Wise Children (1991)

I should have made a note of where it was I saw this novel mentioned, only a few weeks ago, because of course I've forgotten. But it was somewhere online probably and must've been a trusted source, because I put it right on my public library list, even though I usually think of Angela Carter's work, what little I've read of it, as kind of tiresomely laden with lots of symbols and fairy-taley things. (A personal dislike.)

I also tend not to flock to books about the smell of the crowd and the roar of the greasepaint, nor ones which are too "comic", both of which this one pretty much is, but nevermind, I got it, I read it, I was entirely engrossed and charmed, it was heaps of fun.

It's a first-person account of the life of a woman now in her semi-spry 70s who, with her identical twin sister, was a song-and-dance girl in music hall in London in the first half of the 20th century. She's also the unacknowledged and illegitimate daughter of Britain's greatest living Shakespearian actor.

The story she tells takes in the music hall childhood in Brixton, a chance to be in a Hollywood film spearheaded by the famous father, and, as the final set-piece (Carter's wonderful at big set-pieces), the 100th birthday of the great man, at which party all his family, both legit and illegit, cast-off or retained, gathers, and much mayhem ensues.

Carter's themes are of love and loyalty--the twin sisters never find relationships more important to them than they are to each other; the family that surrounds them is seldom directly biological. It's about life lived with great gusto, chances taken (Dora and her sister are surnamed Chance, and performed as the Lucky Chances), nostalgia, and keeping on keeping on.

This would make a smashing mini-series. ( )

Aside from being a lot of fun, I thought this book was really well constructed. It's supposedly just the rambling life story of an old lady, but the plot is like clockwork. ( )

Having not much liked Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, I was a little reluctant to read this. However, I am glad that I did - I found this book much more to my taste than Nights at the Circus. I found the story of Dora and Nora quite interesting & loved the references to the 30's and 40's musical stars. ( )

I agree that this is a book that enchants! I was delighted when it came out. I still remember the etymology of hazard and chance, the maniacal host with the catchphrase >, and the winter party scene. ( )

There is still magic in this novel even though it is a more realistic story than some of Angela Carter's others; it is filled with the glamour of show business and the magic of the theatre. Dora and Nora are identical twins, the illegitimate offspring of a famous Shakespearean actor whose family contains an abundance of twins, both identical and fraternal. On the 100th birthday of the father who has never acknowledged them, letting it be believed that they are the daughter's of his own twin brother, Dora looks back over their eventful lives, during which they were always on the disreputable side of show business as well as having been born on the wrong side of the blanket. And even at this late stage in the story of the Hazards and the Chances there are still family secrets to be revealed, as they discover at the birthday party! ( )