Misshapen

Martha Wilson is Canadian correspondent for the Japan Times (Tokyo) and
a Toronto-based freelance editor and writer.

The central character of this circus tale is slip (not Slip), a girl
“discovered as a child in the folds of the big top.” She is raised
by the circus people and taken on a never-ending journey across the
country. This rootless life and the absence of a history work together
to isolate her, even within the structure of the substitute family she
has been given.

Misshapen is a collection of short pieces that follow a number of the
characters with close and careful attention. However self-contained,
these people are also part of the larger world. The Hearst newspapers,
for example, run inflated stories of a “freaks’ revolt” in the
circus.

The author knows how to pile one clever image on top of another so that
the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The circus motif is
explored from every angle. Budde slyly undermines his own clichés, as
in this passage: “It was the habit of the show to portray itself as
harmonious and sedate. Images of the comradery [sic], the troupe spirit,
the close-knit family of freaks was [sic] good for publicity. It was a
crock.”

An economy of phrase is another of Budde’s strengths. “We were
asleep in their stories, they were asleep to dream us,” he writes with
a simplicity that satisfies.