Customer Reviews

The Barnum Museum (American Literature Series)

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It's high time someone rediscovered Steve Millhauser's short stories, because there's nothing else like them being written in the U.S. (well, except for Ron Carlson). The title story describes a museum of impossible things--a magical place full of dreams--which would be a pleasant enough subject for a story, but Millhauser also emphasizes the commercialism of the place, the boredom of the patrons, the risks the museum runs of falling apart under its own extravagance. This is fantasy with a difference. The other stories are similarly clever: fascinating premises that actually go further than you'd expect. In "Behind the Blue Curtain," a boy sneaks behind the movie screen and discovers huge actors, as big as they are in the movies, waiting to go and entertain--and when Millhauser describes how vaporous they are, he could suddenly be talking about the weakness of fantasy, or the pressures of celebrity, or the fragility of childhood imagination. He has a deft touch with metaphor--he chooses the right one and simply lets it resonate. The other stories have similar fantastic ideas: "Klassik Komix #1", which is written as a description of a comic book, frame by frame; "The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad" which interweaves three stories--Sinbad in the past, Sinbad in his dotage, and the history of the Arabian Nights; "A Game of Clue," which tells the story of four Clue players AND describes the entire game from the perspective of the pieces...I could go on, but all the stories are imaginative and rewarding, and I can't understand why no one seems to have bought the book. Granted, he can run a little long (if you want terseness, go to Ron Carlson), but if you're hungering for a warm, Calvinoesque, American counterpart to British authors like Martin Amis, Julian Barnes and Will Self, meet Steven Millhauser. And prepare to smile

Amazon led me to Millhauser's work through a winding maze of postmodernist writers, and I was pleased to have discovered him. His trademark seems to be exhaustive inspection of detail -- the detail of a puzzle piece, a dusty corner of a library, the curves of a woman yet unknown. This volume is worth reading solely for the first story, "A Game of Clue," which simultaneously describes a family conflict during a session of the classic board game, and the action of the episode of Clue itself, complete with the twisted seduction of Miss Scarlet by Colonel Mustard. Ultimately, Millhauser's stylistic microscopic detail grates on the brain, and it best taken in small doses. However, this author clearly takes great pains to birth his work, and students of fiction can learn from his carefully crafted approach.

The short story form is one of the most difficult to master, but Steven Milhauser does just that, become its master. This collection of short stories, including Eisenheim the Illusionist which became a fascinating film last year starring Edward Norton, was - for me - his crowning achievement. You'll want to go back again and again to read the stories and find each time something you hadn't noticed before, some nuance, perhaps, that opens the door a little more into Milhauser's fascinating world.

I stand in awe of Steven Millhauser. He is a magician of words who casts a spell over his readers. Each of his stories is like a new magic trick that unfolds with precise timing and meticulous preparation. He skillfully constructs an ocean of detailed observation on which wave after wave of insight crashes on the shore of the reader's imagination. His aim is to enchant the reader, and he nearly always succeeds.

The stories in this volume are marvelous, sometimes breathtakingly so. In "A Game of Clue," the characters and locations of the one-dimensional board game expand into their own sort of virtual reality world, with its own concerns and relationships, that is mirrored at another level by the sentiments and maneuverings of of the game's players. In "The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad," Sinbad exists on multiple levels: as a bored and anxious merchant doubting the reality of the marvelous tales about himself from The Thousand and One Nights, as the hero experiencing those tales in subjective real time, and as a character described by Scheherazade, who recounts the stories about him. "The Sepia Postcard" and "Rain" are dark fantasy pieces that have a whiff of H.P. Lovecraft about them. "Eisenheim the Illusionist," perhaps the best-known story in this collection because of the movie later made from it, left me stunned by its fantastic ending. The only story that didn't really work for me was "The Invention of Robert Herendeen," about a shiftless young man who invents a dream-girl; it seemed to go on far too long. The other nine tales, however, are beautiful and endlessly thought-provoking.

To really appreciate these stories, you have to read them slowly and ponder the multiple levels of insight they represent. But those who are able and willing to give in to Millhauser's enchantment will be richly rewarded.

A tremendous collection--and still in print despite the lack of availability through Amazon. I phoned the publisher directly & paid $15. Don't miss this fascinating collection of stories--but don't pay $50 for the privelege either!

"The Barnum Museum" is a somewhat uneven collection of short stories. When the stories are off, it can feel like one is reading the second drafts of pieces with potential. When they work, however, they may be some of the most engrossing stories one has ever read.

"The Sepia Postcard" and "The Invention of Robert Herendeen" were among the tales that didn't feel fully formed conceptually. Similarly, I found Millhauser's story "Cat `n' Mouse" in "Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)" to be a much more successful execution of what he was attempting with "Klassic Komix 1" in "The Barnum Museum."

However, some of the other Barnum stories are preternaturally vivid. "Rain" is superb. I read it on the beach on a sunny day, but the descriptions are so rich that I began to feel more present in the fictional storm than on the actual shore. "Alice, Falling" takes a seminal scene from the beloved classic and fleshes it out with painstaking details and a well placed allusion to philosophical skepticism. Although not as stellar overall as "Rain" and "Alice, Falling," "Eisenheim the Illusionist" ends with what might be one of most mellifluous, evocative phrases in the English language (I'd copy it here, but don't want to spoil it for potential readers).

Adding to the collection's strength is that the stories are pulled together with a common thread. Nearly all of them are in some way about the getting so lost physically or emotionally that one begins to stop existing, which makes "The Barnum Museum" a strangely beautiful, lonely book.

Loved the movie "The Illusionist," so just had to read the story on which it is based. Milhauser is a writer I'd never heard of before. His writing style and sense of the eerie reminded me very much of Ray Bradbury, especially Bradbury's "October Country" stories, which haunt me to this very day. Milhauser is racier but no less a skilled writer. "Eisenheim the Illusionist" is a masterpiece and "A Game of Clue" is like no other story I've read. I recommend this anthology to anyone who like eerie or weird stories. I'll have to read more Milhauser to see if this is his usual style of writing. I look forward to it.

To add a different type of praise to Steven Millhauser's work.... I suggest "The Barnum Museum" to those who want to try reading a different style of writing. Not to say that his style is difficult because it is not. But his style is a enjoyable departure from the usual short story telling and his stories are a departure from the "usual."
It is not appropriate to try to explain his style because it would detract from the discovery that you will have if you try this book. Try it, I think that you will be happy for the experiance.

The Review at the top says:"the author's work invites comparison with that of Robertson Davies."
Invites comparison? Anyone who has read "World of wonders" by Davies would , i think,upon reading "Eisenheim the Illusionist" use a different term than "invite comparison"...one wonders if Davies estate lawyers have not noticed ...

This item was exactly as advertised and was received quickly and in excellent condition.