Product Description

Born a Parsi in Bombay, sent to university and medical school in Vienna, Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla is a 59-year-old orthopedic surgeon and a Canadian citizen who lives in Toronto. Periodically, the doctor returns to Bombay, where most of his patients are crippled children.

Once, 20 years ago, Dr. Daruwalla was the examining physician of two murder victims in Goa. Now, 20 years later, he will be reacquainted with the murderer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1762972 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-28
• Released on: 2007-05-28
• Formats: Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
Though there are flashes here of the dramatic verve of The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules , Irving's long-awaited eighth novel is generally a tedious affair: rambling; lacking suspense; devoid of energetic or lyric prose; sometimes verging on farce and other times almost as lethargic as the sultry atmosphere of Bombay, where it is set. Here Irving is concerned again with people who do not feel at home in the world: immigrants, social outcasts, pariahs because of physical handicaps, those uncomfortable with their sexual orientation. The characters include a Bombay-born physician and secret screenwriter who feels as much a foreigner in India as he does in his new home, Toronto; a movie star who is synonymous with the role he plays; his twin brother, who aspires to be a priest but doubts his vocation; assorted circus performers, dwarfs and cripples, prostitutes, transsexuals, policemen, Hollywood figures, a blonde American hippie, Jesuit missionaries and more sad folk teeming with strange quirks and shameful secrets. The plot revolves around the murders of prostitutes by a transsexual serial killer, who carves a winking elephant on their bodies, and the legacies from the past that bring the main characters to the hunt for the murderer. The hefty narrative gives Irving plenty of room to speculate on outcasts of all kinds, the volatility of sexual identity, the false lure of organized religion, the insidious evil of class distinctions, the chasm between appearance and reality. For those looking for his trademark leitmotifs, Irving provides two: falling into the net and allowed to use the lift . He titillates by equipping a character with a giant dildo. He includes a strange homage to novelist James Salter. His attempt to provoke readers into empathy for humanity's lost souls is admirable, but his novel does not engage the reader until the last hundred pages, and that may not be soon enough to satisfy those yearning for a seductive story.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A circus displays oddity and spectacle for our amusement. Irving wields his absurdist ideas, set forth in works like A Prayer for Owen Meany (LJ 3/15/89), to create a world with much the same feel. The setting is India, though there is little sense of locale (a circus being universal and transportable). At center stage is Farrokh Daruwalla, an alienated, middle-aged, Bombay-born doctor who returns to his birthplace to study circus dwarfs. Farrokh becomes entangled in a case involving a serial murderer who carves the image of a winking elephant on his victims' torsos. This storyline bounces around like the proverbial three-ring circus and features a cast of eunuchs, hippies, movie stars, transsexuals, and clergymen. Irving continues his obsession with potency (erections) and negation (mutilation and self-mutilation) using, for instance, a large hollow dildo as a central prop. This otherwise enjoyable read is hindered at times by a lethargic pace and lack of dramatic tension. Although not Irving's best, this long-awaited novel will be in high demand.
--David Nudo, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Irving's eighth novel is a feast. Picking up stylistically where A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) left off, Irving has perfected his impressive narrative skills and launched into unexpected territory: a murder mystery rife with antic sexuality and set in the seething city of Bombay, home of India's film industry (Bollywood), hoards of street urchins and prostitutes, and the last tattered remnants of British colonialism. Irving achieves an almost Dickensian richness with his cast of vivid and eccentric characters, loopy yet converging plot lines, moral underpinning, and predicaments both hilarious and wrenching. Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, a dreamy fellow at home neither in his native city of Bombay, nor his adopted domicile, Toronto, is at the heart of this dynamic universe. When in Bombay, Daruwalla indulges his peculiar passions for collecting blood from dwarfs (to study their genes) and for going to the circus. When he isn't occupied with these amusements or practicing medicine, the good but distracted doctor is busy writing the screenplays for an egregious yet wildly popular series of films featuring the hero Bombay loves to hate, the sneering Inspector Dhar. The enigmatic star of these provoking movies is a magnet for trouble in the form of a dangerous admirer who has transformed himself from a boy into what passes as a woman. Dhar's life is further complicated by the arrival of his heretofore unknown identical twin. Irving's nimble humor springs from compassionate insights into cultural and sexual confusion and alienation, baffling questions of faith and purpose, and the kind of hope that thrives in even the most jaded atmosphere. Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

Circus dwarfs and transsexual murderers - Vintage Irving
A Son of the Circus is certainly John Irving's most ambitious novel to date, if not his finest. Irving fans who adore the eccentric characters and bizarre, over-the-top plot twists that Irving is known for will find much to enjoy in this novel. Rest assured, there are enough prostitutes, transvestites, transsexuals, midgets, and instances of mistaken identity and sexual confusion to keep die-hard Irving fans entertained for hours. While this book rates behind Garp, Owen Meany, and others on the long list of Irving's works, it is a pleasurable read and surprisingly quick for its 682 pages.

As with any Irving novel, an attempt to summarize the plot in a few short words, or even paragraphs, would fail miserably. Once again, Irving has chosen a colorful locale as the backdrop for his zany cast of characters - this time, it's in Bombay, India. There we meet Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, an Indian who has lived most of his life in Canada but returns periodically to his place of birth. Daruwalla is an orthopedic surgeon by day and closet screenwriter by night. He is also a life-long fan of the circus, of which there are many in India. His cast of friends includes several circus performing dwarfs, the perpetual star of Daruwalla's detective movies (who always seems to be slightly in character), the movie star's long-lost twin brother, who is in training as a Jesuit priest, and the local police detective investigating a series of murders at the posh country club. With a group like this, and the inevitable intrigue and suspense of an upper-crust murder mystery, the action and the comedy are in abundance.

And yes, there is the slightly sentimental element that Irving has such a gift for. Daruwalla is a man who feels he has no home. As his father once told him, an immigrant is always an immigrant. He worries he will never be fully accepted in Canada, and will never truly be able to consider himself an Indian. His story is as much a comedic jaunt through India as it is a story about a man in search of his inner identity. And as always, Irving blends these themes with grace and tenderness.

Identity search at the heart of "Circus"
Bordering on sensory overload, John Irving enthralls readers with this excellent story of an orthopedic surgeon who is neither at home in his birthtown of Bombay, India nor his adopted residence of Toronto, Canada. Set amidst the backdrop of colorful India with its circuses, prostitutes, dwarfs, transvestites and cinema, the story is a hybrid of murder mystery, relational drama and satire.

Irving makes excellent use of flashbacks, weaving the plots and subplots with the mastery of an expert author. Despite the many characters with diverse backgrounds, one theme remains at the heart of the story: The ongoing search for identity and the importance of self-acceptance.

Fans of Irving may be tempted to compare this book to his previous works, but this book is truly in a class by itself. Readers looking for another "Garp" will be disappointed, but those simply looking for an excellent story will find "A Son of the Circus" a sheer delight.

Irving's third best
A Son of the Circus is a great book by a terrific author. It tells the story of an orthopedic surgeon who is trying to decide where he truly fits in (he was born in Bombay, educated in Europe, and permanently settled in Toronto), while dealing with numerous exotic characters and unique situations. Irving paints a beautiful picture of India and it is as well crafted and intriguing as any of Irving's books. It is a little more difficult to relate to and get into then A Prayer For Owen Meany or Garp, so I would recommend reading either or both of those books before trying this one, but it is a wonderful story, so once you are accustomed to the Irving style this is a book you should not miss. I would certainly recommend it to all Irving lovers or anyone simply interested in a good book.