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A masterpiece from one of the great contemporary American writers.
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'The doctor was fated to go back to Bombay; he would keep returning again and again - if not forever, at least for as long as there were dwarves in the circus.'
Born a Parsi in Bombay, sent to university and medical school in Vienna, Dr Farrokh Daruwalla is a Canadian citizen - a 59-year-old orthopaedic surgeon, living in Toronto. Once, twenty years ago, Dr Daruwalla was the examining physician of two murder victims in Goa. Now, two decades later, the doctor will be reacquainted with the murderer...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quite a tough read but worth the effort,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Son Of The Circus (Paperback)
I found this book complicated but absorbing. The insight into Indian culture was most entertaining and as ever John Irving managed to keep me engrossed throughout. The flow and style of the descriptive writing in the final scene summarized beautifully the fundamental issues of the previous 800 pages. I was touched by the poignancy of those moments and the inevitable outcome.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Acrobatic,
By Fusionfan (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Son Of The Circus (Paperback)
This is Irving in full-throttle "omniscient narrator" mode. All the craft is here, time jumps, foreshadowing, multiple viewpoints, non-linear structure, etc. The opinionated narrator leads the reader shamelessly through meanders in the plot. Though pace is arguably slow for the first half (of what is a long novel), the reader is amply rewarded with very funny scenes thereafter.The theme is alienation, ostensibly that of the migrant, one who is not quite at home in the culture of his birth nor in his adopted land. But this theme also embraces the ambivalence the protagonist Dr Farrokh Daruwalla (an orthopaedic surgeon) feels toward Christianity and Catholicism, in particular. Set predominantly in India, this novel brings to life the colour, smells, beauty, deprivation, harshness, and the conflicted influences and faiths at work in that land. Of course, being an Irving novel, there is nothing ordinary about Daruwalla's life. Continually drawn back to India to help crippled children, the doctor becomes fascinated by dwarfism and hopes to find the genetic basis for this condition through collection and DNA analysis of blood samples. This in turn leads him to the places where dwarfs are most readily available: circuses. There is also a "writer's element" to the story, with the surgeon seeking creative expression through screenwriting for the Indian cinema. However, the surgeon's motives in this are again less than straightforward. He is creating a part - and an identity - for his stepbrother John. And John had a twin (Martin), separated at birth, who trains to become a Jesuit priest, bringing this review back to the above mentioned comedic scenes. Martin is a hoot. This is an excellent read. Immerse yourself; don't rush at that cliff-edge of pages. In a fast-changing, messy world, spending time in this circus novel is perhaps as good a place to be as any. One way or another, we are all foreigners now.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly entertaining..you live in Bombay for a while,
By A Customer
Wonderfully entertaining from start to finish. Having lived in India I must highly compliment David Colacci (the narrator) for the authentic accents he applied to all the characters. It was such a perfect portrayal of all I remembered of Bombay that it brought back all the sights, sounds, and smells I remember of that facinating country. Although John Irving stipulates that he had never lived in India, he wrote as if he was sitting on a balcony in Malabar Hill, recording all he saw before him. I hated to place that last cassete in my player and urge any one who is curious about life in India to listen to this book.
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