Masters of Illusion : A Novel of the Connecticut Circus Fire [Hardcover]

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 1994

In an historical novel based on the 1944 Barnum & Bailey's circus tent fire that killed hundreds, two survivors reexamine their lives and marriage while seeking the fire's true cause. By the author of The Port of Missing Men.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fire that roared through the Barnum & Bailey Circus tent in Hartford, Conn., on July 6, 1944, took 169 lives and injured 2000 others. Tirone-Smith ( The Book of Phoebe ) makes that conflagration central to her new novel, a skillfully controlled, moving psychological exploration of secrets, traumas and family relationships. The narrator, Margie Potter, was only six months old on the day her mother took her to the circus; her mother perished, and Maggie herself bears livid scars on her back. Having spent her youth repressing her memories and burying herself in books, Margie marries an intense fireman, Charlie O'Neill, who is singularly obsessed with the fire and determined to find the arsonist whom he is certain set the blaze. Over the years Charlie becomes more and more compulsive about tracking down leads, emotionally distancing himself from Margie and their feisty daughter Martha. The clue to his obsessive dedication, and to the arsonist's identity, comes only when Margie begins to acknowledge her own complicity in his monomania. In matching her narrative tone with her heroine's lower-middle class diction and deliberate emotional restraint, the author risks a slow beginning in order to build suspense in subtle increments. She keeps the prose cool and spare, so that when harrowing details and jolting surprises gradually occur, the effect is potent. The final epiphany opens the narrative in an extraordinary way, forcing the reader to reassess everything. This daringly imagined novel adds a new dimension to an already impressive body of work.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The intrusion of the past into the lives of Charlie and Margie O'Neill is revealed in a deceptively simple story with its roots in the historical 1944 Barnum & Bailey circus tent fire, in Hartford, Connecticut, which killed more than 150 people and injured over a thousand women and children. Ten-year-old Charlie, who had a ticket to the circus, grows up to become a fire fighter, determined to discover who set the fire and why. He marries Margie Potter, the fire's youngest survivor, who has no memories of the event that killed her mother and left her back badly scarred. Despite a somewhat predictable plot, this is a book with quiet appeal. Likable characters and good psychological insights make this fourth novel by the author of The Port of Missing Men (LJ 4/15/89) an appropriate choice for larger fiction collections.
Nancy Pearl, Washington Center for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (June 13, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446518069
• ISBN-13: 978-0446518062
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,598,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have lived all my life in Connecticut except for the two years I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. Presently, I write from my crow's nest in East Haven, breaking periodically to ride the rails from New Haven to New York where I do enjoy the city lights. I have two children, Jene, an RN at Yale-New Haven's clinics, and Jere, who has had a blog since 2004: A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory (http://letsgosox.blogspot.com) Not only does he cover Red Sox lore and stats, he reviews my books--when he's not co-writing them with me i.e. DIRTY WATER: A RED SOX MYSTERY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good story if you know nothing about the real events, December 29, 2005

By 

Wheeler the Clown "Dave K" (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masters of Illusion : A Novel of the Connecticut Circus Fire (Hardcover)

I am a history buff, especially regarding clowns and circuses and I have long had an interest in what came to be know as "The Day the Clowns Cried", the circus fire in Hartford CT in 1944. As such I was really looking forward to reading this book. If the story had not claimed to be fiction that is based on fact, I'd have given it a great review. Unfortunately, the author does what several others (Lloyd Douglas, author of the Robe and The Big Fisherman, comes to mind) have done. She doesn't even care to get her facts straight. This is even more shocking considering she is actually from the town where the real fire took place.

Clown Emmett Kelly was not late; he was on his way to perform on schedule (he and another clown did a comedy routine while the Great Wallendas performed), not as the book suggests an act to keep the audience's attention away from the wild cats being removed from the ring. The entire big top was not coated with parrafin and gasoline, only the roof (although the stitching that held the tent together was easily flammable dry hemp). I could go on and on. My point is this. If you want an accurate picture of what really happened, read "The Circus Fire" by Stewart O'Nan. If you don't care about the historical accuracy and are simply looking for a good mystery book with a shock ending (also not remotely based on fact other than that experts today seem to agree the circus fire was arson), then by all means, enjoy the book. The author really is a good storyteller; she just doesn't care to get her facts straight and should probably steer clear of historical based fiction.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mired in pseudo-psychological babble, August 5, 2000

By 

Roger Long "longrush" (Port Clinton, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Masters of Illusion (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series) (Paperback)

I read this after reading Stewart O'Nan's vastly superior book, "The Circus Fire." Otherwise, the the novel that is the subject of this review would have made little sense.

The problem is that things just seem to happen willy nilly. The fireman casts aside a girl he's about to marry to take up with a scarred survivor of the circus fire. Why? Why was the first girl even introduced? And the novel just goes on from there.

Most irritating, perhaps, is the daughter, Martha, whose only reason for being seems to be to explain to the dumb reader the psychological workings beneath the surface. I got to the point that I just didn't care. Martha reminded me of Scarpatta's niece in a Patricia Cornwell thriller: smarmy, irritating, and ultimately a pain in the you know what.

The denouement of this novel is just too, too pat. Still, it's an improvement over the middle third of the book, which is where we are treated to all the pop psychology. Alas, this could have been so much better if it had been thought out better.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unguessable ending to a riveting psychological thriller, February 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Masters of Illusion (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series) (Paperback)

This book springboards from the real-life fire 50 years ago that killed hundreds of people and destroyed the Ringling Bros. circus when it played in Hartford. One child survived, grew up and married a mysteriously solicitous fireman. This is the story, not only of their marriage, but of the secrets that, like one layer of an onion after another, peel off and reveal, finally, the unguessable ending. I couldn't stop turning the pages