A review by disconightwing
The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy by Stewart O'Nan, Alice van Straalen
4.0
First off, I started reading this book and I didn't have a real reason why. I love the circus, but I knew exactly what I was getting into here: a really depressing nonfiction with a lot of unsolved history and more questions than answers. As I was finishing it today, I happened to read the date of the fire for the ten millionth time... and realized that the anniversary of that fire is today. Just a creepy little bit of synchronicity to bring everything around full circle.
Anyway, this book was de-pres-sing! Not that it had any business to be anything but, of course. But if you're looking for a book that wraps everything in a neat little package and answers all of your questions, or makes you want to toss it aside and go find the Shriners... you should probably not read this book.
I actually feel disappointed after finishing this. Not because it was poorly written, or boring (though it did seem long), but because nothing has been solved. That's no fault of the author's, and I didn't dock any stars from the rating because of it, but I feel unfulfilled somehow. There's probably no way at this point to ever get the answers to the questions the book raises.
On one hand, this book is really disjointed—you read one sentence about a person and then three chapters later there's another sentence about the same person. In fact there's really only one victim that gets mentioned in several paragraphs so the reader gets the full effect (Little Miss 1565). It makes it hard to follow someone's story when it's spread out, one sentence at a time, over a whole book. On the other hand, the disjointed writing style almost feels perfect for this book—it worked, and it worked because it was a very simple and effective way to make me feel like they must have felt all those years ago. There was a sentence about the mayor, maybe halfway through, where it said at the beginning of the disaster all of these people were strangers and by the end of the day they were all familiar to him. That's how I felt at the end of this.
Another thing—this book was really kind of graphic. Not over the top graphic. It wasn't needless gore. It was “hey, this is what happened.” And if there are images now that are always going to stick in my mind, well, maybe that's not a bad thing. But seriously, I'm never going to forget the description of a mother and a child who literally melted together.
Usually with nonfiction books I don't always like a completely unbiased account. This time, I liked that the author didn't try to impose any of his own theories on the “unsolved mystery” part of the book. Enough to disprove the theory of the unknown girl's identity, sure, but he never came out and said who he thought she was, either.
I'm just going to say this to get it off my chest, even though it's not a problem with the book, just with people in general. There were SEVERAL unidentified victims and people only cared about one. It was very touching, how the two men went and put flowers on Little Miss 1565's grave every year until they died. Very nice how they said, “if she were my little girl I would want someone to remember her.” Well, that's very sweet. Except there are two other unidentified children, and they barely get a mention. Their graves are right there and they never get flowers. I'm not trying to cheapen the men and their completely sweet act. I'm asking why it seemed like no one cared about the other two. (Note: I do understand that it's because 1565 was so recognizable and still unidentified. That's not the point I'm trying to make here.) I think at the end of it, I felt worse for the other two kids because they were just kind of forgotten in all the hype about the “famous” one.
I felt like they didn't deserve to get remembered because they got burned more. That is a really sad way to feel about something like this.
I don't think I'll ever reread this book. Not because it was bad, but because once is enough!
Anyway, this book was de-pres-sing! Not that it had any business to be anything but, of course. But if you're looking for a book that wraps everything in a neat little package and answers all of your questions, or makes you want to toss it aside and go find the Shriners... you should probably not read this book.
I actually feel disappointed after finishing this. Not because it was poorly written, or boring (though it did seem long), but because nothing has been solved. That's no fault of the author's, and I didn't dock any stars from the rating because of it, but I feel unfulfilled somehow. There's probably no way at this point to ever get the answers to the questions the book raises.
On one hand, this book is really disjointed—you read one sentence about a person and then three chapters later there's another sentence about the same person. In fact there's really only one victim that gets mentioned in several paragraphs so the reader gets the full effect (Little Miss 1565). It makes it hard to follow someone's story when it's spread out, one sentence at a time, over a whole book. On the other hand, the disjointed writing style almost feels perfect for this book—it worked, and it worked because it was a very simple and effective way to make me feel like they must have felt all those years ago. There was a sentence about the mayor, maybe halfway through, where it said at the beginning of the disaster all of these people were strangers and by the end of the day they were all familiar to him. That's how I felt at the end of this.
Another thing—this book was really kind of graphic. Not over the top graphic. It wasn't needless gore. It was “hey, this is what happened.” And if there are images now that are always going to stick in my mind, well, maybe that's not a bad thing. But seriously, I'm never going to forget the description of a mother and a child who literally melted together.
Usually with nonfiction books I don't always like a completely unbiased account. This time, I liked that the author didn't try to impose any of his own theories on the “unsolved mystery” part of the book. Enough to disprove the theory of the unknown girl's identity, sure, but he never came out and said who he thought she was, either.
I'm just going to say this to get it off my chest, even though it's not a problem with the book, just with people in general. There were SEVERAL unidentified victims and people only cared about one. It was very touching, how the two men went and put flowers on Little Miss 1565's grave every year until they died. Very nice how they said, “if she were my little girl I would want someone to remember her.” Well, that's very sweet. Except there are two other unidentified children, and they barely get a mention. Their graves are right there and they never get flowers. I'm not trying to cheapen the men and their completely sweet act. I'm asking why it seemed like no one cared about the other two. (Note: I do understand that it's because 1565 was so recognizable and still unidentified. That's not the point I'm trying to make here.) I think at the end of it, I felt worse for the other two kids because they were just kind of forgotten in all the hype about the “famous” one.
I felt like they didn't deserve to get remembered because they got burned more. That is a really sad way to feel about something like this.
I don't think I'll ever reread this book. Not because it was bad, but because once is enough!