SOURCE: Dirda, Michael. “In Which Wonders Never Cease.” Washington Post Book World (18 June 1990): B1, B10.

In the following review, Dirda maintains that “like many readers, I find Steven Millhauser irresistible, even while recognizing, grudgingly, that for others the stories in The Barnum Museum may possess an artificiality that makes them seem abstract or even lifeless.”

A storyteller's most important gift is an ability to enchant the reader. There are lots of ways of doing this—an exciting plot, a charming style, a distinctive world view—but all of them serve one end: to create “a waking dream” that will keep us turning the pages. A book fails when its spell is broken. Then we find ourselves packing holes in the plot, being irritated by stylistic tics and getting bored with the author's obsessions.

The best writers tread gingerly between enchantment and irritation. They push their techniques to the...