This novel was quite a ride! The book is divided into three sections. The first discusses the life of "Fevvers", a woman who is purported to have been born from an egg and has wings to prove it! In her young years, she is raised in a whore house and often posed as "Winged Victory" in the foyer. She moves on to become a circus aerialist and performer. This is being documented by a young reporter, Jack Walser, who has also fallen for Fevvers. The circus moves on to Petersburg in Russia and then to the Siberian wilderness where a great misfortune occurs. Carter engages in what is called "mystical realism" in the novel and you never know what is real.
From 1001 Books:
Angela Carter's dazzling aerialist, the tough and beguiling Fevvers, a winged-woman who defies gravity and sexual ideology, takes center stage of a novel that explores the eccentric limits of gender and geography. With the narrative's three-part excursion from London to St. Petersburg, finally reaching the vast expanses of Siberia, we journey with reporter Jack Walser, assigned to shadow the fortunes of Fevver's carnivalesque circus community. In his position as commentator, he is at once convivial and satirical. The novel is filled with burlesque ebullience, a carnival riot of voices, dialects, and stories, through which Carter explores the reality of the perpetual masquerade with shrewd discretion. . .
Overall a bizarre but enjoyable ride that I would recommend.
From 1001 Books:
Angela Carter's dazzling aerialist, the tough and beguiling Fevvers, a winged-woman who defies gravity and sexual ideology, takes center stage of a novel that explores the eccentric limits of gender and geography. With the narrative's three-part excursion from London to St. Petersburg, finally reaching the vast expanses of Siberia, we journey with reporter Jack Walser, assigned to shadow the fortunes of Fevver's carnivalesque circus community. In his position as commentator, he is at once convivial and satirical. The novel is filled with burlesque ebullience, a carnival riot of voices, dialects, and stories, through which Carter explores the reality of the perpetual masquerade with shrewd discretion. . .
Overall a bizarre but enjoyable ride that I would recommend.
