A Cabinet of Wonders [Hardcover]

Renee Dodd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2006

When the curtains are drawn back on the cabinet of wonders, every individual you meet is an original, the indelible mark of their uniqueness shaped in their flesh. Molly and Faye are spirited teenagers - and conjoined twins. Saffron is the Wolf Girl, her female form covered head to toe in fur. Alex/Alexandra is a seductive hermaphrophodite, her male/female parts irresistible to many. To the rubes that pay good coin to see them, they are Freaks. To the other carnies - those who run the Ferris Wheel, the Girl Show, and more - they are the Starlight Carnival Royale's most lucrative source of income, and sometimes, friends. To Shadrach the tattooed man of God who travels with them, they are evidence of the divine. For Dugan - scholar, businessman, romantic, and dwarf - the cabinet of wonders is more than just his business, it's his family and the centre of his universe, and he'll do everything he can to keep it together...despite the rifts that are appearing after three years on the road.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dugan the dwarf runs a profitable freak show (sympathetically dubbed the Cabinet of Wonders) during the tail-end of the traveling carnival's pre-Depression golden era in Dodd's debut. Mistreated in the freak show he belonged to as a child, a grownup Dugan acts at once as a father and employer to his brood of Wonders: Molly and Faye, a pubescent pair of Siamese twins, have a doubly difficult adolescence; Saffron, the Wolf Girl of India, leaves Dugan's love unrequited; and fat lady Baby Beatrice seeks the love her carousing husband, Jimmy, never gave her. As the show tours the country, Dugan struggles to maintain control over his menagerie, who begin to bristle under his authority. Dodd has a tendency toward overripe prose, particularly when describing her oddball characters ("[A]nd yet she ran on, her accreted rolls of flesh joggling under the powder pink ruffles of her costume, her strawberry blonde ringlets wilting, plastering themselves against the cherry flush of her baby-smooth forehead and cheeks"), and the smattering of first-person chapters from a grumpy hermaphrodite's point of view obfuscate the narrative, which consists of run-ins with rubes (freak-show attendees), the unraveling of Dugan's show and, most poignantly, the Wonders' search for a certain, separate dignity. (Sept.)
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Review

Dodd's prose is graceful, smooth, and intelligent, and is sure to please many readers. Highly recommended. --Library Journal, Starred Review

A rare treat: a diverting and insightful piece of quirky fiction. --Kirkus Reviews, Starred review

Dodd's quirky, moving and utterly unique novel has crisp, smart writing and amazing versimilitude of place, time and character. --Baltimore Sun, 1 October, 2006

Product Details

• Hardcover: 313 pages
• Publisher: The Toby Press (July 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592641644
• ISBN-13: 978-1592641642
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,094,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book -- Original and Moving, October 26, 2006

By 

Jane Dasvenport - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Cabinet of Wonders (Hardcover)

A Cabinet of Wonders is imaginative, often very funny, and full of feeling. It gives a striking look at the horror of losses -- of dignity, self-image, livelihood, purpose, love -- and the joy/grace of self-expression, forgiveness, self-acceptance, and, again at the center of it all, love. I was in awe of the imagination that could bring such complex, unusual characters to life in such a sympathetic way. Intriguing story, unforgettable images, and a moving, sometimes shocking, but quite uplifting experience to read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recomended!, October 25, 2006

By 

Sabrina Munro (New York, Ny) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Cabinet of Wonders (Hardcover)

Ms Dodd's debut novel was a pleasant surprise. "A Cabinet" conveys the colorful inner world of carnival life with remarkable warmth, humour and empathy. Dodd shows great constraint by avoiding the obvious "cliches", and instead delivers a beautifully written story of unrequited love, alienation, lust, friendship, and acceptance. I would recommend this to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, or wondered how it felt to be the outsider. I guess that pretty much includes everyone...

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting look into the lives of those who inhabit carnivals!, September 12, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Cabinet of Wonders (Hardcover)

It's 1927 and the good times are rolling. That is unless your livelihood depends on the take at the gate. Americans are abandoning the carnivals and freak shows for the latest and greatest thing: the talkie. The freak show at the Starlight Carnival Royale's has been renamed Dugan's Cabinet of Wonders to appeal to a public more interested in the flickering of the moving picture show than what's standing before them. Rubes are still paying their nickels and dimes to see the Siamese twins, the tattooed man, the Wolf Girl, the Marvelous Morphodite, and Dugan himself, the dwarf, but money is getting tighter and tighter and the venues smaller and smaller as the carnival is about to roll into the history books.

Renee Dodd's poignant and colorful debut novel, A Cabinet of Wonders, takes readers behind the canvas to reveal the wonders of the freak Show, the Starlight's most lucrative dimension.

The main protagonist is the dwarf, Dugan, whose role is more than a businessman, scholar, and main attraction. He is also the man who keeps the show together, acting as father, lover, and confident to his merry little band of outcasts who make up the Freak Show, and indeed, his family.

Dodd's focus, which is solely on the characters in the freak show, illustrates that no matter how different our physical shells are, everyone, freak and non-freak, is pretty much the same on the inside. Her exclusive lens on this one aspect of carnival life is revealing in the way the characters make and break alliances, love, and grow in spirit, mind, and flesh. For example, the 16th birthday party for the Siamese twins, Molly and Faye, reveals the girls, joined at the hip, fascination with boys and beads, and illustrates the fine line between where the girl ends and the woman begins.

A Cabinet of Wonders is perfect example of historical fiction. The details, including a mention of The Great Gatsby, place readers into that world and uses language and description that catapults reader into this time period of American history.

Armchair Interviews says: Interesting look into the lives of those who inhabit carnivals.



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