A Son of the Circus (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

By John Irving

"A SON OF THE CIRCUS IS comedian GENIUS....GET prepared FOR IRVING'S such a lot RAUCOUS NOVEL TO DATE."
--The Boston Globe
"Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, reared in Bombay by means of maverick foes of culture, proficient in Vienna, married to an Austrian and lengthy a resident of Toronto, is a 59-year-old with no state, tradition or faith to name his own....The novel is probably not 'about' India, yet Irving's imagined India, which Daruwalla visits periodically, is a extraordinary achievement--a pandemonium of servants and clubmen, dwarf clowns and transvestite whores, missionaries and film stars. it is a land of lively colliding egos, of recent media clashing with historical cultures, of damaged sexual boundaries."
--New York Newsday
"HIS such a lot bold AND such a lot shiny NOVEL...The tale of circus-as-India is instructed with gusto and pleasant irreverence."
--Bharati Mukherjee
The Washington put up booklet World
"Ringmaster Irving introduces act after act, till 3 (or extra) earrings are awhirl at a lunatic pace....[He] spills characters from his mind's eye as agilely as inconceivable numbers of clowns pile out of a tiny car....His Bombay and his Indian characters are bright and convincing."
--The Wall road Journal
"IRRESISTIBLE...POWERFUL...Irving's reward for discussion shines."
--Chicago Tribune

From the Paperback edition.

Show description

Preview of A Son of the Circus (Ballantine Reader's Circle) PDF

Similar Literature books

Leviathan

Big apple Times bestselling writer Paul Auster (The ny Trilogy) opens Leviathan with the tearing of a bomb explosion and the dying of 1 Benjamin Sachs. Ben’s one-time ally, Peter Aaron, starts to retrospectively examine the transformation that led Ben from his enviable, good existence to at least one of a recluse.

Gothic Tales (Penguin Classics)

Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic stories combination the true and the supernatural to eerie, compelling influence. 'Disappearances', encouraged via neighborhood legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and truth; 'Lois the Witch', a novella in keeping with an account of the Salem witch hunts, exhibits how sexual hope and jealousy result in hysteria; whereas in 'The previous Nurse's tale' a mysterious baby roams the freezing Northumberland moors.

Slow Man

J. M. Coetzee , one of many maximum dwelling writers within the English language, has crafted a deeply relocating story of affection and mortality in his new e-book, gradual guy. while photographer Paul Rayment loses his leg in a bicycle twist of fate, he's pressured to reexamine how he has lived his existence. via Paul's tale, Coetzee addresses questions that outline us all: What does it suggest to do solid?

Doctor Thorne: The Chronicles of Barsetshire (Oxford World's Classics)

Health professional Thorne is a compelling tale within which love, self-importance, and greed are pitted opposed to each other. The squire of Greshamsbury has fallen on tough instances, and it really is incumbent on his son Frank to make an excellent marriage. yet Frank loves the doctor's niece, Mary Thorne, a woman without funds and mysterious parentage.

Extra resources for A Son of the Circus (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Show sample text content

Wouldn’t the killer be aware of that the latest Inspector Dhar motion picture was once imitating him? I’m over my head, as ordinary, Dr. Daruwalla determined. He additionally determined that he may still provide this data to Detective Patel—in case, someway, the deputy commissioner didn’t already comprehend it. yet how could Patel already comprehend it? Farrokh puzzled. Second-guessing himself was once the doctor’s moment nature. on the Duckworth membership, Dr. Daruwalla were inspired by means of the composure of the deputy commissioner; furthermore, the surgeon couldn’t rid himself of the effect that Detective Patel were hiding whatever. Farrokh interrupted those unwelcome concepts as fast as they’d come to him. Sitting subsequent to his answering computing device, he grew to become the quantity down ahead of he driven the button. nonetheless in hiding, the key screenwriter listened to the messages. The First-Floor canine Upon listening to Ranjit’s complaining voice, Dr. Daruwalla immediately regretted his determination to forsake even one minute of Dhar and Julia’s corporation for up to one cell message. many years older than the healthcare professional, Ranjit had however maintained either wrong expectancies and younger indignation; the previous concerned his ongoing matrimonial ads, which Dr. Daruwalla chanced on irrelevant for a scientific secretary in his sixties. Ranjit’s “youthful indignation” used to be so much obvious in his responses to these ladies who, upon assembly him, became him down. certainly, Ranjit hadn’t all this time been engaging in nonstop matrimonial ads, courting again to his earliest employment as outdated Lowji’s secretary. After exhaustive interviews, Ranjit were effectively married—and lengthy sufficient ahead of Lowji’s demise in order that the senior Dr. Daruwalla had once again loved the secretary’s pre-matrimonial industriousness. yet Ranjit’s spouse had lately died, and he was once just a couple of years clear of retirement. He nonetheless labored for the surgical affiliates on the health center for Crippled young children, and he continually served as Farrokh’s secretary each time the Canadian used to be an Honorary advisor health care provider in Bombay. And Ranjit had determined that the time for remarrying was once ripe. He inspiration he may still do it instantly, for it made him sound more youthful to explain himself as a operating scientific secretary than to admit he used to be retired; simply to be certain, in his newer matrimonial ads, he’d tried to capitalize on either his place and his pending retirement, bringing up that he used to be “rewardingly hired” and “anticipating a v. lively, early retirement. ” It used to be such things as “v. energetic” that Dr. Daruwalla discovered unseemly approximately Ranjit’s current matrimonials, and the truth that Ranjit used to be a shameless liar. due to a customary coverage on the instances of India—the ads brides and grooms eschewed revealing their names, who prefer the confidentiality of a number—it was once attainable for Ranjit to submit a half-dozen advertisements within the related Sunday’s matrimonial pages. Ranjit had came upon it used to be renowned to assert that caste used to be “no bar,” whereas it used to be additionally nonetheless well known to claim himself a Hindu Brahmin—“caste-conscious and religion-minded, matching horoscopes a needs to.

Download PDF sample

Rated 4.54 of 5 – based on 17 votes