Talk us through it
Jamie is a Queenslander going through the motions in Brisbane. His share house is a collection of desperate flotsam and jetsam, his job at the Wentworth Club is going no where, and his car is about ready for the scarp heap. There's nothing much happening in Jamie's life till his chance encounter with a clown of all things late one night in the suburbs. A series of escalating events will end up with Jamie running naked from a mall, and directly into the arms of the Pilo Family Circus. He soon learns the normal rules no longer apply in the circus as various fractions try to get the upper hand on each other, including a group of clowns who take great delight in causing mayhem. Jamie is in an alternative reality somewhere between heaven and hell, and finds he has been picked to join the clown troop as the new apprentice. There's more in stock for Jamie however, the Pilo brothers are something to be avoided, and once he puts the face paint on he becomes JJ, a clown with a violent nature who doesn't like Jamie at the best of times. Ready to grab a ticket to the sideshow?
Review"You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it feller, you're joining the circus. Ain't that the best news you ever got?" - Gonko The Pilo Family Circus is Will Elliot's debut novel, and it just happened to win five literary awards, including the inaugural ABC Fiction Award in 2006 and a Ditmar in 2007 for Best Novel. So what's to review? - the novel has been wined and dined already by more august bodies than Scaryminds. Well sorry to take time out of your busy scheduled but here at Sminds we have an obligation to have a look at anything the dark genre may throw up on the fatal shores, regardless of commercial success or award winning prowess. Elliot is an Aussie, the novel is published in Australia, and best of all it's firmly entrenched in the horror genre. Lets see what the Author has going on under the big top. Seems Elliot has decided that King didn't do enough to warn about the dangers of clowns in It so decided to give us a further warning with The Pilo Family Circus. Sure you may think clowns are harmless buffoons, but would you want your daughter to marry one? I think not! Elliot presents a group of clowns that you could well believe might be peering in your bedroom window, at midnight, carrying an axe. First up is Gonko, leader of the troop, and probably about five minutes away from causing major body harm to anyone he takes a dislike to. While trying to protect his team from the dubious attention of either Pilo brother, Gonko also doesn't take kindly to failure or acrobats. Under Gonko's charge are the brothers Goshy and Doopy, and an older slightly less insane individual named Winston. Elliot takes care with his clown characters and gives each a distinct personality. Actually one of the strengths of the novel is the Author's ability to successful draw characters without belabouring points or presenting that real terror in the dark genre, the cardboard cut out. Goshy communicates primarily via a series of sound bites of varying degrees of irritation, and strangely is in love with a pot planet. And by "in love" I really mean the full relationship, marriage, kids, and bonking. It's a strangely disturbing concept that will also have you sniggering away behind your hand. An already absurdist novel takes one step beyond. In contrast Doopy is sort of operating with a full deck in a child like manner, with his dialogue being a highlight of the novel. Elliot takes an almost Stephen King like approach to drawing his minor characters in detail. While Gonko, Goshy, and Doopy present the chaotic side of the equation, Winston stands in for the forces of order in the clown tent. He brings Jamie up to speed on the dangerous of wearing face paint all the time and exactly what their "wages" constitute. In a world of darkness Winston is the torch bearer in the battle for Jamie's soul. Elliot manages to drag us into his fictional world, and you will not be wanting to return from that world till the last page of his debut novel has been read. While it is not exactly apparent on a casual read that this book centers on Jamie and his split personality, this aspect is I believe a central motif and what ever other literary term you can think up. Jamie himself is dragged into the Pilo world through no fault of his own, a chance encounter, an escalating series of events, and can be seen to be the innocent party to all things macabre. When he applies the face paint he becomes JJ, a devious and deceitful clown, who takes great delight in tormenting those in less favourable positions than himself, while fawning and hiding from those in better positions. It's a real split personality situation, and through the second half of the novel is central to the conflict going down. Jamie/JJ becomes the microcosm reflecting the greater conflict between the forces of freedom, seen here as good, and the forces of darkness as encapsulate by the Pilo brothers Kurt and George, and their minions. Sort of like the Liberal party leadership spill that happened yesterday where the forces of evil, as shrouded in Tony Abbot, won out. There are of course a whole host of other characters clambering for attention in Elliot's debut novel, but I simply don't have the room to mention them all. I'll just say that each minor character is distinctively draw and the cannon fodder is thankfully given only enough room as their worth demands. The Pilo Family Circus is pretty much constructed in three blocks, each of which is entirely effective in it's own right, and the sum of which add up to a pretty engrossing read. In the first block we are introduced to Jamie, and the conflict revolves around who exactly the clowns are and what they ultimately want. Both Jamie and his flatmate Steve become victims of the increasingly vicious clowns and are forced to react to a full frontal assault on their lives. The second block revolves around Jamie's adoption into the circus from hell and a gradual exploration of why his current situation has happened. Elliot strongly draws an alternative reality that operates under it's own rules, normality need not apply. The reader learns things about the circus at the same time as Jamie does, which draws you in and is infinitely interesting. A gradual escalation of hostilities between the clowns and the acrobats, in no small measure due to JJ, leads into the final block and the show down between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Though it could be said that what constitutes good and what constitutes evil is a blurred concept in the Pilo Circus universe. Will Elliot's writing style is easy to read and he does drag you into his narrative, which I would guess indicates we aren't getting overly burdened with long rambling descriptive paragraphs. Elliot certainly knows how to pick up the pace during action scenes, and slows the reader down when a major plot point raises itself. Good solid demonstration of the writing craft, with I guess the obvious comparison being to Stephen King. At no stage of The Pilo Family Circus was I taken out of the book by a poorly constructed line or paragraph. While the book certainly has a nasty streak running through it, we are talking sc-evil © clowns here, there's no overt use of gorenography leaping off the page unexpectedly to disturb the more moderate reader. Elliot uses a measured tone in his paragraphs to deliver some chills and spills without diverting to the slaughter house. As the saying goes, The Pilo Family Circus is available from all good book retailers, and no doubt quite a few shady ones as well. I picked up my copy at the Galaxy Bookstore here in Sydney for those interested.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... Outstanding early novel, go on, run away and join the circus today.
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