Customer Reviews

Spangle

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gary Jennings has carved out a niche for himself in modern fiction - long, intricately plotted novels based around a single character in a little known historical area. Great reads, full of love and violence, colourful and exciting. And educational - history comes alive in his books, virtually bursting out of the page to take you by the throat. Or the heart.

In Spangle he has outdone himself. This is my favourite of all his books, and perhaps the most poignant. We follow Zachary Edge, a colonel riding away from Appomattox, from his chance meeting with the down at heel circusman Florian through post Civil War America across the Atlantic to Europe, all the way to Moscow and back, ending in the beseiged Paris of the Franco-Prussian War.

Along the way Florian's circus grows and prospers, until he performs before the very crowned heads of Europe. Colonel Edge learns the circus trade, all its tricks and traditions, and we learn along with him. It is a road story of course, as all circus stories must be, but this one is longer than most, and travels a more colourful, exciting road than the circus itself.

It is a grand entertainment from start to finish, at every page revealing the fruits of Gary Jennings' research into the history of the circus.

And in these latter days, where the animals are mostly gone, and circuses are fewer than they were, it is a journey back to freeer, happier days.

One of my personal favourites, as much for the wealth of detail as for the story.

I only picked up this book because of the author. The subject matter didn't look at all interesting to me. I was wrong, as I was hooked from the first page. Jennings' ability to weave a convoluted thread against a historical background shines here. As the circus travels around, the members interact with each other and their surroundings. This makes for a great history lesson, as well as an in-depth study of the circus life. I learned more than I ever cared to about European history or the circus, and enjoyed every minute of it. Aside from entertaining me greatly, this book affected me deeply. Usually I am sad when I come to the end of a great book because that means a great read is over. In this case the characters were made so real, I was also sad to leave them, to the point of getting a little teary-eyed. Jennings' historical and cultural accuracy is "spot on" as they say. Students of foreign languages will notice the pains Jennings took to be this accurate. The reason I rated this book a nine and not a ten is because of the "adult content". Maybe he does this to appeal to an even wider readership. I felt that there was just a bit too much gratuitous sex. Some readers might think this is a good thing though. Finally let me say that because of this book, I cannot wait until the circus comes to town! Also, I became very interested in one of the countries that the circus travels through (Hungary), to the point of reading up on it, and studying the language. Pretty good for a book of fiction to have such an effect, don't you think?

The best thing about Jennings' work is that you become smarter as you read. I learn so many things, I find myself spouting them in casual conversation. I've read all three books so many times that the covers are gone and the books are mangled. There's always a Spangle novel lying open in my house. You MUST NOT miss this trilogy, nor should you miss Aztec. I've been all over the world, learned different languages and truly lived in my mind because of this brilliant man. Enjoy and Learn!

I very much liked this book. The circus lore and the social/political history of America and Europe at the turn of the century were fascinating. Some downside: Florian, the circus owner reminded me overmuch of Frank Morgan of Wizard of Oz fame. Also, two or three episodes did not ring true (the child molesting midget and the cats; Edge and the Empress). Not quite "Aztec" or "The Journeyer" level, but pretty close. A very fine piece of historical fiction. Thank you Mr. Jennings.

Spangle is a fine read. It's comfortably in a league with The Pillars of the Earth as well as Jennings' other works. One can quibble over which is the best. None are Pulitzer Prize material but neither are they pretentious; and - with even a nod to Water for Elephants - Spangle may be the best book about the circus.

The real issue is the failure to make crystal clear that (unlike Aztec and its sequels) the hardcover version of Spangle is the complete book. Let me state this very simply: buy the hardcover unless you wish to waste money.

Someone should definitely re-print this one. Spangle is one of the best historical novels I've ever read. It can be a little formulaic in spots, but I still have strong memories of reading it almost a decade after the fact. Hard to argue with that.

This is one of Jennings' best books - definitely on a par with "Journeyer" and almost as good as "Aztec". As alsways, his historical research is immaculate, and he weaves reality into his fiction in an almost seamless way.

The story follows the travels of a circus ("Florian's Flourishing Florilegium") from America at the end of the Civil War to Paris at the time of the Franco-Prussian War. The characters are all strongly drawn, and the circus memorabilia excellent. The story line runs the gamut of emotion from humour to tragedy. Jennings is able to draw the reader into his story so that we can see the book unfolding in our imaginations.

A worthwhile read - and it would make a fantastic movie - if he were younger, Clint Eastwood would make a great Zachary Edge!

I don't want to spoil any surprises...this is a beautifully written book about a travelling circus in the USA and Europe during the period 1865-75, give or take. It's phenomenal. You can almost hear the applause of the audiences, and some of the events seem like a physical blow, they're so surprising. On an artistic note, this is better than Jennings' _Aztec_ and _Raptor_ in my opinion. The circus setting allows new characters to be introduced and older ones to be written out over the length of the book, as opposed to the first-person narratives of his other works. Not all the characters survive the narrative, even the really clever or strong ones. Other plusses include the use of circus slang and explanations of various props, equipment, and tricks of the trade. Finally, I have to mention my favorite scene: a duel between a scarred con man and a strongman from a rival circus. You can almost feel the punches and grapples in this scene

I came across Gary Jennings' novel Spangle in the course of doing some research on American circuses, and after having read it, I have to say that in addition to being a great novel, this is absolutely the best circus novel anyone could ever want to read. Aside from being a highly engrossing and enjoyable read, Spangle also provides an astonishingly enlightening portrayal of a circus of the 1860's and 70's, brimming with well-researched details of virtually every aspect of circus life, from the slang terms used and how the various performers did their acts to how the animals were fed and what kind of problems a moving enterprise of that kind had to face, everything from inclement weather to petty bureaucrats, and even, in the course of the novel, wars and revolutions.

It really is impossible to convey just how much research went into this novel. Not only is circus life accurately depicted, Jennings also thoroughly researched the history of the period, starting with the surrender at Appomatox that ended the US Civil War in 1865 and ending with the Communard revolution and the Paris Commune that marked the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. The reader is taken on a highly visual journey, experiencing a crossing of the Atlantic at the dawn of the steamship era, a tour of the imperial palace grounds of Tsar Alexander in St. Petersburg, walking the streets of the Paris of Napoleon III, and other pleasures. Everything from the details of the dishes served at hotels and imperial banquets to the flowers that grew on one side or the other of an Alpine valley was researched. The reader experiences near-total immersion into the period in every aspect imagineable. My one quibble with Jennings is that his depictions of lesbianism and homosexuality seem drawn more from lurid pulp novels of the 1940's than from what any real research into the subject would've reflected. But that aside, the depth and scope of his work is truly breath-taking. It is easy to understand why Jennings apparently only published a handful of novels; he spent most of his time doing research. And it really pays off here.

But most of all, Jennings rich prose immerses you in the world of his fictional circus, allowing you to see and experience everything, mostly through the eyes of his main character, the former Confederate Colonel Zachary Edge who by chance of fate joins up with a circus shortly after the surrender at Appomatox:

"There was a moon, and the worn old canvas did not much impede the light of it. The whole tent interior glowed a sort of dreamy blue-white, with brighter patches here and there, where the canvas was particularly threadbare. No one else awoke to admire the effect, or to deplore it, but Edge lay wide-eyed. He had once, in Richmond, seen a military observation balloon inflated -- growing from a flaccid pile of fabric to the immensity of a wineglass elm tree, the cloth rippling and dimpling and billowing as it grew. Now he could almost imagine himself inside such a thing, vast and empty, translucent to the moonlight, whispering and sighing in the soft night breeze."
"--Though he was dressed only in his long underwear, Edge got up and went outdoors, for another look at the Big Top's outside. It now looked like a pavilion indeed, like a fairy-tale rotunda built of moonbeams and spindrift and held to the ground only by a web of gassmer threads. None of the tent's worn places or patches or seams showed in the bluish half-light, and even its ordinary peaked roundness seemed blurrily mysterious of outline as it gently quivered and swelled and ebbed. Edge heard some quite noises from the far side of the big tent, and he went around it to where the baggage wagon was parked near the back-door gap in the tent wall, and he saw a prettier sight yet."
"--The elephant was back there, chained by a clamp around one hind foot to one of the tent pegs, but with a decent length of chain, so it did not hinder what the animal was doing. And the great beast, mumbling softly, talking to herself, was doing some peculiar things. As Edge watched, she lifted one front foot atop a different stake, then put both front feet on both of the stakes so her upper body was raised. Then she lowered herself to ordinary standing position, and stood thus as if meditating. Then she knelt on both hind legs, keeping the front ones stiff, so her back was steeply inclined. Then she stood up and meditated some more."
"--Edge wondered if the animal had perhaps eaten some kind of locoweed during her browsing of the unfamiliar ground. There was some elephant dung about, but it gave off no offensive aroma; it smelled fresh and garden-y and not at all unpleasant."
"--Now, quite suddenly, the elefphant let her hind legs slide forward under her, sat back on her tremendous rump and raised her front feet, sitting erect, so she towered as high as the tent eaves. She waggled those front legs, playfully pawing the night air, the raised her trunk and curled it and whuffled softly through it what would have been a trumpet blast if she had really blown. And Edge realized what the elephant was doing. All by herself, without goading or command, all alone in the moonlight, the bull Brutus, Biggest Brute That Breathes, was rehearsing her circus act for tomorrow."

I cannot recommend this book too highly. For anyone who enjoys a good long novel, it is well worth the read. In spite of its length (869 pages), Jennings keeps things moving at a quick pace and constantly surprises the reader with turns and developments coming out of the blue. And for anyone who has even a passing interest in the circus, this is absolutely a must-read. You will learn more about circus life from this novel than from any other single book, fiction or non-fiction, you could ever hope to read. Highly, highly recommended.

I am a big Jennings fan, but after finishing all 3 books in the Spangle series, I can't help but feel there was something missing. I enjoyed the story, and the history, but maybe got confused with some of the characters. If you are a fan of historical fiction or Gary Jennings you should read this saga....