Gorgeous book of short stories, impossibly visual. Possibly one of my favourite books ever from now on. ( )

The stories of Steven Millhauser all have about them a suggestion of the supernatural. Or perhaps it would be better to call it magic realism. Whatever the appropriate descriptor, they are all fantastic in one or another sense of fantasy. Some of them are fantastically good as well.

I think Millhauser would qualify for distinction as a writer's writer because many of his stories operate on more than one level — one often being a running commentary on the creative process itself. This is one of the aspects of his work that appeals to me most: He causes one to think about his methods as a storyteller — not unusual, I suppose, in the realms of metafiction.

All ten of the stories in this collection are both interesting and enjoyable — admittedly, some more enjoyable than others. Here is a brief rundown:

"The Game of Clue" — A family game of Clue proceeds, intertwined with imaginary byplay of the game's characters, which suggests more than it reveals.

"Behind the Blue Curtain" — A boy is allowed to go to the Saturday matinee alone for the first time. Afterwards, curiosity takes him behind the stage curtain where his imagination carries him inside a bigger-than-life world.

"The Barnum Museum" — A "realm of enchantments," a world apart from the world, "constructed so as to help us lose our way." In the 19th century Barnum museums actually existed in Bridgeport, Connecticut and New York City. The Bridgeport museum burned down at some point, and this story attempts to recreate — dare I say embellish? — the sense of its wonder: "In the gift shops of the Barnum Museum we may buy old sepia postcards of mermaids and sea dragons, little flip-books that show flying carpets rising into the air, peep-show pens with miniature colored scenes from the halls of the Barnum Museum, mysterious rubber balls from Arabia that bounce once and remain suspended in the air, jars of dark blue liquid from which you can blow bubbles shaped like tigers, elephants, lions, polar bears, and giraffes, Chinese kaleidoscopes showing ceaselessly changing forms of dragons, enchanting pleniscopes and phantatropes, boxes of animate paint for drawing pictures that move" — etc., etc.

"The Sepia Postcard" — An impressionist story — again, suggestive more than revealing or conclusive: A man trying to get away from it all checks into a seaside inn, but the weather! — it won't stop raining, and he leaves abruptly. All this interweaved with impressions of a scene in a sepia postcard, which seems to depict more every time the man looks at it.

"The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad" — The narrative alternates among three different points of view: (1) Sinbad reminisces, unable to recall the order in which his adventures occur; (2) a historical narrative: "The first European translation . . ." etc.; and (3) a first-person account by Sinbad. Readers who have actually read The Arabian Nights will be able to say whether this is a new adventure or a pastiche of references to past voyages.

"Klassic Komix #1" — Unless one knows the opening line of T.S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" — "Let us go then, you and I" — one will be of the mistaken belief that this is merely a panel-by-panel prose retelling of a rather surreal comic book. In fact, it recasts the images and impressions from Eliot's poem as a comic book. The genius of the poem — and this story — is that almost every reading conjures slightly different interpretations.

"Rain" — A violent rain storm in which everything goes wrong for a man caught out wearing a new pair of shoes.

"Alice, Falling" — Once again, Millhauser takes as his point of departure a familiar text which he reimagines — in this case, the opening chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He embellishes Alice's fall through the rabbit hole while commenting upon it at the same time.

"The Invention of Robert Herendeen" — "I decided to invent a human being by means of the full and rigorous application of my powers of imagination. Instead of resorting to words, which merely obscured and distorted the crystalline clarity of my inner vision, I would employ the stuff of imagination itself. That is to say, I would mentally mold a being whose existence would be sustained by the detail and energy of my relentless dreaming. My ambition was to create not an actual human being or a mere work of art but rather a being who existed in a realm parallel to the other two—a third realm, obedient to the laws of physical bodies but utterly discarnate." The story then goes on to explore the limitations of creating an imaginary friend.

"Eisenheim the Illusionist" — Acknowledged as the source of the 2006 movie The Illusionist starring Edward Norton, this story in truth only provides the film's bare outlines, but it is a quintessential Millhauser fantasy about a 19th century magician and illusionist who is famous for materializing and dematerializing phantom spirits and then as his last act performs the ultimate dematerialization.

While reading these stories, more than once it crossed my mind that in some respects they qualify as a type of prose poetry in the sense that they sometimes suggest more than they actually describe. Millhauser's word pictures seem to amplify in the mind and cause one to see more than is actually there. This, to me, is writing that not only conveys stories and impressions, but it stimulates the imagination as well.

If you like this kind of thing and you haven't yet tried Millhauser, this would be a good place to begin. ( )

To complete your thesis for the masters in creative writing, you are to complete the following: A description of a favorite game from childhood; a description of a childhood memory; a description of an imaginary building; retell a famous story; tell any story, but put it in an unfamiliar context; a description of a mundane activity; and a famous fictional character's perspective that hasn't been discussed before. Once these are completed, you will then write two stories which actually have a plot.

In all instances, attempt to make these enigmatic in such a way that the reader will think there is depth. No depth is actually required. You should also show your command of the language by going into excruciating detail

Okay, let me put this another way. I feel as though I just read all of the works Millhauser put together as he was honing his craft. The "assignment" I have provided above is a description of every story in the collection. However, these are not stories; these are exercises. If it weren't for the last two items, the task of reading this collection would have been nothing but wasted time and frustration. The last two are good – in particular the last which tells the story of an illusionist who is tapping into something no one can understand to effect illusions that are almost beyond comprehension. But the only thing these two stories do is keep the collection from being a mere half-star.

Unfortunately, two stories stuck onto the end of a collection containing tedious nothings does not a great read make.

And I want it made perfectly clear that I have greatly enjoyed Millhauser's work in the past. Dangerous Laughter was an excellent short story collection and his novel Edwin Mullhouse was one of the best I have read. Yes, I went in with great expectations. I left them dashed, destroyed, and demolished.

Do not waste your time, your money, or any brain cells on this book ( )

The Barnum Museum is a combination of waxworks, masked ball and circus sideshow masquerading as a collection of short stories. Within its pages, note such sights as: a study of the motives and strategies used by the participants in the game of Clue, including the seduction of Miss Scarlet by Colonel Mustard; the Barnum Museum, a fantastic, monstrous landmark so compelling that an entire town finds its citizens gradually and inexorably disappearing into it; a bored dilettante who constructs an imaginary woman - and loses her to an imaginary man! - and a legendary magician so skilled at sleight-of-hand that he is pursued by police for the crime of erasing the line between the real and the conjured.

A Game of Clue
Behind the Blue Curtain
The Barnum Museum
The Sepia Postcard
The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad
Klassik Komix #1
Rain
Alice, Falling
The Invention of Robert Herendeen
Eisenheim the Illusionist


Although this is a collection of short stories, I feel this is a misnomer, as these tales may appear finite on the page, but escape these limitations through the authors own sleight of hand. Steven Millhauser is the puppet master behind the illusionist, he is the Wizard of Oz, with such a panoply of devices, tricks, magic mirrors and secret panels. A wondrous array of machinery that one mind could possibly conceive.

The perfect example is the story – A Game of Clue (Cluedo), this story is told from the perspective of the players, following their thoughts & feelings, their gameplay and what is happening in their lives, whilst, at the same time we follow the characters in the game – Mr Green, Mrs Peacock, Professor Plum, and of course Miss Scarlet who is being pursued by Colonel Mustard. We watch the action as it unfolds with a needlepoint description of every minute detail, with scientific precision Millhauser unfolds the drama, revealing a tale that totally surprised me with it’s erotic nature that, like some Burlesque dancer, revealed all, yet revealed nothing.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/steven-millhauser.html ( )

Being a story collection--one long, the rest short--by my favorite contemporary novelist. Although most of the stories are good, the collection mostly served to make me wish that he would have put his time to better use writing another novel, the genre in which he truly excels. The best, and longest, story is opener "A game of Clue", wherein he uses parallel narratives to tell the sories of the game players as well as the characters in the game. The title story is also very strong. On the other hand, "Klassic Komix #1" is practically unreadable--innovative, perhaps, but nonetheless unreadable, and there are several which strike me as merely shaggy dog stories with better-than-average description (e.g., "The eighth voyage of Sinbad", "Alice, falling"). ( )