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Cyclorama
The deeply moving, propulsive story of ten teenagers brought together by a high school production of The Diary of Anne Frank that will shape and influence the rest of their lives.
Evanston, Illinois, 1982. A group of students at a magnet high school meet to audition for the spring play. They are eager for the chance to escape their difficult everyday lives. Declan, an experienced senior, is confident he'll get his first-choice role, but when the capricious, charismatic drama director casts Franklin, an unknown underclassman-and the two are seen alone at the director's house-a series of events that will haunt the cast for years begins to unfold.
2016. The actors have moved on with their lives. Some are wildly successful, some never left their hometown, and some just want to be left alone. Everything changes, however, when one former cast member comes forward with an allegation dating back to the time of the play. The consequences of this public revelation will be far-reaching and complex, reverberating through all of their lives in unexpected ways.
Cyclorama is a deeply compelling story of ordinary people that brilliantly cuts to the core of what makes us who we are and how our pasts reverberate into our present and future. With remarkable tenderness and humanity, Langer reveals how the traumas of our youth continue to echo throughout our lives, in our politics, in our careers, and in ourselves.
Evanston, Illinois, 1982. A group of students at a magnet high school meet to audition for the spring play. They are eager for the chance to escape their difficult everyday lives. Declan, an experienced senior, is confident he'll get his first-choice role, but when the capricious, charismatic drama director casts Franklin, an unknown underclassman-and the two are seen alone at the director's house-a series of events that will haunt the cast for years begins to unfold.
2016. The actors have moved on with their lives. Some are wildly successful, some never left their hometown, and some just want to be left alone. Everything changes, however, when one former cast member comes forward with an allegation dating back to the time of the play. The consequences of this public revelation will be far-reaching and complex, reverberating through all of their lives in unexpected ways.
Cyclorama is a deeply compelling story of ordinary people that brilliantly cuts to the core of what makes us who we are and how our pasts reverberate into our present and future. With remarkable tenderness and humanity, Langer reveals how the traumas of our youth continue to echo throughout our lives, in our politics, in our careers, and in ourselves.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published August 2, 2022
55 people are currently reading
3371 people want to read
About the author
Adam Langer
16 books100 followersAdam Langer is am editor, journalist, author, playwright, filmmaker and podcast producer.
He lives in New York City.
He lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
August 8, 2022
I probably should not have requested this one, as it didn't seem to be my kind of thing, but I was swayed by all the five star reviews. After all, who wants to miss out on a great read? Unfortunately, this one is only a so-so read, though the bones of a much better novel are there.
It's 1982, and we meet the cast of characters, most of them actors in the senior play, a cheery, rousing rendition of The Diary of Anne Frank. Hardly the usual high school fare, but the director is anything but usual. An acerbic, unhappy individual, Tyrus Densmore treats his students like his peers, pouring on the risqué remarks, and occasionally going too far with the touching. The kids are a mishmash of high school cliches, boring as hell, and hard to tell apart. Sadly, most of the book is devoted to their lives and antics leading up to The Big Night, and The Bad Thing That Happened.
Cut to 2016. Almost 35 years later, the kids are all grown up, and honestly, a heck of a lot more interesting. AND, it's time for the chickens to come home to roost. While one former student wants to host a party celebrating the career of Densmore, others want everyone to know just what sort of man he really was . . . and they're about to blow up the internet with their confessions.
Though I'm not usually not a fan of flashbacks, I think this story would have been stronger, and much better told if we had met the characters as adults, and gotten to know them a bit before jumping back in time to the "incident." Personally, I would have started the book with the one character exclaiming, "Fuck you, I'm voting for Trump." The present day plot was so much more compelling than the "teenage years."
That's just my thoughts, and my explanation for the lower rating. Obviously, MANY others adored this book.
And . . . in case you thought that Densmore seems a bit overdone, I can personally attest that teachers in the seventies, and early eighties got away with A LOT MORE than they ever would today. I can remember two male teachers standing in the crowded hallway as classes were changing, verbally rating the 12 and 13 year old girls who walked past. Then there was the art teacher who offered to show my friend L. his "one-eyed trouser monster."
He taught there for two decades after I graduated . . .
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the read.
It's 1982, and we meet the cast of characters, most of them actors in the senior play, a cheery, rousing rendition of The Diary of Anne Frank. Hardly the usual high school fare, but the director is anything but usual. An acerbic, unhappy individual, Tyrus Densmore treats his students like his peers, pouring on the risqué remarks, and occasionally going too far with the touching. The kids are a mishmash of high school cliches, boring as hell, and hard to tell apart. Sadly, most of the book is devoted to their lives and antics leading up to The Big Night, and The Bad Thing That Happened.
Cut to 2016. Almost 35 years later, the kids are all grown up, and honestly, a heck of a lot more interesting. AND, it's time for the chickens to come home to roost. While one former student wants to host a party celebrating the career of Densmore, others want everyone to know just what sort of man he really was . . . and they're about to blow up the internet with their confessions.
Though I'm not usually not a fan of flashbacks, I think this story would have been stronger, and much better told if we had met the characters as adults, and gotten to know them a bit before jumping back in time to the "incident." Personally, I would have started the book with the one character exclaiming, "Fuck you, I'm voting for Trump." The present day plot was so much more compelling than the "teenage years."
That's just my thoughts, and my explanation for the lower rating. Obviously, MANY others adored this book.
And . . . in case you thought that Densmore seems a bit overdone, I can personally attest that teachers in the seventies, and early eighties got away with A LOT MORE than they ever would today. I can remember two male teachers standing in the crowded hallway as classes were changing, verbally rating the 12 and 13 year old girls who walked past. Then there was the art teacher who offered to show my friend L. his "one-eyed trouser monster."
He taught there for two decades after I graduated . . .
Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the read.
March 14, 2022
Anne Frank was only 13 years old when she received a red-and-white plaid diary for her birthday but that one book – penned by a young teenager forced into hiding – has changed the way we understand how our stories change us and the world around us.
I was in awe at how seamlessly Adam Langer juxtaposed this quintessential story with that of a group of teenagers who inhabit the characters of the Franks and the Van Daans (the family who sheltered with them) while performing in a high school production. Their gifted but emotionally damaged director possesses a dark side that will set off a chain of events that reverberates decades after their high school years.
How do I love this book? Let me count the ways. For one, the sheer genius of twinning Anne Frank and her fellow inhabitants with the teens opens up new windows into Langer’s characters. As one of those characters eventually says, “I don’t want to pretend that Anne was all that different from the way we were…I want her to have doubts, real doubts—like the ones you have, the ones I had—but by the end, she comes to believe in the people around her and in the power of telling them her story.”
The message is clear: our stories save us during or even after a time when the world destroys us.
In their high school years, these teens – many of whom are wounded themselves – try to understand and shape what their stories will be. Some stories are recontextualized, misunderstood or just plain made up. The stories that are created now will come back to haunt them decades later, when the sanctity of childhood is sullied by the presence of something close to evil.
When speaking of evil, it’s hard to not tie in the Trump years and the damage of another lesser type of monster who has turned truth into lies and lies into truth. The hunting down of immigrants – children, really – echoes to some degree the malignant excesses of the Gestapo in its murder of Anne Frank, who was barely 16 when she died. History repeats. It’s repeating still.
Finally, as a Chicagoan for many decades (prior to a recent relocation to Durham), I cannot even begin to express how much I loved Adam Langer’s sense of place. It gave me enormous pleasure to revisit the neighborhoods, sites, restaurants and so forth that made Chicago such a diverse and fascinating city.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to @Bloomsbury, who granted my request to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review. This review is certainly that.
I was in awe at how seamlessly Adam Langer juxtaposed this quintessential story with that of a group of teenagers who inhabit the characters of the Franks and the Van Daans (the family who sheltered with them) while performing in a high school production. Their gifted but emotionally damaged director possesses a dark side that will set off a chain of events that reverberates decades after their high school years.
How do I love this book? Let me count the ways. For one, the sheer genius of twinning Anne Frank and her fellow inhabitants with the teens opens up new windows into Langer’s characters. As one of those characters eventually says, “I don’t want to pretend that Anne was all that different from the way we were…I want her to have doubts, real doubts—like the ones you have, the ones I had—but by the end, she comes to believe in the people around her and in the power of telling them her story.”
The message is clear: our stories save us during or even after a time when the world destroys us.
In their high school years, these teens – many of whom are wounded themselves – try to understand and shape what their stories will be. Some stories are recontextualized, misunderstood or just plain made up. The stories that are created now will come back to haunt them decades later, when the sanctity of childhood is sullied by the presence of something close to evil.
When speaking of evil, it’s hard to not tie in the Trump years and the damage of another lesser type of monster who has turned truth into lies and lies into truth. The hunting down of immigrants – children, really – echoes to some degree the malignant excesses of the Gestapo in its murder of Anne Frank, who was barely 16 when she died. History repeats. It’s repeating still.
Finally, as a Chicagoan for many decades (prior to a recent relocation to Durham), I cannot even begin to express how much I loved Adam Langer’s sense of place. It gave me enormous pleasure to revisit the neighborhoods, sites, restaurants and so forth that made Chicago such a diverse and fascinating city.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to @Bloomsbury, who granted my request to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review. This review is certainly that.
April 1, 2022
Cyclorama: “a curved curtain or wall used as a background of a stage set to suggest unlimited space.”
The theater reference reflects the setting and plot of two major timelines--the 1980s, and now. In each era, a magnet high school drama teacher, Tyrus Densmore, is central to the story. Densmore is directing a stage version of Anne Frank in the 1980s in his entitled Annex; most of the cast members figure into the current times, also, where Anne Frank is again being directed—this time by one of the earlier cast members. Cyclorama—the theater stage suggesting unlimited space, is meta- inspired 40 years later.
Densmore, now in his 70s, has some history he does not want revealed. In this cloistered space, where Langer does a superb job of creating the insular zone of a theater, drama unfolds, twists inward and outward, cycles around and circles back, from the eighties to now. But even more central than the damaged, disturbing Densmore, are the Franks and the other inhabitants who shared their hidden space for two years before being discovered by the Nazis. And, like a theater, the rules of using the space included silence for the many hours that they could be overheard, the insulation and rules for that space, and, #1—how Anne Frank’s diary propels, even today, the importance of chronicling our stories, and the power those stories have to change the world.
How are the teens in two productions of Anne Frank connected so intensely to one theater director? Well, Densmore has the power to destroy lives. He isn’t Hitler, of course, but he is a deviant force, a charismatic figure that is responsible for generational trauma and the manipulation of many. Densmore brandishes his malevolence on a much smaller scale than Hitler. On the world stage, Hitler had horrifying influence, and for a long time, got away with amoral, murderous deeds. Evil comes in many forms, both small and large, but the stories that live on for eternity can contain the power to heal. Densmore’s fate, as the reader will see, lies in the hands of those that tell their stories. Or does it?
“They were all survivors, weren’t they? Anne Frank said that what had been done couldn’t be undone, but the point was to make sure it never happened again. The poor girl had been wrong, though, hadn’t she? It just kept happening, over and over again.” Can the cycle be broken?
Langer’s nuanced and achingly beautiful novel astonished me at every turn. I have a theater background (amateur, of course) that began in high school, so I was immediately drawn to these searching teens. Growing up (Jewish), The Diary of Anne Frank was one of my all-time favorite books. The desire to persevere, to determine my life and my narrative, to honor survival amid destruction—Anne’s relatable and personal wishes to enjoy love, to see light—is universal, ubiquitous. Langer’s book is also universal, and particular. It’s full of life, light, a shadow of darkness, and courage. CYCLORAMA is something of a masterpiece, and turns confined space into capacious reach. Literary readers will want to grab hold of it as soon as it is released!
A huge thank-you to Bloomsbury for sending me an early galley for review.
The theater reference reflects the setting and plot of two major timelines--the 1980s, and now. In each era, a magnet high school drama teacher, Tyrus Densmore, is central to the story. Densmore is directing a stage version of Anne Frank in the 1980s in his entitled Annex; most of the cast members figure into the current times, also, where Anne Frank is again being directed—this time by one of the earlier cast members. Cyclorama—the theater stage suggesting unlimited space, is meta- inspired 40 years later.
Densmore, now in his 70s, has some history he does not want revealed. In this cloistered space, where Langer does a superb job of creating the insular zone of a theater, drama unfolds, twists inward and outward, cycles around and circles back, from the eighties to now. But even more central than the damaged, disturbing Densmore, are the Franks and the other inhabitants who shared their hidden space for two years before being discovered by the Nazis. And, like a theater, the rules of using the space included silence for the many hours that they could be overheard, the insulation and rules for that space, and, #1—how Anne Frank’s diary propels, even today, the importance of chronicling our stories, and the power those stories have to change the world.
How are the teens in two productions of Anne Frank connected so intensely to one theater director? Well, Densmore has the power to destroy lives. He isn’t Hitler, of course, but he is a deviant force, a charismatic figure that is responsible for generational trauma and the manipulation of many. Densmore brandishes his malevolence on a much smaller scale than Hitler. On the world stage, Hitler had horrifying influence, and for a long time, got away with amoral, murderous deeds. Evil comes in many forms, both small and large, but the stories that live on for eternity can contain the power to heal. Densmore’s fate, as the reader will see, lies in the hands of those that tell their stories. Or does it?
“They were all survivors, weren’t they? Anne Frank said that what had been done couldn’t be undone, but the point was to make sure it never happened again. The poor girl had been wrong, though, hadn’t she? It just kept happening, over and over again.” Can the cycle be broken?
Langer’s nuanced and achingly beautiful novel astonished me at every turn. I have a theater background (amateur, of course) that began in high school, so I was immediately drawn to these searching teens. Growing up (Jewish), The Diary of Anne Frank was one of my all-time favorite books. The desire to persevere, to determine my life and my narrative, to honor survival amid destruction—Anne’s relatable and personal wishes to enjoy love, to see light—is universal, ubiquitous. Langer’s book is also universal, and particular. It’s full of life, light, a shadow of darkness, and courage. CYCLORAMA is something of a masterpiece, and turns confined space into capacious reach. Literary readers will want to grab hold of it as soon as it is released!
A huge thank-you to Bloomsbury for sending me an early galley for review.
August 2, 2022
I found this author’s books ages ago in a public library and positively tore through them. Not a prolific writer, but such a good one. So naturally when I saw his latest come up on Netgalley, I was intrigued…and excited to revisit a past favorite to see how it holds up.
The result is a somewhat mixed bag marred by nostalgia and personal impressions, but then again, that’s any reviews, so then…
Cyclorama is an ambitious, sprawling, competent literary novel that’s easier to appreciate than love. For me appreciation comes from recognizing the complexity of themes, quality of writing, etc. and love comes from personal engagement with the story and its characters. So then, the latter left something to be desired. I didn’t really care for any of the novel’s characters and There. Were. Many. Enough to warrant a personae dramatis.
The basic plot follows a group of teenagers involved in their high school production of a play about Anne Frank under the auspices of a nasty pedo-leaning teacher.
Fast forward forty years to the divisive election year of 2016 and that teacher is turning 77. You, the reader, get to revisit each of the kids now as middle-aged adults to see how their early experiences had echoed and reverberated throughout their life and what sort of people they became.
Langer is a master writer, no question; and his character writing is absolutely first rate, whether you like the characters he is writing or not. The layered complexity and flawed nature of them is laid bare for your perusal and judgement. The nature and nurture collide to create personalities as individual as they are complicated. For that alone, the novel is well worth a read. Is does that thing good/real literature can do splendidly.
Does emotional intelligence on page translate into emotional engagement by the reader? That’s a different and likely highly individualized sort of thing, so user mileage may vary. But this is an undeniably strong book. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
The result is a somewhat mixed bag marred by nostalgia and personal impressions, but then again, that’s any reviews, so then…
Cyclorama is an ambitious, sprawling, competent literary novel that’s easier to appreciate than love. For me appreciation comes from recognizing the complexity of themes, quality of writing, etc. and love comes from personal engagement with the story and its characters. So then, the latter left something to be desired. I didn’t really care for any of the novel’s characters and There. Were. Many. Enough to warrant a personae dramatis.
The basic plot follows a group of teenagers involved in their high school production of a play about Anne Frank under the auspices of a nasty pedo-leaning teacher.
Fast forward forty years to the divisive election year of 2016 and that teacher is turning 77. You, the reader, get to revisit each of the kids now as middle-aged adults to see how their early experiences had echoed and reverberated throughout their life and what sort of people they became.
Langer is a master writer, no question; and his character writing is absolutely first rate, whether you like the characters he is writing or not. The layered complexity and flawed nature of them is laid bare for your perusal and judgement. The nature and nurture collide to create personalities as individual as they are complicated. For that alone, the novel is well worth a read. Is does that thing good/real literature can do splendidly.
Does emotional intelligence on page translate into emotional engagement by the reader? That’s a different and likely highly individualized sort of thing, so user mileage may vary. But this is an undeniably strong book. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
August 26, 2022
I don't like giving bad reviews but there was so much in this book I absolutely couldn't stand. I was initially intrigued by the premise, about a group of high schoolers in the 1980s putting on a school theater production of The Diary of Anne Frank and the reverberating impact of their teacher and experience on their lives, and by the fact I'd seen it on lots of "new and noteworthy" lists. First of all, there are far too many characters to keep track of with similar sounding names - Ray, Trey, Calvin, Declan and a few who decide to change their names halfway through. That was annoying, but worse was that, to me, every character of color was completely stereotyped and the book was full of moments of "white saviour" action. It was one of those books that thinks its being super politically aware, and clearly some people received it like that, but I thought it was overdone and glib. Finally, all these interchangeable characters were equally unlikeable - highly unlikeable - pretty much everyone was awful.
March 10, 2022
My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishers for this Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Adam Langer’s compelling new novel, “Cyclorama”, which will be published in August.
A cyclorama is a 360 degree image designed to provide viewers (in this case readers) the feeling of being right in the midst of the scene. Langer puts the reader in the central position by surrounding us with the greater Chicago setting, and the various characters who were part of a 1982 high school production of “The Diary of Anne Frank”.
I was immediately captivated by these interesting and wide-ranging characters! Langer elicits humor, pathos, mystery, and a heavy dose of “cringe” among these depictions of what would now be considered shockingly inappropriate behavior. The high school director is basically sexually abusing the cast, and as it’s 1982, he’s getting away with it! Yikes!
The 1982 setting was so evocative of that time and place, I would consider this a historical novel as well as a character study of how the unique experiences of each of these characters, has had effects that reverberated through their lives; because the second half of the novel moves us more than thirty years later, Trump has just been elected and the #MeToo movement is going strong. This second section is action-packed and often gripping, and I felt Langer gave us a satisfying, if not always happy, ending.
A cyclorama is a 360 degree image designed to provide viewers (in this case readers) the feeling of being right in the midst of the scene. Langer puts the reader in the central position by surrounding us with the greater Chicago setting, and the various characters who were part of a 1982 high school production of “The Diary of Anne Frank”.
I was immediately captivated by these interesting and wide-ranging characters! Langer elicits humor, pathos, mystery, and a heavy dose of “cringe” among these depictions of what would now be considered shockingly inappropriate behavior. The high school director is basically sexually abusing the cast, and as it’s 1982, he’s getting away with it! Yikes!
The 1982 setting was so evocative of that time and place, I would consider this a historical novel as well as a character study of how the unique experiences of each of these characters, has had effects that reverberated through their lives; because the second half of the novel moves us more than thirty years later, Trump has just been elected and the #MeToo movement is going strong. This second section is action-packed and often gripping, and I felt Langer gave us a satisfying, if not always happy, ending.
August 24, 2022
"In spite of everything I still believe people are really good at heart." -- Anne Frank
Is this the naivete of youth, or a sentiment that bears out accurately? As much as history has repeated itself in the last several years, it's often hard to believe that people are really good at heart. And that question is the central through-line for this astonishingly good read.
The first half of this novel is about a group of high school kids in the early 1980s in Evanston putting on a play about Anne Frank. And then we switch to 34 years later, it's 2016, the Mango Mussolini has just been elected, and we catch up with all these characters again to see how so much of what they experienced in high school informed their adult lives.
This ingenious structure lets Langer explore the idea of history repeating itself, both for all these characters (how did the trauma some of them experience so long ago inform their modern lives? And why are these still important?) and also for the world at large. Langer draws parallels between Anne Frank in 1942 and immigrants in America in 2017 being hunted down and deported. Think just being aware of history means it can't repeat itself? Think again.
But so are people basically good? This novel doesn't give easy answers. But what a fascinating, immensely entertaining, carefully constructed and executed, and inspiring read. This is near the top of my list of favorites of the year. HIGHLY recommended.
Is this the naivete of youth, or a sentiment that bears out accurately? As much as history has repeated itself in the last several years, it's often hard to believe that people are really good at heart. And that question is the central through-line for this astonishingly good read.
The first half of this novel is about a group of high school kids in the early 1980s in Evanston putting on a play about Anne Frank. And then we switch to 34 years later, it's 2016, the Mango Mussolini has just been elected, and we catch up with all these characters again to see how so much of what they experienced in high school informed their adult lives.
This ingenious structure lets Langer explore the idea of history repeating itself, both for all these characters (how did the trauma some of them experience so long ago inform their modern lives? And why are these still important?) and also for the world at large. Langer draws parallels between Anne Frank in 1942 and immigrants in America in 2017 being hunted down and deported. Think just being aware of history means it can't repeat itself? Think again.
But so are people basically good? This novel doesn't give easy answers. But what a fascinating, immensely entertaining, carefully constructed and executed, and inspiring read. This is near the top of my list of favorites of the year. HIGHLY recommended.
September 26, 2023
3.5 stars. I liked the writing style a lot, and the time jump was an interesting way of structuring the story (though I liked the 2016 timeline a bit more). My main issue was that there were just so many characters that you’d go multiple chapters without hearing from most of them. And considering I enjoyed the character driven nature of the book, it just annoyed me a bit to not see what was going on with most of them for a lot of the book. Still, I enjoyed this book and the writing style especially.
August 7, 2022
CYCLORAMA-a curved curtain or wall used as a background of a stage set to suggest unlimited space.
Before beginning CYCLORAMA, I assumed the title had something to do with bicycling, although the blurb was about drama kids putting on the play ANNE FRANK is 1982, the year I graduated from high school like most of the book’s characters.
Told from the third person points of view of the ten student actors and their sexually sadistic director CYCLORAMIC is set in two acts, 1982 and 2016. I enjoyed how Adam Langer set his latest work of literary fiction, with each POV and the character he or she played in each time period.
All of the characters were complex and flawed, a few having no redeeming qualities I could see. At times I forgot whose section I was listening to on the audiobook and often sections were so bogged down with extraneous details I felt bored. But, that is literary fiction and typical of the genre I rarely read, from my point of view, and a lot of people are drawn to lit fic because of the detail.
Plot was the strongest aspect of CYCLORAMA. I love/hate the story of Anne Frank, it’s unfortunate perpetual relevance and always hope for a different ending, though I know all but Otto die in the camps. When the play is updated in 2016, I found myself cringing while also understanding the very real analogies to the Trump era. Hamilton’s wonderful multicultural retelling by genius Lin Manual Miranda doesn’t translate to a modern Anne Frank in the same way I wouldn’t want to see the miniseries Roots retold using modern examples of unfairness. Yes, not all slaves were African but the story of of American slavery needs to be told from that perspective just as not all holocaust victims were Jewish but the overwhelming predominance makes that narrative necessary with footnotes.
As much as I enjoyed CYCLORAMA, I didn’t feel particularly attached to any of the characters. I supposed I related most to Franklin, who played Peter and Carrie, who played Anne most.
CYCLORAMA is a story I might revisit for a better understanding of the characters and their individual arcs.
The narrator was spectacular except for the female dialogue. His creepy voice was particularly spot on for the director.
Before beginning CYCLORAMA, I assumed the title had something to do with bicycling, although the blurb was about drama kids putting on the play ANNE FRANK is 1982, the year I graduated from high school like most of the book’s characters.
Told from the third person points of view of the ten student actors and their sexually sadistic director CYCLORAMIC is set in two acts, 1982 and 2016. I enjoyed how Adam Langer set his latest work of literary fiction, with each POV and the character he or she played in each time period.
All of the characters were complex and flawed, a few having no redeeming qualities I could see. At times I forgot whose section I was listening to on the audiobook and often sections were so bogged down with extraneous details I felt bored. But, that is literary fiction and typical of the genre I rarely read, from my point of view, and a lot of people are drawn to lit fic because of the detail.
Plot was the strongest aspect of CYCLORAMA. I love/hate the story of Anne Frank, it’s unfortunate perpetual relevance and always hope for a different ending, though I know all but Otto die in the camps. When the play is updated in 2016, I found myself cringing while also understanding the very real analogies to the Trump era. Hamilton’s wonderful multicultural retelling by genius Lin Manual Miranda doesn’t translate to a modern Anne Frank in the same way I wouldn’t want to see the miniseries Roots retold using modern examples of unfairness. Yes, not all slaves were African but the story of of American slavery needs to be told from that perspective just as not all holocaust victims were Jewish but the overwhelming predominance makes that narrative necessary with footnotes.
As much as I enjoyed CYCLORAMA, I didn’t feel particularly attached to any of the characters. I supposed I related most to Franklin, who played Peter and Carrie, who played Anne most.
CYCLORAMA is a story I might revisit for a better understanding of the characters and their individual arcs.
The narrator was spectacular except for the female dialogue. His creepy voice was particularly spot on for the director.
Read
April 12, 2023As with so many books I've read lately, it felt like it took me forever to get through the first fifty pages, I considered abandoning it multiple times, but I persevered and really liked it after all.
I think it's about coming of age, the power of art, and whether or how things from our pasts shape us years later.
The parallels between the rise of the Nazis during WWII and the 2016 election were really depressing to read, and frankly, reading it in Florida in early 2023 is difficult.
I think it's about coming of age, the power of art, and whether or how things from our pasts shape us years later.
The parallels between the rise of the Nazis during WWII and the 2016 election were really depressing to read, and frankly, reading it in Florida in early 2023 is difficult.
February 25, 2024
Incredible treatise on the power of stories. Interesting characters, great format, highly theatrical and relatable. Thoroughly enjoyed this one.
August 2, 2022
I was hesitant to review Adam Langer’s newest novel, “Cyclorama” because I received a readers copy of the book a few months before it was published. I thought it was so good - a worthy successor to Langer’s previous novels - particularly those set in Chicago, like “Crossing California” and “The Washington Story”, that had trouble putting my thoughts together. So, ok, we’ll try here, and now.
Langer’s fiction tend not to have much in the way of plots. Instead, they are character driven, rather than plot driven. And what characters Langer gives his readers. His books are usually set in 70s and 80’s and so are his characters. The characters are “real” people, with all the interesting stories and quirks of people living in the place, in the times.
“Cyclorama” has a bit more of a plot than his others. A group of theater students at a private school in the far north area of Chicago, which draws students from Evanston, too, are putting on a production of Anne Frank’ Diary, in the 1980s. The kids, who are mostly seniors and therefore in their
I’ll write more later.
Langer’s fiction tend not to have much in the way of plots. Instead, they are character driven, rather than plot driven. And what characters Langer gives his readers. His books are usually set in 70s and 80’s and so are his characters. The characters are “real” people, with all the interesting stories and quirks of people living in the place, in the times.
“Cyclorama” has a bit more of a plot than his others. A group of theater students at a private school in the far north area of Chicago, which draws students from Evanston, too, are putting on a production of Anne Frank’ Diary, in the 1980s. The kids, who are mostly seniors and therefore in their
I’ll write more later.
January 4, 2023
The first half takes place in 1982, when a group of students at a suburban Illinois high school put on a play based on Anne Frank's diary. The teenagers are all in various ways manipulated by the theater teacher, Tyrus Densmore, who is one of those "cool" teachers that many of us grow up to recognize as actually very messed up and not "cool" at all. The second half of the book is set some 30 years later as the #Metoo movement and the internet will collide to bring the events of 1982 to the attention of a much wider and less forgiving audience.
I didn’t realize this is the same author who wrote The Salinger Contract, which I pretty much hated. The first half of the book is stronger than the second, IMO. I can see the connection to Trust Exercise by Susan Choi, which I appreciated more because it literally is also a trust exercise and I like it when books make me work like that. In Cyclorama
I didn’t realize this is the same author who wrote The Salinger Contract, which I pretty much hated. The first half of the book is stronger than the second, IMO. I can see the connection to Trust Exercise by Susan Choi, which I appreciated more because it literally is also a trust exercise and I like it when books make me work like that. In Cyclorama
May 26, 2022
My thanks to Goodreads for allowing me the oppotunity to read this book. With its title, I couldn't imagine what I'd find when I read it.
I found a very interesting book that went from 1982 to 30 years later, depicting how 10 teenagers in Evanston, Illinois were in a high school production of The Diary of Anne Frank and how that transposed to 30 years later being an influence in the lives of those teenagers. The earlier traumas most young people experience are not forgotten all those years later.
I especially enjoyed remembering the Evanston, Illinois area back in the 1980's because I did spend time there.
A really good read.
I found a very interesting book that went from 1982 to 30 years later, depicting how 10 teenagers in Evanston, Illinois were in a high school production of The Diary of Anne Frank and how that transposed to 30 years later being an influence in the lives of those teenagers. The earlier traumas most young people experience are not forgotten all those years later.
I especially enjoyed remembering the Evanston, Illinois area back in the 1980's because I did spend time there.
A really good read.
July 28, 2024
Listened to this on Audible
I think I picked this up because it was set in the Chicago area. I didn’t find myself really liking any of the characters. Also, I think I listened to it in too small chunks because I lost track of who was who a few times
Skip this one peeps
I think I picked this up because it was set in the Chicago area. I didn’t find myself really liking any of the characters. Also, I think I listened to it in too small chunks because I lost track of who was who a few times
Skip this one peeps
August 10, 2022
4.25 A high school spring production of the diary of Anne Frank provides the springboard that changes the life trajectory of all of the novel’s characters.
July 26, 2022
I won a free copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
I’m sorry, but I just didn’t like this book. Very few of the characters are like-able. Most of their actions are appalling. Do any of them really grow or become better people in 35 years? As a teacher, I would hope people like Densmore don’t really exist. I also hope students aren’t as into drugs as they are here. It has a similar feel to Trust Exercise, which I also didn’t really like.
I’m sorry, but I just didn’t like this book. Very few of the characters are like-able. Most of their actions are appalling. Do any of them really grow or become better people in 35 years? As a teacher, I would hope people like Densmore don’t really exist. I also hope students aren’t as into drugs as they are here. It has a similar feel to Trust Exercise, which I also didn’t really like.
August 6, 2022
Oh my god.
From bringing back old theatre kid memories to gutting me about the state of the world- this book is gorgeous.
FWIW- if you’re not a geriatric theatre kid or adjacent, it might not hit you in the same way, but I absolutely loved it.
From bringing back old theatre kid memories to gutting me about the state of the world- this book is gorgeous.
FWIW- if you’re not a geriatric theatre kid or adjacent, it might not hit you in the same way, but I absolutely loved it.
May 17, 2023
I didn’t think I’d like this book. I cannot over emphasize how much I actually did. It was actually not much about liking it, although I did, as it was a feeling I got from it. I got so connected to the story and the characters, I didn’t want it to end. Perhaps it was my personal connection to the era of the book and my being about the same age as the characters were in the 80’s and now in present day. It could have also been my connection to growing up in the area where the story takes place. But it was most certainly how the story line was so multi-layered, multi-faceted, and 3D, it was impossible not to feel something. And how it relates to one of the most powerful historical stories of our time, Anne Frank, and what our current climate is, politically, socially, economically, and environmentally. I look forward to reading more of Adam Langer’s novels.
July 5, 2022
I have read Adam Langer's other books most notably "Crossing California" and " The Washington Story" and have really enjoyed them not only because he effectively and movingly captures growing up, he also places these books in neighborhoods I am familiar with. Cyclorama pulls you in because you are brought back to high school and specifically for the staging of Anne Frank. Langer effectively weaves in all of the high school dynamics of popularity, outsiders, alcohol, a predatory teacher and pulls this all forward into present day as we see these "kids" navigate adulthood. The one challenge I had reading this is there are 10 teens introduced and because I did not read it in one sitting (more like over a week), I sometimes had to refer back to remind myself which "kid" we were talking about in terms of their backstory. But this is just a minor issue because this is so beautifully written and made me reflect -- what role do we each play to stand up to hate/violence? What risks are we willing to take to speak the truth? Langer's use of Anne Frank and then the restaging of it present-day helps us hold up a mirror to ourselves and examine the actions and motivations of the characters. The ending gave me hope - which I really needed right now. I highly recommend this book.
August 30, 2024
Adam Langer has captured the abuses that arise when teachers are given too much power over their students. The setting of this book is Evanston, Illinois, the first suburb along the North Shore of Chicago in the late 1970s, early 1980s. The 1970s were a period of freer teacher-student relations, experiential education, and hands-off parenting -- many of which were a blessing, except for when the wrong adults abused that freedom by preying on their students.
The story in Cyclorama revolves around teen cast members in a senior production of "Anne Frank" in Act I, 1982, then picks up with them as young adults in Act II, between the years 2016 up to the present. The chapter titles are the character names played by each character, which I found hard to follow as I more easily identified with the character's real names: Declan, Franklin, Fiona, Ray, Eileen, and Amanda.
There is a very dramatic divide between the rich and poor in Cyclorama that I found true to life. Many of the primary characters in the novel are struggling through their tender, teen years, and their heightened concerns seem credible. However, the adult lives of these same characters in Act II felt overwrought and sensationalized.
The antagonist, Mr. Densmore, is based on a read teacher who taught drama, stage craft, and directing at Evanston Township High School. In Handler's book, he has created a fictive private school, North Shore Magnet High School, where students are challenged, cajoled, coerced, and manipulated while producing high-production plays in The Annex theater where Mr. Densmore reigns. I was never a victim to this teacher/director, (Because I'm female.) though I knew many male students who were. It is highly unlikely that a teacher with his predilections -- swearing, flirting with males, and intimidating students -- would be able to keep his job in today's school climates. Yet, despite his odd ways and outsized ego, he was a gifted teacher, director, producer, and stage manager who launched the careers of many aspiring actors, musicians, directors, stage crew specialists and screen writers.
The story in Cyclorama revolves around teen cast members in a senior production of "Anne Frank" in Act I, 1982, then picks up with them as young adults in Act II, between the years 2016 up to the present. The chapter titles are the character names played by each character, which I found hard to follow as I more easily identified with the character's real names: Declan, Franklin, Fiona, Ray, Eileen, and Amanda.
There is a very dramatic divide between the rich and poor in Cyclorama that I found true to life. Many of the primary characters in the novel are struggling through their tender, teen years, and their heightened concerns seem credible. However, the adult lives of these same characters in Act II felt overwrought and sensationalized.
The antagonist, Mr. Densmore, is based on a read teacher who taught drama, stage craft, and directing at Evanston Township High School. In Handler's book, he has created a fictive private school, North Shore Magnet High School, where students are challenged, cajoled, coerced, and manipulated while producing high-production plays in The Annex theater where Mr. Densmore reigns. I was never a victim to this teacher/director, (Because I'm female.) though I knew many male students who were. It is highly unlikely that a teacher with his predilections -- swearing, flirting with males, and intimidating students -- would be able to keep his job in today's school climates. Yet, despite his odd ways and outsized ego, he was a gifted teacher, director, producer, and stage manager who launched the careers of many aspiring actors, musicians, directors, stage crew specialists and screen writers.
October 5, 2022
3.5 stars.
Entertaining, but the novel seemed to lose its way in the second half. Switching between a 1980s school production of Anne Frank and a 2017 cast reunion (of sorts), Cyclorama serves the dual purpose of troubled bildungsroman and topical social commentary. I enjoyed the first half - I had a better sense of the characters (we follow each in limited third-person narration based on their role in the production), their individual struggles, and the control that their domineering teacher and director has over them. Fast-forward thirty years to Trumpism, immigration policy, click-bait journalism, social media influencing and doxxing, and the tumultuous events surrounding the play's original staging - both petty jealousies and outright abuse - assume a completely different context. It's a clever structure Langer employs, raising both awareness and concern, but as the characters' lives become more complex in adulthood, I found it hard to follow, or maybe I was just unsatisfied with the number of characters I was required to follow. That's where I saw an imbalance. A prominent character in the first part whose story held promise became rather minor in the denouement; a character's diehard conservative conversion was given too much space relative to her actual role in the plot. The final third just meandered, could have gone any which way, I felt, which was underwhelming. I did enjoy Langer's trope of Anne's diary maxim: "In spite of everything, I still think that people are really good at heart." Can we still be in this day and age? That's Langer's ultimate question. I just wish he would have taken a less circuitous route to find it.
Entertaining, but the novel seemed to lose its way in the second half. Switching between a 1980s school production of Anne Frank and a 2017 cast reunion (of sorts), Cyclorama serves the dual purpose of troubled bildungsroman and topical social commentary. I enjoyed the first half - I had a better sense of the characters (we follow each in limited third-person narration based on their role in the production), their individual struggles, and the control that their domineering teacher and director has over them. Fast-forward thirty years to Trumpism, immigration policy, click-bait journalism, social media influencing and doxxing, and the tumultuous events surrounding the play's original staging - both petty jealousies and outright abuse - assume a completely different context. It's a clever structure Langer employs, raising both awareness and concern, but as the characters' lives become more complex in adulthood, I found it hard to follow, or maybe I was just unsatisfied with the number of characters I was required to follow. That's where I saw an imbalance. A prominent character in the first part whose story held promise became rather minor in the denouement; a character's diehard conservative conversion was given too much space relative to her actual role in the plot. The final third just meandered, could have gone any which way, I felt, which was underwhelming. I did enjoy Langer's trope of Anne's diary maxim: "In spite of everything, I still think that people are really good at heart." Can we still be in this day and age? That's Langer's ultimate question. I just wish he would have taken a less circuitous route to find it.
March 15, 2022
A 1982 stage production of The Diary of Anne Frank forms the backdrop for one of 2022’s best novels, a wry, character-rich study of the complex power dynamics inherent in teacher-student relationships, and the consequential reframing of past actions within our contemporary social context. Every one of the teen cast members revolving in the orbit of their colorful drama instructor, the eccentric Tyrus Densmore, is so fully realized and memorable that one can’t help but connect with them through their early juvenile struggles, and then sympathize when we check in with them in their later adult years, wiser yet infinitely wearier. Adam Langer delivers a thoughtful, heartfelt and humor-filled novel about authority, gaslighting, and the complex, often inadequate, nature of deferred justice. A rare 5 star review from me.
August 3, 2022
This is a story about how a single, seemingly small event can change the course or so many lives. In 1982, a group of students at a magnet school in Evanston, outside of Chicago, stage a production of The Diary of Anne Frank. The school’s theater director has long been suspected of being a questionable character, but rules the theater program with an iron fist. When he rejects Declan, the experienced senior who assumes he will get his choice of roles, for a starring role in the production, casts Franklin, an underclass man who is not well known by the other theater students, and then Franklin is seen at the director’s home in a potentially compromising position, the lives of the director and all of the students in the production are set on a new trajectory that will alter the courses of their lives.
The second half of the novel jumps to 2016, and we see the surprising adult lives led by each of the student actors and the director — few of which turned out how they expected. As their lives intersect in surprising ways, they grapple with how the play they did as teenagers sheds light on their and the country’s experiences in the modern age, as some of the play’s themes and cautions seem all too applicable.
I’ve enjoyed all of the author’s previous books. His novel Crossing California is one of my all-time favorites, so I was excited to dive into this one. It shared many of the aspects of his precious works — rotating perspectives among different characters and deep insights into interpersonal relationships and human motivations. The latest novel also used several clever and effective devices: First, a two-act structure that highlighted the ways that most of the character’s adult lives departed, in both good and bad ways, depending on the person from the lives they had imagined in high school — and how even the better than expected outcomes often are bittersweet. I particularly appreciated the juxtaposition between the characters who never were able to move past what happened in high school and those who had, to varying degrees of success, left that all behind — reflecting the two paths so many go down. And second, using the play to highlight the parallels between the events portrayed then and events in 2016 — and how the characters reacted to the modern era in ways they may not have predicted when they were playing the various roles in The Diary of Anne Frank.
Highly recommended!
The second half of the novel jumps to 2016, and we see the surprising adult lives led by each of the student actors and the director — few of which turned out how they expected. As their lives intersect in surprising ways, they grapple with how the play they did as teenagers sheds light on their and the country’s experiences in the modern age, as some of the play’s themes and cautions seem all too applicable.
I’ve enjoyed all of the author’s previous books. His novel Crossing California is one of my all-time favorites, so I was excited to dive into this one. It shared many of the aspects of his precious works — rotating perspectives among different characters and deep insights into interpersonal relationships and human motivations. The latest novel also used several clever and effective devices: First, a two-act structure that highlighted the ways that most of the character’s adult lives departed, in both good and bad ways, depending on the person from the lives they had imagined in high school — and how even the better than expected outcomes often are bittersweet. I particularly appreciated the juxtaposition between the characters who never were able to move past what happened in high school and those who had, to varying degrees of success, left that all behind — reflecting the two paths so many go down. And second, using the play to highlight the parallels between the events portrayed then and events in 2016 — and how the characters reacted to the modern era in ways they may not have predicted when they were playing the various roles in The Diary of Anne Frank.
Highly recommended!
August 7, 2022
A group of high school students at a suburban Chicago magnet school are performing The Diary of Anne Frank for their spring play in 1982. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the actors revealing all of their teenage angst and issues and how it related to their role in the play. The book started out a little slow for me because it was hard to keep track of all of the characters and I found the predatory, abusive, and manipulative drama teacher so disturbing. However, when the book shifts to 2016, when all of the characters are now in their 50's, I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. It was fascinating to see how Langer used the story of Anne Frank to magnify cultural, political, and personal conflicts and I cheered when one of the young actors pointed out: "I mean, I get that it's acting . . . But that line - 'In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart'? - how can I say that without sounding, excuse me, without sounding like I'm full of shit?" (p.242). Earlier in the novel another character makes the astute observation: "That was what Anne said before she was taken away, before her mother and sister died. Anne's words weren't the point of the play; Margo's were: 'Sometimes I wish the end would come; then at least we'd know where we were.'" (p.146). And then later comes to the realization that "in spite of everything, she still didn't believe that people were good at heart. But if you were lucky enough to find one or two who were, then you might have a shot, and as long as she lived, she would try her best to be one of them." (p.164) I loved all of the Chicago and 80's references and think this would make for an excellent book club selection.
September 15, 2022
A cyclorama is the backdrop for a live drama production. In the case of this book, it's an Amsterdam background for a 1982 high school production of Diary of Anne Frank. The characters, all of whom have family idiosyncrasies or dysfunctions, are being shaped by their teacher, Tyrus Densmore. And he's something of a monster who has been unchecked his entire career. Booze, sex, drugs. And he requires them to keep character diaries, not just with their thoughts about the character they're portraying, but their private selves and souls. Once each year a very lucky student is chosen by him to travel from their Chicago suburb to New York City to experience Broadway and acquiesce to or fight off Mr. Densmore's sexual advances in the hotel. The personalities and interactions reach a climax when sophisticated Fiona hosts a cast party in her home, and Amanda is drugged senseless and attacked in an upstairs bedroom. We meet them again in 2016, when Frank, now a journalist for an online "newspaper," agrees to publish an expose of Densmore when a couple students finally want to hold him accountable. Only one of his former students has made it big in drama, several have successful lives and a couple have reached their 50s with little accomplishment. The election is coming, and a couple of them are Trumpists looking for jobs in a new administration, and some of them are opposing police terror against refugees. Loves lost, loves found. And there's always Densmore's hoarded stash of character diaries for blackmail. Throughout the book, teenagers and adults reflect on the lives and destiny of Anne Frank and her family, but in the end, it's about love found in their own lives.
October 14, 2022
a little more than a 3ish
so: this is told in two halves. the first takes place in the late 80s as a group of teenagers are performing a high school theater production of Anne Frank. the second, shorter half, takes place in 2020ish, revisiting those same kids.
the first part of this book I genuinely enjoyed. at the center is the lecherous drama teacher and a cast of characters who are quite fun to read about. there is some real darkness in this, and I appreciated how realistic it felt. the second half, however, was a HUGE let down. I'm so so sick of reading books that turn into a political commentary on Donald Trump, with the author's ego at the center. It's an excuse to stick all their own political opinions in, and often comes out as a flat, black and white portrayal with no nuance. this is exactly the case here. It's SO clear who the villains are, and man are they villainy. They have the wrong political opinions of course, and they're rendered in outsized fashion, a cartoonish version of reality. Every single thing was political in the second half. And I do understand what the author was trying to do with the Anne Frank connection, but I was extremely bummed that was the direction in which it went.
so: this is told in two halves. the first takes place in the late 80s as a group of teenagers are performing a high school theater production of Anne Frank. the second, shorter half, takes place in 2020ish, revisiting those same kids.
the first part of this book I genuinely enjoyed. at the center is the lecherous drama teacher and a cast of characters who are quite fun to read about. there is some real darkness in this, and I appreciated how realistic it felt. the second half, however, was a HUGE let down. I'm so so sick of reading books that turn into a political commentary on Donald Trump, with the author's ego at the center. It's an excuse to stick all their own political opinions in, and often comes out as a flat, black and white portrayal with no nuance. this is exactly the case here. It's SO clear who the villains are, and man are they villainy. They have the wrong political opinions of course, and they're rendered in outsized fashion, a cartoonish version of reality. Every single thing was political in the second half. And I do understand what the author was trying to do with the Anne Frank connection, but I was extremely bummed that was the direction in which it went.
November 26, 2022
In Chicago's North Shore suburbs in 1982, a high school production of The Diary of Anne Frank shapes the lives of the students who participate. The first half of the book focuses on the relationships among the students and, especially, their relationship with the production's verbally and sexually abusive director. The second half takes place in 2016 as we see who those students have become as adults. This is pretty familiar terrain, but the author gives it some fresh touches, though it's a little hard to keep track of the characters, and, I must say, I got my fill of the sex, drugs, alcohol, and profanity. My favorite passage in the book comes near the end, when one of the former students is called in to replace the despicable director and decides to stage another production of Anne Frank, but sets it in the present in the context of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. in fear of discovery, yet, as she notes about her vision, “The idea of her Anne Frank was to let the audience and the actors see the Anne in themselves, not the potential Nazi in everyone else” (238-39). A final chapter hammers home the parallel, none too subtly, but then subtlety is not this novel's strong suit generally.
December 15, 2023
Cyclorama by Adam Langer shows, with its rotating backdrop (aka a cyclorama), that as much as things change, so much still stays the same. In 1982, North Shore Magnet, in suburban Chicago, is preparing to put on their spring production of The Diary of Anne Frank. The Annex, where the theater is located, is ruled by Tyrus Densmore, who wields his power with an unshakeable belief in what he does and how he does it. But Tyrus is predatory and inappropriate with his underage charges, but he's gotten away with it for years. Each chapter is told from a character's perspective, adding to the cyclorama structure. In Act I, the plot kicks into gear when a student hatches a plan to catch Tyrus in action, yet that plan has unforeseen consequences for all involved. Act II jumps to 2016 in the wake of Trumps election. The bright-eyed 16- and 17-year-olds we originally met are now in their 50s, less bright-eyed. But that fateful production still haunts them, as does the uncanny parallels between Anne Frank's world with today's, just with a different set of the persecuted. Is it on the nose? Sure, but sometimes on the nose is the most apt, and by connecting the real world with art created from the real world shows the power and connection between it all, how life begets art begets life. It's the cyclorama of life and art, art and life.
September 23, 2025
Being a theatre maker, I bet I like CYCLORAMA more than those readers who have never been in a high school production with a director who enjoys belittling his cast to get results. Or maybe it's universal, if not in theatre, then in other classes. Either way, Adam Langer's CYCLORAMA, while it stretches credulity, is riveting from start to finish. Act I is the high schoolers involved with a senior production of ANNE FRANK, and the chapters are titled by the characters the actors play. Sure, the production is rife with scandal, most of it related to the relationships each has with the director, who by any standards, is impossibly difficult, crossing all kinds of boundaries and, even alone, justifying the ME TOO movement. The incidents surrounding the director ignite ACT II, 40 or more years later, when the cast, now all married, divorced, moved...begin to realize the nightmarish effect the director had on their lives, and seek revenge in 2016, right when the political arena is heating up. It may not be REAL, exactly, but it's thrillingly entertaining, funny, moving, and VERY relatable to those of us who lived and breathed theatre in high school.
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