Our Lady of the Circus

This Mexican writer is a magician. With the lightest touch he transports the reader into another world - an insane world. And then you discover: it is our own world that he is describing.

The Amazing Mantecon Brothers Circus, a down-at-the-heels roadshow of freaks, failures, and outcasts, dissolves after its arrival at an abandoned Mexican town. Eight performers and one of the brothers remain behind to "settle" the town and create a home, while the majority continue their haphazard journey through the hinterlands. For the settlers, "A bunch of empty houses was a greater temptation than a life filled with applause..." In this unique "utopia," which they name Santa Maria of the Circus, the "essential" jobs for the community are assigned by lot. The midget, for example, becomes the priest (saying "The hell with it," when he can't remember the Mass), the bearded lady is the surgeon, the strongman is the "puta," assigned to a house on the outskirts of town, and the youthful contortionist is "the Negro," the scapegoat for all. With no water, no food, no clocks, and no mirrors, the characters in Santa Maria confront, often humorously, the very essence of life and survival. Toscano uses his wild cast to comment on the world at large, revealing man's innate longings and fears, his need to belong, and the sadness of being different. As Nathaniel, the one-eyed midget, says, "If it weren't for my height, no one would know I'm a midget." Gentle satire, whimsy, black humor, subtle and not-so-subtle word pictures, and consummate irony combine with sensitive description and poignant observations by these characters about the world as they, and, presumably, we find it. Despite the book's warmth and whimsy, however, the overriding belief that "chance is God" pervades this narrative, leading ultimately to an extremely dark and very depressing conclusion, one which came as a huge letdown to me. Though life is not all fun and games, and many problems exist both in society and in human relationships, these characters are survivors in the very weird circus of their lives, despite the curves that chance has thrown them. The ending is consistent with the theme that "chance is God," but I felt it was not consistent with the overall tone of the book, even when that tone became darker and less playful. I found myself wondering if the author needed a way to extricate himself from the thematic corner into which he had painted himself and chose this ending as a deus ex machina. Mary Whipple

This novel might very well be the Philosophy Textbook of our times, and thus, a literary masterpiece. With only eight circus performers, an impresario and a pig, David Toscana explains with wisdom why our societies do not work, why our world is going crazy, why some things I don't want to mention happen. In an allegorical, apocalyptical, and even humorous way, every social issue is covered: religion, sexism, racism, media, poverty, the military, xenophobia, ecology, health, aging, politics, injustice, solitude, despair and more. The human condition -not the circus- is the greatest show on Earth, but just until we all go to hell.