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bawright1987's review
1.0
I may try this book again in the future as it's about Omaha and a time frame that interests me: the world's fair of 1898. I only made it about 50 pages in. However, I felt that it included facts just to include facts, to show that the author had done his research. That's all well and good, (I enjoy research and historical facts) but it was too much, too soon.
robynryle's review
3.0
I liked the backdrop of the world's fair. I loved the sisters and the structure of the story. I felt like Cecily stayed unknown and unknowable. There was no real sense of why she did the things she did, and that made it hard to feel as much for her as I would have liked.
dkpalmer13's review against another edition
I'll come back to it at some point. Right now it just doesn't hold my attention.
glendaleereads's review
4.0
I liked the world that Schaffert created and I fell in love with Ferret instantly...and grew frustrated with him as well. I didn't really understand the love he had for Cecily because at times she seemed so unlovable. However I liked the whole Fair aspect of the story and its history and the characters we meet. Which brings me to one of the things I disliked about this novel, which was that the secondary characters were so underdeveloped which made me sad.
Especially when it came to Cecily I was left wanting to know more of who she was and sometimes I felt like her love for Ferret was not real. I feel like if I would have known more about her character then I could have understood her better. Same goes for Wakefield and his twin sister who were mysteries that needed more developing and Schaffert didn't give us that which weakens this novel.
Overall I give it four stars because this was a story that truly captivated me from the beginning of the page, and I couldn't put it down.
Especially when it came to Cecily I was left wanting to know more of who she was and sometimes I felt like her love for Ferret was not real. I feel like if I would have known more about her character then I could have understood her better. Same goes for Wakefield and his twin sister who were mysteries that needed more developing and Schaffert didn't give us that which weakens this novel.
Overall I give it four stars because this was a story that truly captivated me from the beginning of the page, and I couldn't put it down.
teriboop's review against another edition
4.0
Imagine waking to your house a shakin' and realizing it is covered by a deflated hot air balloon. The Egan sisters find themselves rescuing the man in the basket, who has an incredible story to tell. Set in 1898-1899 during the Omaha World's Fair (technically the Trans-Mississippi & International Exposition), Timothy Schaffert's The Swan Gondola is a story about love and longing in a time of chaos. Ferret Skerritt, a struggling ventriloquist, chronicles his story of falling in love with the eccentric Cecily whom he briefly meets during a stage performance in Omaha. He follows her about town, finally tracking her down at the fair. He begins to woo her but life is not all that it appears in the "new white city" of the fair. This story has a full cast of bizarre and crazy characters. The main character, Ferret, is inspired by the Wizard in Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz.
I really liked the overall story, although the first half of the story seemed to drag on a bit. However, at that cathartic moment, the book becomes a page turner. I think it's worth sticking with it and I loved the ending.
I really liked the overall story, although the first half of the story seemed to drag on a bit. However, at that cathartic moment, the book becomes a page turner. I think it's worth sticking with it and I loved the ending.
riedlmatt's review
4.0
Let me be clear. I am a hopeless romantic. And if you’re like me, Timothy Schaffert’s “The Swan Gondola” is perfect for you, too.
The story, set largely at and around the events of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair, is a delight. Schaffert’s plot revolves around Ferret Skerritt, a ventriloquist on the midway of the fair. He falls in love with a traveling actress named Cecily, and the two spend their summer together against the fair’s gleaming backdrop. When William Wakefield, the well-to-do Omaha businessman spearheading the fair, also takes an interest in Cecily, Ferret is left trying to pick up the pieces of his summer.
Ferret’s story is a believable, touching and occasionally maddening tale of love, loss, and life afterward.
Just like the fair, Ferret’s life is heartbreakingly ephemeral. His story won’t have you openly weeping, though don’t be surprised if you do shed a tear or two at his misfortune.
It’s an intriguing plotline befitting of his fancifully-imagined setting.
Schaffert conjures up a vaudeville world of magic, love and wonder – a world that, once entrenched in it, is incredibly hard to put down.
His cast of characters is delightfully refreshing, from the carnies Ferret hangs out with, to Wakefield. In the novel, Wakefield plays a Gatsby-esque character, the ultra-rich man who has come into his wealth somewhat dubiously. He’s that odd antagonist that you find yourself hating in one chapter and feeling pity for by the next.
His characters come across so real that I found myself wishing, almost to the point of believing, Ferret Skerritt was real, if for no other reason than to prove that magic was at one time real.
As a whole, the novel is an exercise in the fragility of love and life in general, and it’s not one to be missed.
I’d hesitate to call this steampunk literature, but it certainly has a few trappings of the genre – wire-strung aerial waltzes, tornado-generating machines, and women who wear red-tinted glasses to “calm their ovaries,” according to their iridologists’ prescription.
At 464 pages, the book seems a tad overlong, especially when reading the earlier sections, which I found struggled a bit with pacing issues. Personally, I was not hooked on it until about 125 pages in, which is a long way to read for someone only mildly curious in its plot. However, the plot does pick up significantly about halfway through.
It’s a rewarding book to finish, though its denouement came on rather quickly – too quickly for my tastes. I found myself flipping through the last few pages of the novel, trying to ferret out even a paragraph more of conclusion before the author’s notes. It leaves quite a bit to the reader’s imagination, as some major plot points seem only halfway resolved.
Overall, I highly recommend this novel, though make sure to dedicate enough time to reading the first hundred pages or so in one sitting. After that, you’ll be hooked, and you will not come away disappointed.
The story, set largely at and around the events of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair, is a delight. Schaffert’s plot revolves around Ferret Skerritt, a ventriloquist on the midway of the fair. He falls in love with a traveling actress named Cecily, and the two spend their summer together against the fair’s gleaming backdrop. When William Wakefield, the well-to-do Omaha businessman spearheading the fair, also takes an interest in Cecily, Ferret is left trying to pick up the pieces of his summer.
Ferret’s story is a believable, touching and occasionally maddening tale of love, loss, and life afterward.
Just like the fair, Ferret’s life is heartbreakingly ephemeral. His story won’t have you openly weeping, though don’t be surprised if you do shed a tear or two at his misfortune.
It’s an intriguing plotline befitting of his fancifully-imagined setting.
Schaffert conjures up a vaudeville world of magic, love and wonder – a world that, once entrenched in it, is incredibly hard to put down.
His cast of characters is delightfully refreshing, from the carnies Ferret hangs out with, to Wakefield. In the novel, Wakefield plays a Gatsby-esque character, the ultra-rich man who has come into his wealth somewhat dubiously. He’s that odd antagonist that you find yourself hating in one chapter and feeling pity for by the next.
His characters come across so real that I found myself wishing, almost to the point of believing, Ferret Skerritt was real, if for no other reason than to prove that magic was at one time real.
As a whole, the novel is an exercise in the fragility of love and life in general, and it’s not one to be missed.
I’d hesitate to call this steampunk literature, but it certainly has a few trappings of the genre – wire-strung aerial waltzes, tornado-generating machines, and women who wear red-tinted glasses to “calm their ovaries,” according to their iridologists’ prescription.
At 464 pages, the book seems a tad overlong, especially when reading the earlier sections, which I found struggled a bit with pacing issues. Personally, I was not hooked on it until about 125 pages in, which is a long way to read for someone only mildly curious in its plot. However, the plot does pick up significantly about halfway through.
It’s a rewarding book to finish, though its denouement came on rather quickly – too quickly for my tastes. I found myself flipping through the last few pages of the novel, trying to ferret out even a paragraph more of conclusion before the author’s notes. It leaves quite a bit to the reader’s imagination, as some major plot points seem only halfway resolved.
Overall, I highly recommend this novel, though make sure to dedicate enough time to reading the first hundred pages or so in one sitting. After that, you’ll be hooked, and you will not come away disappointed.
dkpalmer13's review against another edition
I'll come back to it at some point. Right now it just doesn't hold my attention.
ury949's review
2.0
The setting is this book's redeeming quality and what made it worth finishing. 1889 Omaha World's Fair: there's rich folks and poor, ruthless spending, politics, grand glittering buildings with secret doors for the street rats to stay out of sights. Theater troops with crafted costumes, ruffles, glittering crushed glass, dredging skirts, animal bones, face paint. They drink, deceive, divine, pick pockets, protest, and yet they all have hearts and make the heart of the fair; it is so fun to imagine every stinking corner of it.
Otherwise this is a tragic love story that's too thin for the tragedy to really take hold. The last third is especially long when Ferret lets his life scatter, the reader, similarly, begins to not really care any more. At some point about halfway through, I realized that nothing was going to work out, really, and if it did, it wouldn't be because Ferret deserved it in any way, and no great plot twist really pulled the story out of that doldrum. Sorry for that disappointing review, but if you do read this story, read it for the beautifully rich fair scenes, it made me want to be there.
Otherwise this is a tragic love story that's too thin for the tragedy to really take hold. The last third is especially long when Ferret lets his life scatter, the reader, similarly, begins to not really care any more. At some point about halfway through, I realized that nothing was going to work out, really, and if it did, it wouldn't be because Ferret deserved it in any way, and no great plot twist really pulled the story out of that doldrum. Sorry for that disappointing review, but if you do read this story, read it for the beautifully rich fair scenes, it made me want to be there.