The Bookshelf

Ever since Phineas T. Barnum observed that "a sucker is born every minute" and proceeded to prove it with a fabulous assortment of hokum, men have tried to describe the mystery and glamour surrounding circus life. But most attempts at painting the lives and loves of an India Rubber Man or drawing the character behind a barker's chant have failed miserably. Circus people became either ridiculous or dull under the pens of fascinated, but insensitive authors. "Gus the Great" is no unhappy commentary by someone outside the realm. Mr. Duncan treats his subject with great dignity and honest realism and fails only through his inability to unite the complex threads of his story.

Ten years in the writing, "Gus the Great" follows the fortunes of a fictitious Augustus H. Burgoyne during the hey day of hoopla. Gus was "as gregarious as a sardine." He attracted money, elephants, and women. His rise to fame was fast and his ruin faster. By taking his life and those of the people buzzing around him, Duncan draws a picture of circus business at the turn of the century. Focussed on the middle west, the novel throws all the enchantment, the crookedness and the bitter struggle of early circus business against a background a hysterical free enterprise. As the circus grows, its art is replaced by the character and evils of a big corporation. When the companies begin to crash the circus tumbles after them.

While "Gus the Great" is an accurate period piece, replete with all the false morality and ostentation overflowing from the Victorian age, the characters surrounding Gus Burgoyne provide the real heart and value of the book. Mr. Duncan understands the people in his novel; he allows each the perspective of a lifetime and successfully defines the mixture of lunacy and showmanship that makes a trooper. A keen-witted horse trader from Vermont, a bewildered pair of acrobats, and a lion tamer with a complex for abusing both cats and women are all drawn with infinite shading and welded together through the common denominator of their business.

As a collection of character studies, "Gus the Great" is superb; as a continuous story, it falls somewhat short of the mark. Mr. Duncan throws out a wealth of threads during his novel and has difficulty weaving them into a satisfactory knot at the climax. Important characters clash in a weird and incongruous way. While others are forgotten entirely. But regardless of the flaws in its construction, "Gus the Great" is a monumental work, showing both penetrating insight and real sympathy for the circus.