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The Circus of Dr. Lao

The Circus of Dr. Lao

List Price: $12.95
Your Price: $9.71
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A "must read" if you crave something different.
Review: My only regret upon reading this book is that I didn't discover it earlier. The imagery in this book will transport you into the author's universe - a bizarre circus full of equally bizarre creatures. When the main character, Dr. Lao, delivers his lectures on these unique beasts, the author's eloquent use of the English language is stunning.

There is one point that I feel needs to be clarified, however. This book may not be suitable for all children. Although it engages the reader's imagination, it can be at times a very dark book. The appearance of Satan in the circus lashing a very pretty young witch comes to mind. Also, the use of derogatory racial epithets is something that most parents would probably not want to expose young children to. Finney's use of these words reminded me of William Faulkner's use of these words. They may seem gratuitous when you read them the first time, but later you realize that the author was in fact revealing a serious moral flaw in the character who was saying them. Overall, I feel that an intelligent older child would probably gain much from reading this book. The pros far outway the cons in this fantastic work of fiction.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Lao means old in Mandarin and Cantonese
Review: One day a Chink takes out an ad in the local news paper announcing a circus coming to town that day. The ad is mysteriously worded to attract a variety of locals and a transient. The side shows are quite different than most circuses and so are the animals including something that is consistently indefinable. Each person sees the circus in a different way. Many tend to ignore or gloss over any inconsistencies. It is if the circus had never been there.

They say it is best to write what you know. Charles G. Finney served in the U.S. 15th infantry in China; oddly enough so did one of his characters. He worked on a news paper in Arizona; oddly enough so did one of his characters. I suspect he is on a first name basis with the menagerie in Dr. Lao's Circus.

The story, well there really is not one. The plot, nope not one of them either. Characters? Yes they were characters.

A good movie adaptation of this book is "Severn faces of Dr. Lao", Dr. Lao played by Tony Randall. The all but absent plot was replaced with a standard one that helped tie the story together and wrapped up lose ends. They cleaned up the dirty parts and watered down the god Yottle. It is well worth viewing (see my review).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: File under "Apocalyptica Sardonicus"
Review: Reading the other reviews here reminds me of the old saw about the blind men and the elephant -- how one (feeling its legs) describes it as resembling a tree; one (feeling its trunk) describes it as like a rope; et cetera. The simple fact is you can't experience this particular elephant unless you read it for yourself. It is truly sui generis.

As for the negative comments that some have lobbed at this book, I can only laugh bitterly & loudly. For the whole concept of the book is about a small-minded town that's exposed to an act of real & genunine magic -- and how the town misses the point utterly. They're limited by their blinders, and perceive only that which can be easily categorized within their existing worldviews. Draw what parallels you may....

Be warned that despite its labelmates in the Bison series, this "Circus" has as much in common with William S. Burroughs as Edgar Rice... and psychedelic / anarchist philosopher Robert Anton Wilson owes this slim tome a debt of gratitude. (His "catalog" of characters and ideas at the back of his "Illuminatus! Trilogy" is an obvious homage to the similar catalog appendixed here.)

The "Circus" is luminous and lyrical, shifting gears from rhapsodic flights of fantasy to bitter and insightful jibes at humanity's foibles. And it's probably my all-time favorite book, ever. It invites and withstands re-reading after re-reading.

And somebody out there really needs to reprint Finney's even harder-to-find (and even more peculiar) short novel, "The Unholy City." If you love "Circus," track it down.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best story
Review: The best story, of its kind, ever written. Possibly because it's the only story of its kind.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Recommended
Review: The Circus of Dr. Lao blows into the dreary town of Abalone and the residents (as well as the reader) are treated to a phantasmagoria such as few have seen. This short book is a wonderful mixture of satire and fantasy. Finney produces some extraordinary imagery, particularly during the Dance of the Witches.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a delight! More than just fantasy...
Review: The Circus of Dr. Lao is a wry little gem exploring the hypocrisy, smallmindedness and general lack of thought exhibited by most humans. The pithy passages scintillate with a mixture of hilarious small-town colloquialisms and bits of arcane legend.
Drawing on a variety of genres (journalism, advertising jingles,
bestiaries, pastiche, movie script, catalogues)this little book constatly surprises as it uses the conceits of allegory and the
vocabulary of local color to weave a tapestry of truth about human nature and herd behavior.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: so very lovely!!
Review: the seven faces of doctor Lao was a favorite movie of mine as a child and i was very happy to see that the book far outshone the movie. it was a beautifully rendered snapshot of the most unusual circus on earth. Finney creates for us a place we would like to visit while giving us local characters who manage to be both satiric and realistic. I was sad to see that a few readers found the book to be inadequate....but it's bound to happen...due to the media of the day people can no longer understand anything that isn't spelled out for them and then cleanly ended, people don't want to have to think about what they've read or make even the smallest attempt at pondering it.
and a note on the derogatory or racist terms used in the book for anyone who was upset by them....notice that they are not often used by the author but by the inhabitants of the town during a time when many people were very much against foreigners of any kind....they speak in a racist manner because a lot of people were that racist....we can't pretend they were all well bred and politically correct . it would be a lie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: a mediocre book at best
Review: There are rare occurences where a movie outshines the story on which it is based, such as with Bladerunner or 2001. In that vein, I have to give Charles Beaumont, Twilight Zone veteran and screenwriter for the film "The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao", some real credit, as he completely transcended the source. Seeing the movie and then reading this book... well, there's no comparison.

I know that Charles Finney's novel "The Circus of Dr. Lao" is a cult classic and loved by many, but I have to offer the other side of the coin, as the book was a huge disappointment to me. The basic plot has a mysterious asian man appearing in the town of Abalone, AZ, to put on the strangest circus the residents have ever seen. Far from being populated by clowns, acrobats, and animals, Dr. Lao's circus is full of mythological beasts that provide insight into human nature. We are introduced to a cast of cardboard locals who, while serving as a vehicle to introduce the oddities of the circus they attend, play no worthwhile part in the story. Finney's writing style is uneven in the extreme - there are a few bits of brilliance that completely overshadow the predominantly unpolished text. It's almost as if the book is a collection of notes for what would have been a much larger novel, and it could be a work of art if expanded upon and given some direction. As the story is only ~100 pages, expansion would have been appreciated instead of the pointless appendix of characters, creatures, items, and study questions (!) which is oddly in-depth for a story with such lightweight content. The ending of the story is very abrupt and has no real explanation. Nothing is solved, and there is no conclusion: did anyone learn anything from their encounters? We never know.

As a final note, think twice before throwing this one at your kids: this is not a book for children, and while some of the situations may seem somewhat tame by today's trash novel standards, it's obvious that the objective was to titillate readers in 1938. So, if you want something with real focus and a message, I recommend that you view the movie "The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao" instead of reading the source material. The only reason I hold on to this book is because of my love for the movie, as well as the beautiful illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a book!
Review: This book sat me up in my chair and made my hair stand on end. Only a hundred pages or so; it will stay with you for years. Don't rent the movie; it's not the same. I agree: the reader who saw "no literary merit" in this book is probably some kind of purse-lipped scold who hates "Konstantinople" as well. Pay him no heed, this is a classic. What a shame it's out of print!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A book to fire the imagination
Review: When I first read this book in my youth I was completely taken with it. When I rediscovered it as a 40 year old it captured me again. A decade later someone loaned me a copy and I again submerged myself in it. I'm ecstatic to know it's available here and I can now experience this circus again.

Maybe the book isn't for everyone, as some have suggested. If not the loss belongs to the part of 'everyone' it's not for, not within the portion of everyone it is 'for', where it will simmer to be tasted and savored in flashes of memory and thought long after the meal.

If you've already eaten take this one for dessert.


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