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Cody Cook (8 KP) rated The Circus of Dr Lao in Books

Jun 29, 2018

The Circus of Dr Lao

Charles G. Finney | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry

7.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Somewhat mixed feelings about this book. I became interested due to the film with Tony Randall, which keeps the book's dark humor while adding on a layer of optimism and sentimentality. However, this layer is completely absent from the book. Instead, one feels the palpable cynicism and hatred for humanity and God of a military and newspaper man who obviously witnessed more than his fair share of suffering and inhumanity.

The cynicism does not always feel unwarranted, nor does the bitter but humorous style of much of the book fail to be entertaining. It vacilates between being a sardonic delight and a heavy (and even heavy-handed) piece of short literature that has to be digested in multiple sittings.

The author, himself the grandson and namesake of the great evangelist and abolitionist Charles Finney, if he believes in a God, seems to find Him distant, petty, and hateful. One begins to wonder why the circus seems to provide such fodder for this kind of nihilism (as in Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and Anton LaVey's biographical details), and perhaps it's because it puts on display those things that we think of as deserving to be hidden where we must face them and despair. The Circus of Dr. Lao puts God through a theodicy trial that Finney doesn't seem to think the Deity survives, but Finney's nihilism is hardly a palatable alternative.

Funny at times, interesting often, and very well-written, the life-as-a-meaningless-freakshow motif still sullies what this book could be. An interesting counterpoint to the film, but on the whole I still much prefer the cinematic rendering.

Kudos

ClareR (5726 KP) rated Remembered in Books

Jul 8, 2019

Remembered

Yvonne Battle-Felton | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

This is set in two time periods: the ‘present’ of February 1910, and 1843-1867. This second time period is during slavery in the USA, and follows the story of Spring and her sister Tempe. This was a time when black people were property, treated no better than cattle (their white owner even talks about ‘breeding’ them), and goes up to the emancipation and what happens afterwards.
In the ‘present’ timeline, we see Spring sitting by her sons deathbed in hospital, with the ghost of Tempe.
There are several newspaper articles that start chapters, and they go some way to explaining what is happening in the story - at least from a white mans perspective. Spring’s son, Edward, is accused of driving a Philadelphia streetcar into a department store and endangering the lives of white people. It’s not explicitly said (that I can remember), but Edwards injuries aren’t just from the crash. Spring arrives at the hospital knowing that he’s unlikely to survive. Mainly because the ghost of her sister is telling her so, and encouraging her to tell him the true story of his birth, in order that he can ‘go home’ and not become an earth bound ghost.
So we get to see for ourselves what motherhood really is - it’s not about who gives birth to a baby, but about who loves and brings that child up.
It’s a difficult story to read, as it should be. This was a difficult and terrible time in history, but I did enjoy reading it. I can see why it was nominated for the 2019 Women’s Prize. It’s well worth reading.