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A Son of the Circus

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A Son of the Circus

By: John Irving
Narrated by: David Colacci
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About this listen

 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.

©2007 John Irving (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction Murder Heartfelt Comedy

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Critic reviews

"Ringmaster Irving introduces act after act, until three (or more) rings are awhirl at a lunatic pace....His Bombay and his Indian characters are vibrant and convincing." ( The Wall Street Journal)
"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." ( Booklist)
"His most daring and most vibrant novel.... The story of circus-as-India is told with gusto and delightful irreverence." ( The Washington Post Book World)
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Not as painful a story as Garp and not as unsettling as Owen Meany (even though it involves a serial killer); this is a great yarn. It is a page-turner, if an audio-book can be called such a thing and the characters and setting have a believable richness. The narration is excellent (accents/voices passable and not too distracting). I came to like the readers voice so much I have recently downloaded another book written by him.

Loved it

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It took me a while to get into this book. In fact, I got about a quarter of the way through and then stopped for a few months, although this was more to do with the fact that I was listening on my Shuffle in the swimming pool and then stopped swimming while I healed from surgery. I had to go back to the beginning again...

I loved the plot of this book. Although it was slow to start, it was definitely worth persevering. It was rather different to the other John Irving books I've read. David Colacci brought this to life really, really well. It was especially notable when Dr Daruwhalla was getting exasperated and angry! A stellar performance and a narrator I shall keep an eye out for on Audible.

The characters in the book are as lifelike as in any novel of Irving's, or indeed anyone else's. Mr Setna (I don't know the spellings, since it was an audiobook, so please forgive me that!) the steward at the Duckworth Club was superb. And how about Patel, the police commissioner!

I particularly enjoyed following Martin Mills and his change from blind faith to doubt. Both he and John D are 39 in the story, which just happens to be the same age as I am, so it was interesting to hear about how Martin was still finding himself. Me too!

The only thing I find annoying about Irving's writing style, and it's evident in all his novels, is his overuse of beginning a sentence with the word 'that'.

'That his something or other was big or small was evidence of his whatever...'. That kind of thing. I just find it overused and ultimately annoying as a result. But that aside, I loved this book!

A sleeper

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A meandering story with memorable characters, beautifully narrated. At first I found the author's side steps into different times and places quite bewildering but keep faith, everything unites into a satisfying completion.

Memorable characters

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I really like John Irving, but I have to admit that this book dragged at times - it felt like it went over and over the same ground. At his best Irving had such an incredible gift for mixing tragedy with humour, but this book just seemed sad to me - all the characters seemed destined to remain in a bad place and it didn't really seem like there was any chance at anything better for them. It was fairly well, but the reader has a rather flat voice which didn't help make it any more exciting.

A good story but it did get a bit long

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As a long-term fan of the author I like most of his novels it is no surprise that I enjoyed this one having read years ago. However I decided to come back to it after listening to his latest work 'avenue of mysteries', which is also a very good read and I was surprised to discover how many elements from this novel are taken from it and used in the new one. There are a number of characters that have been fleshed out a bit more or taken in slightly different directions but they are still identifiable and dare I say it more likeable.
While I believe this is not one of the authors favourite works it is strange to see so much of the work from here repeated in a later novel.
Overall I like the novel there are numerous storylines running through the book and most of them are wound up satisfactorily with only one or two left open (who keeps ringing him about the murder of his father) or begging for a bit more detail (raouls time in prison or ganesh's time in the circus).

Great story well told

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This journey is great fun. Irving always cracks me up and this story is as sad, funny, interesting and not entirely believable as all of his others I've read. I just wish Audible would hurry up and put Garp, Hotel New Hampshire and Cider House on the menu!

Good fun

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A Son of the Circus - OK but a bit long
An enjoyable book but it went on a bit.
Good narration

A Son of the Circus - OK but a bit long

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This is a great big book that is funny, gripping and sad. I loved Garp and Owen Meaney but had read them so long ago that I had forgotten just how good a writer JI is. This story is packed; not everything works but the whole is constantly interesting and enjoyable.
The narrator is excellent, adding considerably to the humour and maintaining the pace throughout.

Bombay brilliance

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If you’re familiar with John Irving’s novels you’ll know that he doesn’t tell a straightforward story and spins off into imaginative digressions. I’ve read/listened to four of his novels and this one has more seemingly irrelevant side-tracks. For much of the book I felt that, while I enjoyed the section I was listening to, the different stories didn’t seem to be connected, but after more than 20 hours of listening began to come together. Throughout there is an underlying theme of alienation owing to race, class, disability and sexuality. The harshness of life for many Indians isn’t avoided but there is much to chuckle about as the larger-than life-characters get involved in extraordinary scenarios.

Dr Daruwalla is the common thread of the narrative and is the only wholly sympathetic character. He is an orthopaedic surgeon of Indian origin based in Toronto who makes trips to India to study achondroplastic dwarfism, about which you will learn quite a bit. There’s a surprising amount of medical detail in the book about this genetic disorder as well as, for example, about sex-change operations and the symptoms of terminal AIDS. The doctor also writes story-lines for an Indian detective series so one learns about Indian cinema as well as circus acts, the transgender Hijra communities, prostitution and the Jesuits! In addition there is a serial killer at large and the doctor gets involved in trying to solve the crime.

As a consequence of all these diverse threads there are not only many characters to keep track of but there are also un-signalled jumps back and forth in time. An ambitious and complex book that gets better in the latter parts.

Not as good or memorable as A Prayer for Owen Meany, but in the end a satisfying listen.

Enjoyable but takes time to make sense

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I really enjoyed this audiobook. It had great characters and evocative language that described India perfectly.

An entertaining listen. As usual, Irving delivers.

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