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Title: Dark, Forgotten Classic of Americana
Review: Part two of Jim Tully's autobiographical series (after BEGGARS OF LIFE), CIRCUS PARADE is pure pleasure all the way through. Tully's narrative voice is on par with Charles Bukowski's in its accessibility and flow as he describes his experience with a crew of outcasts, outright sociopaths, and tramps in Cameron's Greatest World's Greatest Combined Shows. This is not, however, a lighthearted book. The dark underbelly of America is illuminated sympathetically but with equal measures of grim realism. Homophobia, misogyny, economic exploitation, and racism are ever-present realities for the circus folk as they struggle against each other and against the ignorant small-town rubes who are their hosts. Also, William Gropper's pen-and-ink illustrations are worth getting the book for, just by themselves.Buy a reading copy or a nice collector's edition-- just (please, America) read this book!
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