A son of the circus

I didn't have anything new on the go so I picked A Son Of The Circus by John Irving off the shelf. I have read this a couple of times in the past. I have found it worthy of re-reading because it is, in my opinion, Irving's most entertaining effort. Not his most profound. That honour goes to A Prayer For Owen Meany

But if you are in the mood for a who done it that goes well beyond the regular shoddy fare of this genre, this book is for you. The murder is used as the mainline upon which several lines with hooks are strung. As is always the case with Irving the book is replete with references, symbolism and word games. Primary among the latter is the name of the protagonist. Darruwalla is an interesting play on the Indian method of designating the operator of a certain machine or function. E.G.: taxi-wallah is a term for cab driver.

An interesting review can be found here.

I recommended this to the wife of the company president at the Christmas party this weekend. I forgot that some parts are very sexually explicit as this is a method he uses to explore sexual identity and the awakening of Farrokh Daruwalla. Perhaps I shouldn't have done that. I guess I will find out shortly.