A Circus for Sure

[+ Lucky]

Don't you hate it when you go at a new book with eager anticipation only to be numbingly disapointed? Last Sunday's New York Times gave a decent write up for a new novel by Christopher Bram called "Lives of the Circus Animals." Ha Ha. It is about people who work in the theater, get it?

 

Well, the Times critic must have been in fear of getting shot by Bram's mother or he might have pointed out what an empty and implausibly silly story this one is. And to think the guy got a Guggenheim grant to write it? (Bram had written another book later made into the film Gods and Monster. What's he need a grant for?)

 

What points out the sadness of this failed novel for those in Hooville who might be yearning for a good yarn about the theater is that in this book, the Gaiety Theater gets a prominent part early on. Well, Bram may have thought it was the Gaiety, but his venue is not one anyone here would recognize. Ya see, the openly-gay British actor on Broadway had just had (horribly written) phone-sex with the playwright of a failed gay play. And how else was the Brit going to meet the playwright's ex-boyfriend if he didn't have him dance at the Gaiety, not to hustle of course. And the failed playwright just happens to be the brother of the Brit's personal assistant....and you can see that this Guggenhieim funded bore took about six days to write.

Still waiting for a good book that makes me feel like I am there in the theater when the characters develop. That must be why I like the message center so much!