"The Circus Infinite"

In past chapters of life, Khan Wong has published poetry and played cello in an earnest folk-rock duo. As an internationally known hula hoop teacher and performer, he’s toured with a circus, taught workshops all over the world, and produced circus arts shows in San Francisco. He’s worked in the nonprofit arts for many years, most recently as an arts funder for a public sector grantmaking agency.

Wong applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Circus Infinite, and reported the following:

On page 69 of The Circus Infinite, the protagonist, Jes, is in the middle of getting a make-over by the star juggler, a character named Moxo Thron. Jes has been tapped by the circus manager to attend a meeting with the crime boss that "sponsors" the show, and the manager wants him to look less like a street rat. On this page, Moxo has just finished giving Jes a haircut, and the two enter the room in Moxo's home where he stores old gear and costumes from past productions. They are looking for something presentable for Jes to wear to the meeting.

A reader opening to this page will find a good example of the "peek behind the curtain" aspect of the book, but there is no clue as to the darker themes that come up - the experimentation and the criminal underworld elements and their associated violence. The test works well as a glimpse of the character dynamics and the slice-of-circus-life parts that inspired the writing of the book, but not of the main storyline. In other words, it gives a good sense of milieu and setting, but not plot or theme. How well or poorly this test serves this book is entirely reliant on if the reader in question is a plot-focused reader or a world-focused reader. The test works well for one element and poorly for another.

This scene is also the introduction to a character who will eventually catalyze an important development for our protagonist. I’ll say no more on that.

One of the things I set out to do with this book was to explore the bohemian underbelly of a spacefaring civilization. Away from the political leaders and warriors and starship crews that more typically populate space operas - what are the lives of this universe’s artists like? This page does give a taste of that aspect of the book.

Visit Khan Wong's website.

Q&A with Khan Wong.

--Marshal Zeringue