[ book tip by Hannah Geismar ] Think about what it's like coming home from a long trip: that moment when you step in the door and look around. You know you're home, but because you have been away for so long, you suddenly see your home with completely different eyes. The feeling only lasts a few minutes, but for those minutes you're looking at your home through a strange window of near-objectivity: 'Wow, this is how I live!'

The Ringmaster's Daughter has a similar effect. It's a fictitious story, but it involves a series of matter-of-fact observations on our society that somehow opens the near-objectivity window in your mind - and suddenly you find yourself looking at western society's cultural output (and its way of creating that output) from a strange new angle.

It may sound complicated, but it's quite the opposite: The Ringmaster's Daughter is a pretty straightforward book about a guy, who starts his own little business selling plots to writers. Writers, who for the most part write well, but find themselves with nothing to write about due to lack of inspiration. Selling plots left and right, even with the utmost discretion and business talent, is obviously a tricky way of earning a living, but the fun doesn't really start until you shift your focus from the story Jostein Gaarder is telling, to what he is actually saying with it. Things you already knew - and might not even care much about - take on a new meaning in those split seconds when you look at them through the near-objectivity window created by the story.

If you are one of those who claim to care about 'culture', whether as a creator or a consumer of it (or both!), you will definitely find something to think - and worry - about.

Also available in French as La Fille De La Directeur Du Cirque, Editions Seull 2005

[ book info ] Gaarder, Jostein: The Ringmaster's Daughter. Orion, 2003 .