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This story makes me worry that I have become a literature snob... The way that everyone was raving about it and its seeming ability to remain at the top of bookseller lists and reading group discussions prompted me to read it twice. I thought maybe I had missed something the first time... But, in the end, while somewhat entertained, I fail to see the brilliance in it that everyone else does. On the plus side, the storyline is set in an interesting and colorful place (the circus) and the author uses an engaging technique of weaving back and fourth from the narrator's current situation (an retirement home) to his memories of the past. On the negative side, I don't think the depth of the antagonist was well captured and his supposed split personality did not come across. Instead he seemed fairly one-dimensional - a trait that seemed to dog the main characters of the book while ironically the side characters seemed to be rich with interesting facets. The midget, drunk, bouncer, prostitute, circus leader and even the elephant all had personalities that seemed to run deeper than the main love interest and antagonist. In the end, the love story seemed rather cliché and ran its course with little surprise. In both readings, I found my interest waning as the story progressed right up to the ending, which was utterly unrealistic, albeit the ending that the Gruen probably expected the reader wanted to hear...

Undeniably, the story has its moments and some of my harsh judgment is probably partly due to hyped expectations. It is a good yarn, but not a brilliant one.