American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman
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Book Reviews of American Sideshow
Book Review: A broad overview that could use more depth
Summary: 3 Stars
American Sideshow is an encyclopedic guide to the performers, freaks and attractions that were found in the 10-in-1's and Single-O's that were found besides the circuses and along the fair midways across the nation until political correctness killed the entertainment that came from looking at a deformed person.
Like many encyclopedias, American Sideshow covers a wide range of topics, especially short biographies of hundreds of showmen and women. But also like many encyclopedias, the book lacks real depth. It never really digs into the life of the sideshow performer or even provides much depth about the bios of the attractions it intends to cover. It is simply a series of very brief biographical sketches of various performers interspersed with a sprinkling of general information about sideshows.
And given its structure as an encyclopedia rather than as a continuing narrative, the book really has no flow to it. Instead it jumps from one bio to the next, in no real order except, I suppose, alphabetical. Why not group people in the same shows together? Or group them by act? Or chronologically (done somewhat but not meaningfully in the current text).
The book just leaves the reader wanting more. More depth, more detail and more insight. The author has taken the reader to level 1 but the reader is left craving a trip to level 3 or higher.
If you want an introduction to the subject of sideshows and freaks, this is an OK place to start. Just understand that if the subject interests you at all, you are going to want to go well beyond what is in this text. Therefore I recommend it, but with some reservations.
Book Review: Interesting Subject, Wooden Prose
Summary: 2 Stars
When one reads the thumbnail (few are any more detailed than this) biographies of several fat ladies, a pall of sameness settles over it all. Part of it comes from the subject: fat ladies tend to have very similar situations and experiences, as do dwarves, giants, conjoined twins, etc., and to read of several is inevitably to read pretty much the same story.
This author enhances that experience by writing them mostly in the same words, very often cliched ones at that. His attempts at humor are pretty much at the level of nudge, nudge, wink, wink: if there is any sense of wonder here, it seems to hover around the sex lives of the subjects.
Yes, he is sympathetic to these folks, and few thoughtful people could really argue with the proposition "what else are they going to do for a living?" (I was blown away by the earnings he reports--$100 a week back in the day when $1 could buy 10 pounds of hamburger! It was often a very good living indeed.) Sadly, the sideshow has become passe, and with it a way of life that gave strange people a community--obviously often a rich and supportive one.
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