Awards
Novel of the Year 2006, 3:AM Magazine
Synopses & Reviews
In this black comedy, the spotlight shines upon those who love it most: the self-obsessed, self-help culture and the media that generates hysteria for the sake of entertainment, bringing the cults of victimhood and celebrity together. Nothing is sacred in the network competitions for the next big hit, and in their treatment of newsworthy events, the line between truth and fiction doesn't matter as much as the almighty dollar. Satire, it has been said, is not possible in America because everything eventually comes true. Tragedy, you might say, is both cheapened and still to come when the media gets involved. The Greatest Show on Earth is a timely commentary about the media frenzy surrounding allegations of sex abuse and the popular mania for Reality TV.
-Kirkus Discoveries Quote
America's cult of psychotherapy combines with its cult of celebrity to create a monster in this amusing.satire. Debut novelist Buck isn't afraid to use a sledgehammer to drive home his satirical points. Does psychotherapy infantilize women? You bet-just look at Meme playing with stuffed animals and wearing a diaper Still, Buck has a vigorous comic imagination and a biting wit, especially when he treats his characters as people instead of cartoon figures. An over-the-top but funny attack on some meaty targets.
Review
Daniel Scottt Buck's The Greatest Show on Earth could easily have been published by Random House or Little Brown or HarperCollins. It is a fully professional, rather polished, thoughtful, well conceived and well executed piece of work...[It] is a hungry tiger, with very sharp claws, immensely powerful jaws, and a nasty temper; make one wrong move and you get your head bitten off. Before long... you begin to see why this book isn't published by Random House, Little Brown, or HarperCollins. It's because it's too brutally, painfully true. Too upsetting, too worrying, too likely to offend too many influential people. Any reasonable book editor, reading this, would have turned pale with horror at the thought of what it might do to her career. Grumpy Old Bookman
Review
"Buck has a vigorous comic imagination and a biting wit..." Kirkus Discoveries
Review
"The novel is comedic, I suppose, but do not underestimate the power of its dark side. And most of all, pay attention; there is a lesson to be learned here that most authors would not take the time (nor have the skill) to deliver. Books like this simply do not get written much anymore (and never published) and it is quite a shame, because upon having finished SHOW, I realized what we are all missing." POD-dy Mouth
Synopsis
In this black comedy, the spotlight shines upon those who love it most: the self-obsessed, self-help culture and the media that generates hysteria for the sake of entertainment, bringing the cults of victimhood and celebrity together. Nothing is sacred in the network competitions for the next big hit, and in their treatment of newsworthy events, the line between truth and fiction doesn't matter as much as the almighty dollar.
Satire, it has been said, is not possible in America because everything eventually comes true. Tragedy, you might say, is both cheapened and still to come when the media gets involved. The Greatest Show on Earth is a timely commentary about the media frenzy surrounding allegations of sex abuse and the popular mania for Reality TV.
About the Author
Daniel Scott Buck works as an investigator at the public defender's office in Portland, Oregon. He studied creative writing with Tom Spanbauer, and he was awarded a scholarship sponsored by Dark Horse Comics to study fiction with Doug Marx at the Mountain Writers Center. He is a graduate of Reed College.