The paperback edition of 1974 received a positive review in The New York Times, which called the book a "classic American joke", comparing it to the likes of Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and H. L.

A circus owned by a Chinese man named Dr. Lao pulls into town one day, carrying legendary creatures from all areas of mythology and legend, among them a sea serpent, Apollonius of Tyana (who tells dark, yet always truthful, fortunes), a medusa, and a satyr.

The book's appendix is a "catalogue" of all the people, places, items, and mythological beings mentioned in the novel, summing up the characters pithily and sardonically, revealing the various fates of the townsfolk, and listing a number of plot holes and unanswered questions not addressed in the narrative.

Randall also plays Medusa; Pan; the Abominable Snowman; Apollonius of Tyana (who serves as the sideshow fortune teller and who is cursed with being unable to shield people from unhappy truths); the magician Merlin (who is so old and fumbling that the obtuse audience does not realize he performs actual miracles, when not performing clumsy sleight of hand); and the faces of a stop-motion serpent that changes its appearance, depending on who looks at it.

In the book the name Lao is evidently pronounced "Low", as the doctor recites a doggerel poem which requires that pronunciation for the sake of rhyme.