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Abalone, Arizona, is a sleepy southwestern town whose chief concerns are boredom and surviving the Great Depression--that is, until the circus of Dr. Lao arrives and immensely and irrevocably changes the lives of everyone drawn to its tents. Expecting a sideshow spectacle, the citizens of Abalone instead confront and learn profound lessons from the mythical made real--a chimera, a Medusa, a talking sphinx, a sea serpent, witches, the Hound of the Hedges, a werewolf, a mermaid, an ancient god, and the elusive, ever-changing Dr. Lao himself. The circus unfolds, spinning magical, dark strands that ensnare the town's populace: the sea serpent's tale shatters love's illusions; the fortune-teller's shocking pronouncements toll the tedium and secret dread of every person's life; sensual undercurrents pour forth for men and women alike; and the dead walk again. Dazzling and macabre, literary and philosophical, The Circus of Dr. Lao has been acclaimed as a masterpiece of speculative fiction and influenced such writers as Ray Bradbury.… (more)
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I bought it, and I was not disappointed.
All I can say is forget everything you know or think you know about conventions in literature and open your mind and your imagination to possibilities and you will treasure this work as I do.
If you come to this book after watching the movie, be aware it is more cynical, and a bit darked. It is also less plot driven. Not unlike some Bradbury of the same era, also reminiscent of Beagle in spots
Published in 1935, “The Circus of Dr. Lao” is a forerunner of all those books where a mysterious circus or
When a notice in the local newspaper announces the arrival of a travelling circus, the locals flock to see it, but they seem surprisingly hard to impress. When the circus parades through town, with three wagons drawn by a unicorn, a sphinx and a shining golden ass, they are prepared to believe that they are just rare breeds rather than mythological creatures, and are more concerned with arguing whether the creature in one of the cages is a man, a bear or possibly even a Russian.
There’s not much of a plot; the circus is announced, here is a parade, the townsfolk visit the attractions on the midway and watch the main show in the circus tent, but apart from a couple of encounters with the satyr and the sea serpent, most people seem unimpressed. The fortune teller’s fortunes may be truthful but that makes them unpeasant and boring, while two young men seeing a werewolf transforming in to a woman, complain because she is an old woman, rather than being thrilled by seeing the metamorphosis. Even a rebellion by the sea serpent and a dozen people being turned to stone by the medusa's gaze, and don't stop the show.
So what makes this short novel of worth, given these potential issues? An incredible imaginative drive that begins with a newspaper ad promising one wonder after another to be seen, climaxing in one that surely must be false, and yet.... The drive falters a bit when the circus parade passes through town, because this is when most of the townspeople are introduced, and there are quite a few. But once we enter the circus, the unexpected never stops. It begins with Agnus Birdsong, high-school English teacher (as she is repeatedly described) visiting the aged dirty satyr in his tent -- wine lees in his beard, manure on his hooves -- and there is no false "oh my goodness" on her part. Dr. Lao's narration not only tells the history of the circus crew - mostly Greek myths who eventually had to leave civilized Europe for the Far East -- but eventually reveals some of Dr. Lao's motivations and dreams. How much control he has over the circus is often in doubt.
And when the story ends, the book does not. There is another 20 pages, call "The Catalogue", listing every character, animal, and god that appeared, however briefly, some with just a pjhrase, e.g., "a good party man", and some with a paragraph or two, a mix of hilarious and poignant.
If the issues listed at the front are now a show-stopper, then I highly recommend this, especially for fans of modern fantasists such as Kelly Link. This is one of the few books I've read where some idea or turn of phrase surprised every few pages from beginning to end.
One third of the way through, I had to skip forward to find out if there would be an actual story. Other than the parading of fantastical imagery and the reactions of common folk, there is no narrative development. Yes, the language is quite modern and a speculative novel was pretty adventuresome for the author's time. And yet, for me, there's not enough story, no arcs, no driving desires, no firmly rooted characters, no real conflict to be worked throughÂÃÃÂÃÃjust a whimsical array of literary and imaginative playthings appearing in dreamlike sequences, as if it's a psychedelic trip.
I think this would have been more successful had the circus impacted the characters lives, had it caused upheaval of the status quo, not just piquing curiosity, but causing some tangible change, for better or worse.
It’s easier to ask why the story of Dr Lao’s circus retains a degree of fondness if not outright love in so many hearts. Possibly, it’s the circus itself, a carnival not of acrobats, trained animals, and clowns, but of creatures and entities far more magical, of mythology and legend, and conceivably far more dangerous. Where my young self felt unsettled by performing animals long before such acts were widely frowned upon, I might have been more excited to view a mermaid, a sea serpent, and to peek at the Medusa through the safety of a mirror. When Dr Lao yells for everyone to see the show, the circus calls.
Circa 1935(4?) this fantasy involves a circus which visits a hick town in Arizona. The circus is run by a weird little Chinaman and is comprised primarily of mythical beings (Unicorns, Chimeras, Mermaids, etc.). It just has to be a metaphor for SOMETHING -- I wish I
[2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.]
The story concerns the
The beginning of the book describes various denizens of the town reacting to the arrival of the circus. With the exception of one, Mr. Etaoin, a proofreader at the local newspaper, they are portrayed as various types of bumpkins and rubes, not excluding a couple of overeducated college boys passing through town on the way back from a drunken trip to Mexico. The misanthropy of this part of the book is wearying.
In the rest of the book, the townspeople encounter the members of the circus, sometimes with life-changing results, sometimes with no results at all. One insists on looking directly at the medusa, with predictable consequences. Another has her fortune told, brutally and dispassionately, and refuses to engage with it even enough to be offended by it. Mr. Etaoin has a private interview with the serpent, which is both personal and philosophical--although here, as with Dr. Lao, the monster switches, in telling a story, from a cultivated English to an almost comically exaggerated country dialect, and then back again. Occasionally scenes occur which don't really have to do with the townspeople at all, such as when a dead man from another town is resurrected (he immediately runs off, saying he has business to take care of), and when Dr. Lao gives an extended lecture on the medusa, starting with the species and diets of the various snakes on her head, and moving on to a meditation on the place of wonders, exempt from evolution and natural history, in the biological world. Parts of this book seem to have been written purely for the author's pleasure, which is part of its charm.
At the end of the book the circus packs up and leaves. That's it. There is an appendix that lists the persons mentioned in the book and tells a little bit more about them, but it shouldn't be mistaken for an epilogue, much less any kind of arch, revealing commentary.
When Mark Twain wrote that persons attempting to find a plot in "Huckleberry Finn" would be shot, he wasn't denying the existence of a plot; he was making the point that he preferred his book to be enjoyed instead of analyzed. Persons attempting to find a plot in "The Circus of Dr. Lao" will only be baffled. The unanswered mysteries only begin with the changes of dialect. On the other hand, the mysteries, together with its exuberance as a work of imagination, are doubtless what Ray Bradbury admired about the work. Although the story of the timeless Dr. Lao is firmly rooted in its own time and place, much of it is shockingly (and intriguingly) modern in attitude. Eighty years after the book's release, sixty years after Bradbury extolled it, it still holds up.
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