Books about fairgrounds or circuses (fiction or non-fiction)

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Maybe more one for I Love Books but I thought I'd cast my net a bit wider.

Any suggestions? I've just re-read "Josser" by Nell Stroud and it's piqued my interest in this field.

I've got "Stealing the Show" sitting here unopened, I'm about to start reading it. It looks more like a romance but it's set in the world of fairgrounds so I'm happy.

I loved The Downhill Racer - a really depressing programme screened a few weeks ago about a small travelling fairground family.

This is my New Thing.

(Any interesting fairground/circus experiences etc too, post them here)

― rumpie, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter. Been ages since I've read it, but I remember it being good.

― chap, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes and Death is a Lonely Business

― gabbneb, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

Robertson Davies - World of Wonders, third novel of The Deptford Trilogy.

― Michael White, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

i think i've read 2 whole dean r koontz books in my lifetime and one of them was about circuses. can't remember names though.

oh, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_Eyes

― koogs, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

Geek Love, of course. And Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart, which is really about Lipizzaners and not just the circus, but close enough.

― Laurel, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:49 (nineteen years ago)

Geek Love is the first thing that comes to mind, except I wouldn't actually recommend anyone reading it.

what's that Auster book about learning to fly...?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:52 (nineteen years ago)

Love, War, and Circuses: The Age-Old Relationship Between Elephants and Humans by Eric Scigliano. More about elephants, but some about circuses.

― Jaq, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

Well, no, but it's not a recommendation thread! XP

― Laurel, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

geek love is one of those books that you should lose about 1/3 of the way through.

― lauren, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

hahaha OTM!

Auster book I was thinking of is Mr. Vertigo, altho I think that's more of a travelling sideshow type thing and not necessarily a circus (however its been 15+ years since I read it and my memory is fuzzy)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:09 (nineteen years ago)

there's this canadian book called Ascension by Steven Galloway - about a roma family who move to canada and perform a high-wire act - they travel with a circus for part of the book. i read it a few years ago and enjoyed it. more about it

― rrrobyn, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:14 (nineteen years ago)

Casualty featuring Lil Chris has a circus in it:
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/wedge/comics/2007/02/its-hot-and-tepid-celebrity-comic-strips/

― Pete, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

I met a girl once who insisted that I read a magic realism book about a circus that disappears into thin air or something; somehow the circus killed her father? Or her father WAS the circus? I don't know because I never finished it. It seemed too sad-whimsical and Murakami-ish and killed my burgeoning crush on her. It might float other peoples' boats, though. I just can't remember what it was called. It had a dark-ish blue cover which was a painting of a circus, I think, poss. with harlequins too? And it was in paperback.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

Not book-related, but on a related topic, the national fairground archive at sheffield university has some great pictures & stuff:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/nfa/

― Pashmina, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

Non-fiction(allegedly)

Memoirs of a Sword Swallower - Daniel P. mannix

Fiction

Madball - Fredric Brown
Nightmare Alley - William Lindsay Gresham

Lots of other fine pulp noir stuff, I'm sure.

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:04 (nineteen years ago)

And there's also "The Circus of Dr. Lao" by Charles G. Finney, though I've never actually got round to it.

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:14 (nineteen years ago)

These should keep me going for a while. Cheers chaps.

― rumpie, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

Ooh, is that Nightmare Alley the one the film was based on?

― emil.y, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

Yes and the book is much much much much better.

Carny Kill is also good IIRC and set in a carnival (I think.)

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:22 (nineteen years ago)

oh, and not a book, but a pretty brilliant essay about fairgrounds (illinois state fair), if you like David Foster Wallace, called "Getting away from already pretty much being away from it all" - in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

― rrrobyn, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

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