SOURCE: Malin, Irving. Review of The Barnum Museum, by Steven Millhauser. Review of Contemporary Fiction 10 (summer 1990): 261-62.

In the following review, Malin offers a positive assessment of The Barnum Museum.

Although Millhauser has written four remarkable books, he has not received sustained, profound criticism. His latest collection [The Barnum Museum] of fictions compels me to look once again at his work.

Millhauser is a romantic writer; he refuses to accept the routine structures of daily life. He believes that his fiction offers a way “out of the world.” He offers fictions that are sly, sympathetic, rebellious—these suggest that art can help us reexamine our perceptions and teach us to search for “sublime,” shifting realms. He asserts the importance of illusion, play, ritual; his assertions, however, are never violent. They are, indeed, warm, comfortable and comforting explorations.

Every story in this wonderful collection celebrates the “illusion.” “A Game...