Book Review: THE RINGMASTER'S DAUGHTER

The Ringmaster's Daughter by Jostein Gaarder

Prior to reading The Ringmaster’s Daughter, I had read two other Jostein Gaardner books, Sophie’s World and The Solitaire Mystery. I enjoyed the latter because of its whimsicality and strangeness, and I was bored to tears by the former, to the point that I could not even finish it.

The Ringmaster’s Daughter is narrated by the protagonist Petter, a precocious and vain child and fantasist. It tells of Petter’s life story, how he grew up in a weird fantasy world of his own imagination, how he believed himself to be better than his peers and parents, and describes his somewhat obsessive relationship with his mother. His imagination becomes vital to his living, as after his lover Maria leaves him, carrying his child, he turns his imagination into a profitable business, selling stories to struggling writers. After many years of this profitable business, rumors begin to spread in the publishing industry of a “Spider” who sells ideas to everyone. Petter is warned that his life may be in jeopardy and he flees, eventually falling for a younger woman named Beate whom he later realizes is his own daughter.

I have oddly mixed feelings regarding this book. I consider this my favourite Jostein Gaardner book, yet it’s not the one I enjoyed the most. That would be The Solitaire Mystery, for the reasons stated above. The only reason why I love The Ringmaster’s Daughter, and the one thing that kept me hooked and reading, is the many stories told by Petter throughout the story’s narration. The short stories Petter described were fascinating and enjoyable, and if they had been developed further could have been novels of their own. It was literally like reading a collection of short stories, and the first time I read the book, I actually skipped through much of it to find the short stories.

Despite enjoying the stories he made up, I maintain a dislike of the protagonist himself. Petter may have a fascinating imagination, and one that I admire and respect a lot, but he is a vain, self-obsessed man. He is an interesting character, no doubt, but a dislikeable one. He constantly has a high opinion of himself, thinking that he is above his peers and parents in childhood, and thinking himself better than the authors around him in adulthood. It is that arrogance that repels me, and because of that, I lost a lot of interest in his story, which is sad since his story is the main one.

Another thing I dislike about the book is its predictability. When I read the book, I first check out the synopsis at the back, which reads, and I quote ‘The theme of a father finding a long-lost child runs through this magical novel.’ That is a huge spoiler. Thanks to that, and the story Petter tells of a circus’s ringmaster and his long-lost daughter, it becomes obvious almost at once that Beate is actually Petter’s long-lost daughter. It takes all the punch out of the big reveal, and I found myself rolling my eyes at how coincidental the story is.

Despite not really enjoying the main story of Petter’s life, the short stories he thought of make up for it all, and that leads to this book becoming my favourite of Jostein Gaardner book.

Rating: 4/5

Because of its mature content (not that there is any explicit descriptions, but because of the theme of incest), this book is recommended for readers 15 and above.