Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter

More of a Magic Realism novel than her other book, Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffmann.  I finished it but it was touch and go - to be fair, Magic Realism is not my favourite style.  Nor is the gothic imagination for that matter, and her style is also definitely gothic (true of her short stories also, of which I read a few lately).  Gothic, macabre, larger than life, fantasiste - all words that can apply.  For me, the problem is these elements tend to outweigh or replace the drive of a good narrative - which you still see in Infernal Desire Machines. The books seems to wander from one thing to the next with out much of a real progression, and then suddenly there you are at the end.  Almost a dreamlike structure in the narrative.