A tour de force of astonishing power and poetry, "Circus" uses the mystic panorama of a traveling mud show as a metaphor for the neverending cycle of life. Dwarves and roustabouts, clowns and elephants, freaks and puppet shows, snakes and ringmasters, talking beasts and a single elusory beauty all parade before a silently observant child over the course of a single day, engaging him as well as the reader with humor, ribaldry and prophetic wisdom. A testament to the mystery of creation, "Circus" challenges and inspires. To read it is to celebrate everything majestic and terrible about the world, the firmament and mankind's precarious place in it.