THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO

This will either be a trick success -- or it will be a complete flop. I'm frankly guessing -- but if I were buying, I'd go slow, try it on the staff, pick a few customers who combine a curiosity about new metiers, a sense of humor, not too rigid a code of morality, and send them the book on trial. It's crazy -- but I liked it. It's astoundingly learned -- but not annoyingly so. The old Chinaman who speaks perfect English, when he wants to, who has the showman's jargon with a twist all his own, and an underlying and profound knowledge of human psychology, is a unique character. And -- just as the absurd circus parade piqued the curiosity of the townsfolk, so page after page, the story piques the curiosity of the reader. Don't pass it up -- it is not negligible -- and some of your people will get a kick out of it. Snob appeal may start the ball rolling. Meantime, get some fun out of reading it!