Rating: 
Summary: A Rare Literary Entertainment
Review: Admittedly, I was reluctant to give this book a shot. I read, and thoroughly detested, Bram's IN MEMORY OF ANGEL CLAIRE, and I wasn't going to read this offering. I'm extremely glad I reconsidered my decision. Bram's examination of ten days in the lives of an interconnected group of New York "theatre people" was not only insightful it was a delightful, life-affirming reading experience.
The characters met in this book are far from perfect. In fact, they tend to be self-centered and shallow. But they're extremely human, and it's hard not to like them. There is Caleb, a playwright dealing with the failure of his second play after the huge success of his first. The self pity he wallows in makes him, perhaps, the most unsympathetic character in the book.
Along the way we're introduced to Caleb's sister Jessie, an assistant to Broadway star Henry Lewse, and his mother, Molly, a slightly neurotic widow. We also get to know the afore-mentioned Lewse, Toby, a struggling actor and Caleb's discarded boyfriend, Frank an ex-actor in love with Jessie, and Kenneth Prager, a critic for the prestigious New York Times whose reviews have enhanced Lewse's career while helping to destroy Caleb's. All are on a collision course with one another that will have its ultimate denouement at Caleb's self-thrown 41st birthday bash.
I'm not going to beat around the bush. I absolutely adored LIVES OF THE CIRCUS ANIMALS. Bram provides his reader with a deep yet totally entertaining read. This novel is a delightful comedy of errors that never gets bogged down in the psychological exploration of its characters, a feat not easily accomplished in gay literature. BRAVO! Mr. Bram. I give this extremely literary performance five (*****) well deserved stars.
Rating: 
Summary: terrible book from a good author
Review: Bram has done much better than this insipid, lazy exercise. Comedy? Not very funny. Satire? Not very insightful. Just a writer going through the motions with shallow characterization and painfully obvious plot devices. Readble, but not much more than that.
Rating:
Summary: A Word from the Other End of the Spectrum of Critics
Review: Christopher Bram is simply one of our best writers of fiction today. His previous works have met with well-founded acclaim ("The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes", and "Father of Frankenstein"), but for some reason THE LIVES OF THE CIRCUS ANIMALS isn't popular with most readers. I'm not at all sure why. This beautifully constructed book has vividly drawn characters, humor, scandal, absurdities, love form all sides of the sexual spectrum, tenderness, warmth, and a Ringmaster's viewpoint of just how untamable 'animals' can be. The plot centers around the misadventures of groups of theater people in New York City - actors, playwrights, critics, and wannabes - and Bram manages to stir the cauldron of these characters with such sensitivity that in the end - the Grand Finale of a birthday party - the whole extravaganza comes to a pitch perfect boiling point. The coda to the book shows very subtle resolution of all the lives. Bram's title comes from a poem by William Butler Yeats entitled "The Circus Animals' Desertion" and at one point out main character, the playwright Caleb refers to it " Where he says he gave his heart to the theater, but he's all burned out and his animals have run off. It's the poem with the lines 'I must lie down where all the ladders start,/In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.'" Bram runs with this terrific quote and has created a novel that, for this reader, is equal to his other fine works. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Word from the Other End of the Spectrum of Critics
Review: Christopher Bram is simply one of our best writers of fiction today. His previous works have met with well-founded acclaim ("The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes", and "Father of Frankenstein"), but for some reason THE LIVES OF THE CIRCUS ANIMALS isn't popular with most readers. I'm not at all sure why. This beautifully constructed book has vividly drawn characters, humor, scandal, absurdities, love form all sides of the sexual spectrum, tenderness, warmth, and a Ringmaster's viewpoint of just how untamable 'animals' can be. The plot centers around the misadventures of groups of theater people in New York City - actors, playwrights, critics, and wannabes - and Bram manages to stir the cauldron of these characters with such sensitivity that in the end - the Grand Finale of a birthday party - the whole extravaganza comes to a pitch perfect boiling point. The coda to the book shows very subtle resolution of all the lives. Bram's title comes from a poem by William Butler Yeats entitled "The Circus Animals' Desertion" and at one point out main character, the playwright Caleb refers to it " Where he says he gave his heart to the theater, but he's all burned out and his animals have run off. It's the poem with the lines 'I must lie down where all the ladders start,/In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.'" Bram runs with this terrific quote and has created a novel that, for this reader, is equal to his other fine works. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't really capture theater life for me.
Review: I was very excited about this book because I'd acted for ten years in NYC. I expected to find the theater world I remembered, instead, I found one completely devoid of people of color or straight women!
The book centers on this bizarre love/lust triangle between Brit Broadway star/ aging queen, Henry Lewse; whiny, solipisistic playwright, Caleb Doyle; dense, good-looking Toby from the Midwest. Their paths cross through phone sex, gay strip clubs, and Caleb's neurotic loser of a sister, Jessica, who is Henry's persoal assistant. Jessica longs to be in the theater but has no discernable talent, so she gloms on to her brother and Henry. When I read the chapters that focused on Jessica, I thought, "Wow, Bram must really hate women," because Jessica is a self-absorbed human vortex of need who serves no purpose other than to bring Henry, Toby, a career ruining NY TIMES critc and Caleb together for the big farce-like ending of the book.
Bram mentions some names anybody with a passing knowledge of off-b'way theater would recognize, but this book misses the opportunity to explore the very thing that makes NYC and NYC theater so wonderful: a compelling mix of diverse people of every race, creed, and sexual orientation. Instead, Bram chose to write about a few stereotypical gay white men and call it a day. Tsk.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing effort, from an otherwise wonderful writer.
Review: I'm not quite sure what Christopher Bram was trying to achieve with this novel. Perhaps the story is supposed to be a social comment on the lives of modern theatrical relationships, or perhaps an attempt at a sly comedy of manners in the vain of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series. Either way The Lives of Circus Animals is a pretty lack-luster, uninspiring, and disappointing effort. The plot is thin, the characters are insufferably one dimensional, and Bram's style is shallow and lacks any kind of real literary complexity. While reading this, I couldn't help feeling that most of the situations that the characters find themselves in has all been done before far more effectively by other novelists in recent years. The sex, for all its racy spontaneity, is really quite dull and pedestrian, and the relationships that the characters develop with each other seem strained and unrealistic. The story itself is pretty simplistic: Bram is trying to explore contemporary theatre while spending some time with a handful of men and women in Manhattan. There is Caleb Doyle, a new playwright, whose newest work Chaos Theory has just bombed. His sister Jessie also loved the theatre but she has no outlet, and works for the bombastic, egocentric British stage actor Henry Lewse, who is probably the most interesting character in the entire novel. Henry, although approaching middle age, is extremely modern in his tastes, loving Shakespeare, money, grass and boys. There's also Frank Earp, an ex-actor who courts Jessie, and is directing a troupe of acting students in a homemade play. Among the students is young Toby, a butch, studly boy from the Mid-West who was once Caleb's boyfriend, and who, of course, is in search of love with hot sex included. The problem is that Bram is being perhaps too light-hearted in tone and content, and the result is a rather dreary, monotonous and bland exercise in modern day relationships. I didn't buy for one moment that people involved in theatrical pursuits would actually behave like these characters do. The Lives of Circus Animals does have some witty dialogue, but generally it is a rather tepid and uninspiring read. I usually love Christopher Bram's work, so lets hope he does better next time. If you want to read a witty and lively story about a group of modern day characters' sexual escapades involving modern relationships and gender politics, read Last Summer by Michael Thomas Ford, which I reviewed last year and placed on my ten best books of 2003 list. Michael
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Entertainment
Review: I've read most of Mr. Bram's novels, and I was thoroughly delighted by this one. Likeable characters, a fun plot, beautiful prose, good laughs, and many poignant moments--all in all, a very nice summer read!
Rating:
Summary: Another treat from Christopher Bram
Review: Master storyteller Christopher Bram, auhtor of "Father of Frankenstein" (which was filmed as "Gods and Monsters"), has delivered a wonderful valentine to Broadway with his latest novel "Lives of the Circus Animals."
With wit and keen observations, Bram populates his story with a rich assortment of New York theatre types - a playwright, a famous actor ("the Hamlet of his generation"), a critic, a producer, a number of agents and a myriad of near-do-wells and seekers of fame. What starts as a series of disconnected scenes establishing each character, quickly develops into a densely integrated plot which coalesces into a rousing, swiftly paced comedy of manners. Perhaps Bram's greatest strength as an author is his ability to draw and sustain characters who are three dimensional, who exhibit characteristics both exasperating and endearing, who's misadventures we follow eagerly. "Lives of the Circus Animals" is a feast for lovers of drama and literature.
Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading But Not Bram's Best
Review: Reading a new novel by Christopher Bram is always a pleasant experience; this book is no exception although I don't think this one is his best. Set in present day New York City, the novel is about several characters, both gay and straight and how their lives intertwine because of the theatre. Frank, who now directs amateur/children's productions for fun, is involved with Jessie, who is the personal assistant of Henry Lewse, the "Hamlet of his generation," who now has sold out to New York theatre. He has the hots for Toby, a would-be actor recently arrived from the Midwest, whose best asset is a pretty bottom. He has been thrown overboard recently by Caleb, brother of Jessie and promising playwright who has just been trashed by the Times second string theatre critic Kenneth Prager. Mr. Bram manages to bring all these characters together in a decent finale. As I read this book, I kept thinking that it would make a good comic play. Flush from his recent success of having FATHER OF FRANKENSTEIN made into a major motion picture, perhaps Bram had another movie in mind for this bit of fluff. The most serious mishaps here are living through bad theatre reviews and performing badly in bed-- Mr. Bram seems to want to give the staight and gay characters equal time here-- the last death from AIDS was six years ago so Mr. Bram is squarely in line with his contemporaries here as he depicts life after the awful early years of the AIDS epidemic. Mr. Bram, who has the talent to amuse, is a facile writer whose prose moves effortlessly. My favorite character is the Britisth actor Henry who has such lines as "Toby or not Toby; that is the question." Now is his 50's, Henry has lived long enough to take life pretty much as it comes. After a less than successful sexual foray with the young Toby, he opines that "he should be feeling angry and defeated right now, but he felt fine. Somewhat sad, but not terribly so. He had reached the point in life where even bad sex was good sex." With the exception of an accidental shooting, this is about as serious as Mr. Bram gets.
Rating:
Summary: Tales of the City for Theatre Buffs
Review: The best way I know how to describe this frothy, light comedy is to say it's "Tales of the City" set in the New York theatre scene. The book runs just a little over the course of a week, with the various characters interconnected, and each chapter moving from one to the next. There's Henry, the older English thespian who's in a smash Broadway play, his love denied assistant Jessie, and her playwright brother Caleb, as well as Caleb's shallow lover Toby. For anyone who has spent time in the Manhattan theatre world or follows it closely, you may find this a fun, campy, nearly melodramatic read. It didn't seem like the same author who had written the fantastic "Dr August" and "Father of Frankenstein" since it has none of the depth of either of those books. However taken separately, it's a breezy read that brims with heart as a valentine to the the New York theatre and it's inhabitants.
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