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Inside the world of the big top, even after the tents are folded.
By Diana Starr Cooper
Cooper fusses lovingly over a traditional, one-ring circus in New York City, studying the wonder of its smallest moments (aerialists chalking their hands, elephants moving about) as well as the powerful feeling an audience shares with circus performers. Life in their charmed circle gets a close and revealing look.
Circus Queen and Tinker Bell: The Memoir of Tiny Kline
By Tiny Kline and Janet M. Davis
Acrobat Tiny Kline spent most of her life (1891-1964) entertaining somehow, whether in the burlesque house, the traveling circus, or at Disneyland. Her fascinating tale of everyday circus life, including its sexual politics and labor relations, also chronicles the era's cultural transformation. Circus historian Davis annotates extensively throughout.
By Katherine Dunn
Art and Lily decide their traveling carnival needs a little juicing up. So they breed a family of freaks with the help of a few experimental drugs: meet Aqua Boy, the Siamese twins/pianists, an albino hunchback, a telekinetic boy, and a bizarrely twisted, but undeniably American family in DUnn's compelling tale.
By Noel Daniel
It used to be that the circus was America’s biggest show-business industry. There were actual circuses to dream of running away to then -- and railroads for those wannabe daredevils, showgirls, clowns, and roustabouts to ride. Daniel brings back to life a lost moment in American cultural history.
Under the Big Top: A Season with the Circus
By Bruce Feiler
Feiler spends a year living his childhood dream: traveling the small cities of the South and Northeast as a clown with the one-ring Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus. He comes away with a warm, thoughtful recollection of the circus characters who build a community within their gritty, unique world.
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With dates announced for his upcoming Old Ideas concert tour, we celebrate the inimitable Leonard Cohen: bard, survivor, legend. His most recent album is a return to form for the balladeer, exploring signature themes of lust and longing, spirituality and struggle, all overlaid with a droll sense of humor as familiar as Cohen's prophetic voice.
When Jack Luxton hears that his estranged brother has been killed in combat, long-buried memories begin to well up like groundwater, and difficult choices Jack thought he reconciled himself to years ago turn out to be close at hand. Man Booker Prize-winner Graham Swift's novel plumbs timeless themes of regret, renewal, and the bonds of love.
The opening story in Matthew Battles's electric collection, "The Dogs in the Trees", documents the inexplicable appearance of arboreal canines. Further gorgeous fantastika follows, producing a volume sure to draw comparisons to Borges and George Saunders.
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