt pen, one that shows the circus in such detail that you can literally hear the elephants trumpet, the lions roar, the drum roll before the death-defying flight of the trapeze artist. The book follows the happening of the Flying Santellis, a family that has given their all to the perfection of the trapeze act since the 1890s. The Santellis are a close-knit family, held together by tradition, discipline, and a set of old-world values. To this family comes young Tommy Zane, entranced by the dream of becoming a flyer, and so familiar with world of the circus as the son of a lion tamer that the lives of non-circus people seem almost unreal to him. He is brought under the wing of Mario Santelli for training, and there is a quickly developing attraction between the two, an attraction that is far more than just physical, an attuning of each to the other that leads to their perfect sense of timing with each other on the trapeze.

It is this point that Bradley develops so well in this novel, the impossibility of separating a person's sexuality from the rest of their lives, that love is far more than just sex. Add to that the environment of that time, when such love could not be freely expressed, and you have the recipe for serious emotional repression and destructive anger. Bradley's characters' feelings and thoughts bristle with such charge that it is impossible not to become caught up in their plight, not to have your own anger raised at the stupidity and prejudice displayed by Angelo, Mario's uncle, and others. The rest of the Santelli family have their own problems, too, somewhat more conventional, but just as heart-breaking, just as real as the family next door. The book's ending is a true emotional uplift, growing out of and very true to Bradley's characters' development into mature individuals.

Bradley's sexual descriptions are only very mildly graphic, but there is some violence depicted here that might disturb some readers. But that is part of the point: it should disturb, that a society's rules, when at odds with basic human nature, can lead to such outbreaks of violence, detrimental to both the involved individuals and the society at large.

An impeccably detailed setting, sharply realized characters that live and breathe, an explosive situation, and a thematic message that is handled with grace and much insight - this is a novel that demands reading, regardless of your own sexual preferences.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

A friend lent me a copy of "The Catch Trap" and the prospect of reading a book about the circus in the 40s and 50s seemed like pure torture. Still, for some strange reason I picked it up and started reading (about a month after it was lent to me). Over the course of the next week, I found it increasingly difficult to put the book down. I stayed up literally all night one night because I just couldn't put it down. Though I'm usually not a big fan of long novels full of lots of detail, this book is riveting. The characters are full, rich, complicated people with complex, endlessly fascinating relationships. When I finished the book, I was genuinely sad to leave these people I had grown to love. The Santelli family had become real to me, almost as if I belonged to them in some way, and Tommy and Mario were my friends. And I felt like I knew so intimately what the life of traveling circus performers had been like. In addition to great characters and a great story, Bradley does a superior job of

Marion Zimmer Bradley breathes vivid life into the circus world of the 1940's and 50's with this unforgettable love story, a timeless classic about the triumph of love in the face of all odds. Bradley did her homework on the circus world of the 1940's, as well as on the gay sub-culture of that era. The book is so detailed, so nuanced, that you will end the book feeling as if you know all the characters --- the passionate and angst-filled Mario, his seemingly frail sister-in-law Stella who grows stronger and more sure as the years pass, Mario's Uncle --- the solid-as-a-rock but bigoted Angelo. And, of course, Mario's love Tommy Zane, the anchor of this panoramic novel. The tale of Tommy's coming into adulthood is mesmerizing, as is Mario and Tommy's fight to keep their love together, while struggling to keep it hidden in a prejudiced world.

This book is so amazing that I'm almost at a loss for words. I just finished reading it for the third time. The first time I read it was 10 years ago. I was in college and I remember reading it between classes, during classes, and at red lights on the way to class. It was so incredible that I couldn't put it down. And now, 10 years later, reading it for a third time, the book lost none of its power - I still found layers in it that I hadn't discovered before. I found myself reading and re-reading passages and paragraphs because the book is so rich that I wanted to keep savoring it.

Whether you're gay or straight or whatever, you should be able to relate to the characters and understand them. You are in for an intense, page-turning read with The Catch Trap. The book is almost a bit overwhelming --- I recommend that you start it when you have some time to get immersed in it, as you won't be able to put it down once you pass the first 100 pages or so. (It does start a bit slowly but once it gets started, hold onto your hats!)

Another strength about this book is that it's a lot more than a love story. It has many themes---what is artistic integrity?, how do we stay close to our families while asserting our own personalities?, and how do you stay true to your soulmate while growing into your own independance?

In a way, I would have loved a sequel, but Bradley ties everything together so perfectly, that a sequel isn't necessary.

I would give my right-arm to join a book discussion group about this book. If anyone wants to discuss it over email with me, please drop me a note at stormkpr@usa.net I think it's a shame that the book is, apparently, out of print. Marion Zimmer Bradley's hidden treasure!

The people who are browsing through these reviews, wondering whether they will buy the Catch Trap, are very fortunate. They are very fortunate because they have yet to discover something that is very rare and very precious - a book that totally engulfs and captivates the attention of the reader. Only a very few books have done that to me - maybe half a dozen - and it happened mostly a long time ago, when I was about 15 to 20. With the Catch Trap, I felt that way again and for that, I am very grateful towards Marion Zimmer Bradley. So don't hesitate any longer - buy the Catch Trap and enjoy it.

I was given this book several years ago and was extremely skeptical. I don't usually like love stories and I'm not a big science fiction fan so when I saw that it was a love story by a science fiction writer I was sure I would hate it. I didn't. In fact I started reading it one Saturday afternoon and didn't put it down until I finished it that evening. The relationship between these two men (Tommy Zane and Matt "Mario" Santelli) was so moving and so real. All of the characters in this book are so multi-dimensional that you think you know each of them intimately and you start to feel like one of the family. Set in the circus world of the 40's, this book takes you on a fantastic ride through the lives of two young men who risk everything to be together. I've probably read this book over two dozen times and I love it just as much each time. In fact, my copy is so worn out that I had to order a new one. Read it! You won't be sorry.

Being a Darkover die hard MZB fan, I special ordered this in the 80s when it was first published. It is a shame it was so difficult to find -- if you didn't know about it, you'd be unlikely to find it in a bookstore. I am so glad I did know and so grateful for Ballantine for publishing what had to be a risky venture.

As much of a Darkover fan as I was, this rises about Darkover, even above Mist of Avalon to me, because it paints such a rare and wonderful picture of a circus family, of circus life and the families that make it up. There are very few books that paint such a rich picture, that take you so completely and absolutely into a life, a world, and a family and make you feel a part of it. All of them,Mario/Matt, Tommy, Papa Tony, Angelo, Lucia, Liss, Johnny, Tommy's parents, and the myriad performers in the circus -- it is as if they were real. The detail on flying is impressively researched. All the circus details make you feel you are a part of the circus backyard.

Though the novel is long and occasionally repetitive, I understand why it is so, and wouldn't see a word cut, indeed I wish it were longer. I wish she had written a sequel.

To think that she wrote this in 1948 boggles the mind. MZB is known for relationship writing, conventional and not, in depth and with meaning. The choices and consequences, the sacrifices, pitfalls and joys of all the relationships are intelligently explored with a perceptive hand.

It is a treasure well worth reading, that should be acquired, that shouldn't be missed. Sad that too many will miss this underreported gem. Don't be one of them.

I read this for the first time almost twenty years ago, when I was in college. I read it a couple of more times in the following years, but this is probably the first time I've reread it in eight or ten years. And again, I can't put it down. I will still be sad when I'm done reading it, because I'd like to have more of it.

This is one of the best gay love stories you're likely to find, at least if you're a soppy romantic like me. I fell in love with the characters and the setting, not to mention the historical details. Hell, to this day I have a thing for redheads, in part because one of the lead characters, Tommy Zane, was a redhead. If I ever go to the circus, it's because of this book. I want a sequel, but at the same time I want the ending to be the "happily ever after" the characters deserve.

From a mechanical perspective Bradley was not the greatest writer, but she sure could spin a yarn. The book grabs you and does not let you go until well after you've put it down. You can't help but get involved with the main characters, the Santelli family, and their circus milieu. It also works on the level of social history and commentary. Mario and Tommy are like many gay couples of that time in their response to the repression society heaped on them. Their struggle to make their love survive and even thrive under such conditions leaves me misty-eyed by the end. In a very real sense, I think the book is Bradley's tribute to the struggle and pain of that generation of gay men and women, and the strength it took to endure. The reviewer who derided the story as being about closet cases needs to understand that things were very different back then. As for me, I would make this mandatory reading in every high school, especially in the Bible Belt.

So get it, read it, and pass it on to your friends and family.

Marion Zimmer Bradley has been my favourite writer since i read «The Mists Of Avalon», a few years ago. I read many of her books related to fantasy and misticisms, but i had no idea of what to expect from this «Catch Trap». Well, its first pages was all it took for me to fall in love with Mario and Tom. It's definitely the most beautiful love story i've read, so intense and vivid that i even got the feeling i was actually living it, not just reading it. There's no place for anyone to be prejudiced against anything in this book. Mario and Tommy are just two human beings, trying to find their own place in life with equal doses of love and desperation. I read the book in a weekend and i was left feeling empty when it was over. I miss those characters as if they had actually lived with me for a while. I cannot think about any other book as perfect as this.

I had read and enjoyed The Dreyfus Affair, and one of the people who reviewed it here mentioned that The Catch Trap covered some of the same ground better. I read the description and immediately decided it wasn't for me. I don't care for circuses, and I don't particularly care for works set in this era. For some reason, though, the title stuck with me--perhaps because I have enjoyed Marion Zimmer Bradley's works in the past, so one day I picked up the book in the library and read the blurb. Again, it just didn't appeal to me, so I put it back. A few days later, I was desperate for something to read and finally gave it a try.

I am so glad I did. This is a rich and beautifully nuanced novel. The characters came to life for me as only a few have in many years of voracious reading. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone. Don't let the description put you off!