Wise Children

Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet Humor
Review: Angela Carter has been one of my favorite writers since I read the Bloody Chamber in high school. This is my favorite of her novels, a gloriously funny and most heartfelt work. Wise Children is considerably warmer than her other work, and ends on a note of joy and reconciliation that brought tears to my eyes. A truly magical novel.

Rating:
Summary: Glorious Verbal Fireworks, Deeply Moving
Review: Angela Carter has been one of my favorite writers since I read the Bloody Chamber in high school. This is my favorite of her novels, a gloriously funny and most heartfelt work. Wise Children is considerably warmer than her other work, and ends on a note of joy and reconciliation that brought tears to my eyes. A truly magical novel.

Rating:
Summary: Try to read this book without your head exploding
Review: Angela Carter tries to write about the theme of identity in her novel "Wise Children." Although she is successful in getting her point about identity across throughout the novel, she could not have chosen a more complicated and unbelieveable manner to do so. Carter tells the story of Dora and Nora, two twins born into a family of theater performers who do not recognize them as thier children. Throughout their lives they seek the love of thier true father, Melchoir Hazard, a renouned Shakespearian stage performer. He does not even know that these twins are his daughters, he even so brashly assumes that they are the children of his brother Peregrine. The twins make a career out of singing and dancing, sometimes even performing with thier father. Throughout the whole novel,Carter shows the reader that identity can be changed at the drop of the hat, which is a very valid theme. The problem with this particular story is that Carter mixes up so many characters with so many plot twists, that it becomes not only impossible to follow, but impossible to believe as well. I found it very difficult as a reader to develop any sense of caring for any of the characters in the story. It is very difficult to read a novel about characters that mean nothing to the reader. This story should come with an instruction manual. One plot turn after another, characters brought back from the dead, sexual relations between a hundred year old man and a seventy-five year old woman, nine thousand different children to keep track of, this story is just too much to swalllow!

Rating:
Summary: Make no mistake, this is Carter's piece de resistance
Review: angela carter was the finest english novelist of the last half century. and her reputation can only continue to grow. she continued to improve throughout her career, and wise children, her last novel before her premature demise in 1992.

wise children is typical of carter's style. she mixes the very high with the very low. an immensely intellectual writer, she nevertheless enjoys a good bawdy farce and a smattering of innuendo. this novel (for a plot summary see elsewhere) is a jaw-dropping display in the use and manipulation of language. there is sheer joy in every word. carter's confidence in her own wit was at a premium. it reads in one way as a feminist re-working of shakespeare; all the bard's devices are in view but it is all carried off with such vim and vigour and a deceptively throw-away attitude that it is a joy to read. this is a novel that demands to be read and re-read. all human life is here. get it on your bookshelf now!

Rating:
Summary: genuine genius
Review: angela carter was the finest english novelist of the last half century. and her reputation can only continue to grow. she continued to improve throughout her career, and wise children, her last novel before her premature demise in 1992.

wise children is typical of carter's style. she mixes the very high with the very low. an immensely intellectual writer, she nevertheless enjoys a good bawdy farce and a smattering of innuendo. this novel (for a plot summary see elsewhere) is a jaw-dropping display in the use and manipulation of language. there is sheer joy in every word. carter's confidence in her own wit was at a premium. it reads in one way as a feminist re-working of shakespeare; all the bard's devices are in view but it is all carried off with such vim and vigour and a deceptively throw-away attitude that it is a joy to read. this is a novel that demands to be read and re-read. all human life is here. get it on your bookshelf now!

Rating:
Summary: Make no mistake, this is Carter's piece de resistance
Review: Angela Carter's last novel,"Wise Children", may well have been the crowning glory to her illustrious career as a fiction writer. It's a coup de grace and her piece de resistance. You don't need to be an afficionado of Shakespeare to appreciate the dazzling humour of Carter's story and celebration of "wrong-side-of-the-trackness" in a theatrical family of multigenerational twins (the Hazards) or thrill to their cross-Atlantic adventures but it'll surely heighten your sense of pleasure if you're familiar with the Bard's comic characters and able to pick them out from among the novel's fabulously diverse and colourful personalities. The novel starts on a promising note and quickly settles into a swinging groove, which Carter skillfully sustains with a momentum that just builds and builds, constantly hitting new highs just when you think it can't get any better. A diabolically clever mix of pathos and humour maintains the balance between realism and a sense of the ridiculous which is unmistakeably Carter. Her legendary tongue twisting, mind bending, linguistic pyrotechnics is in full flower and display throughout. She's in top form and those familiar with the Bard's "King Lear", "Winter's Tale" and "Tempest", among others, will delight in the resonance that the novel's many references evoke. The denouement is also a masterful sleight of hand that is distinctively Carter. "Wise Children" is quite the most fascinating and entertaining novel I have read and enjoyed all year. I finished the book with such a good feeling it carried me for days. This is an "absolute must" for those who love contemporary literature of the finest quality. Don't miss it !

Rating:
Summary: Terribly British, Terribly Good
Review: Great book. Angela Carter obviously loves words and is not afraid to play with them. There are a lot of characters in this book (another reviewer complained) - I drew a quick family tree which helped. For me, part of the joy of this book was all of the characters who spilled out from the pages. Messy and rambuctious, yes, but like life. I wish Edward Gorey had illustrated this book - his quirky, gothic style jives with Carter's tale perfectly. Make your self a cup o' tea and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, Dramatic, Different
Review: Wise Children is a funny yet touching tale of the lives of a theatrical family. Narrated by one of the Chance twins, Dora, it charts the ups-and-downs of the twins' lives, as well as encounters with both loved and hated relatives; with almost every member of the vast family a theatrical performer.

I've read quite a few Angela Carter books, and (while Wise Children is still written in that unmistakable Carter style) it seems far more light-hearted than, for example: Love or The Magic Toyshop, and has a completely different vocabulary, as Carter adopts the voice of Dora Chance -- deliciously witty, with a strong feminist tone, relatively simple vocab, and an entirely unrelenting appetite for drama.
I was a little dubious about reading Wise Children, as the blurb implied a knowledge of Shakepeare would be beneficial when it came to understanding the book, and that the multiple sets of twins and family secrets would become highly confusing. While any subtle Shakepeare references (aside from the obvious) went right over my head, it seems that they played a minor part in the book, as it's full of raucous wit, bubbling personality, theatrical dramatics, and an inexhaustable thirst for life. As for the numerous characters and their relation to each other: Carter manages to evoke such a vivid picture and to bestow each character with such simplistic, unique features, that you become invovled in the Hazard/Chance story (therby avoiding any confusion.)
While the ending to this book seemed a little too good to be true, it fitted in with the unrealistic aspect of the book, and the dramatic nature of nearly every major character.

A great read (as with almost every Angela Carter book) I highly recommend Wise Children.