Customer Reviews

A Son of the Circus

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is a wonderful novel--engrossing, well-crafted, moving, humorous, and profound. Even after 630+ pages, I was sorry to come to the end of the book. To this I must add: based on some other reviews I have read, a prerequisite for reading *A Son of the Circus* evidently is development of an attention span longer than that typical of today's channel-surfing, sound-byte-seeking generation.

The plot is Byzantine and carefully-woven, but ultimately predictable in some ways. The story and its ending are not particular strengths of the novel, but are mainly vehicles for Irving's skillful neo-Dickensian depiction of contemporary India--more specifically, some of its colorfully bizarre social settings and the diverse personalities that animate these unusual environments.

Oh, the characters! I will miss them so! The endlessly fascinating personages who appear, disappear, and reappear throughout this lengthy narrative provide the very heart of Irving's masterpiece. There are so many! Particularly unforgettable are the actor John D., whose alter ego is his forever-sneering on-screen persona, Inspector Dhar; John D.'s garrulous and impulsive Jesuit missionary twin (long-lost, of course!); the crippled elephant boy, with his dreams of skywalking on the circus high wire; the staid and forever disapproving steward at the exclusive Duckworth social club, at which much of the principal action in the novel occurs; the twisted and tortured transsexual, Rahoul; and finally, at the center of this circus there is the essential straight man, Dr. Farruk Daruwalla, a childrens' orthopedic surgeon (and screenwriter) who splits his time between his native India and his adoptive home in Toronto, where he feel "always an immigrant." Complementing these unforgettable characters is a lengthy cast of dwarfs, transsexuals, prostitutes, drug dealers, drunks, drifters, and other assorted misfits and freaks. As always, Irving shows his affinity for the strange and tortured underside of human existence.

At one level, the novel is simply another of Irving's jaundiced romps through the absurd, the socially marginal, and the unspeakable, and the author's typically ironic dry wit can lull the reader into thinking this is all just a lengthy exercise in twisted humor and world-weary cynicism. But there is so much more! In the end, Irving has succeeded in creating a profound, complex, poignant, and moving portrait not only of the rich and glorious chaos that is contemporary India, but of humanity as a whole.

I read this book when it first came out, and was buying a copy for a friend when I noticed how mixed Amazon's reader ratings were. I was shocked, as I truly believe this to be Irving's finest book yet. Everything that is intriguing, outrageous and wonderful about Irving's intense writing style and ultra-creative story-telling abilities is epitomized in Son of the Circus. It is not necessarily an easy read, as Irving presents a LOT of information for the reader to digest (there are dozens of quirky characters and several subplots). With that in mind, if you feel up to the task, it is more than well worth the effort.

While reading this book, I was constantly aware of the author's genius. His ability to conceive and weave together intricate plots and carefully constructed characters into a cohesive, wildly entertaining story is mind-blowing. Irving's previous books (Owen Meaney, The Cider House Rules, Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, etc.) and the subsequent Widow For One Year are all excellent reads, but all much tamer and far less intricate than the grand spectacle of Son of the Circus. It is truly an amazing feat of fiction - a wonderful book with as many twists, surprises, and glimpses of the bizarre as one could ever hope for. Irving's beautiful writing, outstanding background research, and vivid imagination make for a truly original story that haunted me for months after reading it. Several years after reading it, I still harbor strong memories of Son of the Circus(and I have read dozens of books in the interim).

This is a book to be read carefully - it makes an excellent vacation read, when the proper amount of time and attention can be paid. If some of the other reviewers of Son of the Circus were disappointed with it, I suggest that they return to it and read every word with care - perhaps then they will understand John Irving's gift and what an intelligent and interesting book Son of the Circus is. Don't miss it - books like this don't come along very often!

Irving is absolutely one of my favorite authors, and if you can believe it, this actually the first one of his that I read, and it got me hooked to go out and read the better known Garp and Owen Meany books. Having read all of Irving's novels, I get a little tired of the repeated elements of boy's boarding schools in New Hampshire, wrestling coaches, life in Vienna, prostitutes, and so on. This book completely breaks out of the Irving mold for me (even though there were some formative years in Austria and the characters play squash, as in other books). It's unlike any of this other books, and I loved exploring the completely new territory in India. Transsexuals? Bollywood cinema? Circus dwarves? Sideshow freaks? Serial murder? Twins? Confused priests? Hippies? They're all here and they all come together in this beautiful narrative.

I highly recommend this to all Irving fans as one of the under-appreciated books that often falls below the radar. I loved getting lost in this fantastic world of intrigue in India, and I was sad to have this beautiful book come to an end.

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. I picked it up at a bargain-basement sale a few years ago and never got up the courage to read it. Well, I just finished it after a week of non-stop vacation reading. I had a hard time putting it down! As a first generation Indian-American, I could empathize with Dr. Daruwalla's feelings of isolation and why he was uncomfortable trying to fit into two different countries and cultures. Irving truly captures the flavor of India in this novel--both bad and good. I was amazed at his powers of observation--the maniacal taxi drivers, the chaos in the streets of Bombay, the beggars, the Hindi film scene, the interpersonal relationships at the upper-crust Duckworth club. The many plots and sub-plots were so cleverly intertwined that they held my attention throughout the 600+ pages.

Truly an excellent book, Mr. Irving!

This is also another book by Irving that I have read many times. It is in my "don't loan out or you'll never get it back" collection (along with A Prayer for Owen Meany).

Have wanted to read this book for some time, but unable to do so because of poor eyesight. I finally wised-up and purchased the audiocassete. WOW. The narrator does an unbelievable job. David Colacci's voice complements Irving's words beautifully. If you have enjoyed this book, do yourself a favor and listen to the audiocassete. I'll live with these characters for a long,long time. Take me away John Irving, take me away.

Full of visual imagery and humorous, I found this book engrossing despite its predictability. Irving's style is highly evident in the parade of odd and freakish characters which unfortunately were not as endearing as 'Owen Meany'. Despite finishing strong, 'The Son of the Circus' was slow to catch my interest. In fact my first attempt to read it was abandoned and I did not return to it for a year. My second attempt, I perservered and in the last two-thirds of the novel, the plot of the murder/mystery as well as the themes of disassociation became clear and interesting. However, some of the dialogue I found superfluous and repetitive. Overall, a satisfying effort for true John Irving fans but for those new to him, I would recommend 'Owen Meaney' or 'Cider House Rules'.

This has been the third novel I have read by John Irving. The reason why I gave it four stars and not five is because at times I felt that the story was a bit too long winded. It appeared that John Irving had difficulty getting to the point at certain times of the story. I also felt that he didn't tie up all the loose ends. I will not go into that detail as I don't want to give too much away. But with that aside, it was a terrific story not just about a man from Bombaby, but about people from all different walks of life. What I like about John Irving is that he writes in such a way that I almost feel that I am living along with the characters he created. Yes, it is a long book, but I wasn't able to put it down because I was always yearning to know what was going to happen next. This is one of those books that I will be able to remember for a long time as the characters and story is very poignant. Who knows, I might even give it a re-read further down the road. All in all a great book that will sit on my bookshelf for a very long while.

As this was my first foray into the world according to Irving, I was unprepared for the hilarious torrent of sexuality, scatology, and abnormality that assaulted me from the very outset. However, as the pages turned and I grew accustomed to these oddities, I became immersed in a rich gallery of characters, set upon the backdrop of an imagined India.

For this is what makes A Son of the Circus so Dickensian and worthwhile: its characters. The gigantic hippie girl with lacerated feet, the hairless transsexual Rahul, the purple-eared film producer Gordon Hathaway, and dozens more; each is outlandish in his, or perhaps its, own right, made instantly identifiable through their physical aberrations, outrageous sexualities, or in the case of Mr. Sethna, a pathological disapproval of just about everything. The overarching story that these characters inhabit is not particularly compelling, but there is just enough impetus to support the nets of vignettes these folks always manage to fall into.

This overarching story is the poignant character study of Farokh Daruwalla, an Indian-born physician who, late in life, has come to realize he has nowhere to feel at home. However, it is the underlying tale of a detective, hot on the trail of a serial killer, which sets the wheels in motion. There are other stories here to help the vehicle along: the rise of a loathsome movie star, the mystery of an assassinated atheist, or the journey of a naif seeking to reclaim her innocence. All the while the theme of a "circus as home" figures prominently, with its dwarves and boneless girls serving to stimulate the imagination of Dr. Daruwalla and the reader. The resulting scope is admirable in its ambition, but as a whole the novel often suffers from a lack of focus, leading us to wonder whether each of these vignettes really lead anywhere?

But A Son of the Circus is still a roller coaster nonetheless: exhilarating, raucous, and often shocking. Its plot may prove too sprawling, too disconnected for some, but the indelible impression its characters will leave is well worth the price of admission.

Very creative outing from the old master, even with all the weirdos in the plot. You'll feel like you've spent years in India after reading this. Probably his most ingenious story since Garp. Every character is a gem; villain and good guy alike