Customer Reviews

The Circus in Winter

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Cathy Day's fine debut collection is comprised of varied stories linked through the people, both principals and descendents, of the Great Porter Circus, a show that calls Lima, Indiana home during the off-season. The author begins with "Wallace Porter," a story that tells of how the original tragedy that gave birth to the Great Porter Circus. From there, the stories branch out like a complicated family tree. Many of the characters are haunted by the death of an impressive elephant, Caesar, who was shot to death after killing his owner, as they try to make sense of their individual lives. One of the strongest stories, "The Last Member of the Boela Tribe," reads as a condensed novel by tracing four generations and their connection to the circus and Caesar. The final piece "Circus People", told in the first-person voice of a thirty-something college professor who returns for her grandfather's funeral, pulls all the others together with a sweeping look at the legacy of the defunct circus.

The subtitle of this book, "Fiction", is an apt one since "Stories" doesn't convey the connectedness of these stories. Not a true novel, this book nonetheless ties together themes and events as well as characters. Reading these stories back-to-back is essential to feeling their full emotional power. The truly wonderful part of "The Circus in Winter" is the restraint Day exhibits in what could have been a sensationalist account of the sideshow freaks, clowns, managers, and trainers. Instead, her prose is transparent, without flourish or lyricism, and she steers clear of sentimentality. To add to the strong writing, black-and-white photographs of circus memorabilia and moments introduce each story, adding the feel of a documentary and a sense of nostalgia.

In this first collection, Cathy Day proves herself an adept storyteller. I highly recommend it for readers of contemporary short fiction.

Some fifty years from now, literary critics will judge Cathy Day's debut novel, "The Circus in Winter," as a masterpiece of early twenty-first century American fiction. So that there is no misunderstanding my opinion of "Circus," I believe her writing is exquisite, luminescent and profound. In the same manner that Sherwood Anderson captured the essence of a small Midwest town in "Winesburg, Ohio," Day, with compassion and extraordinary insight, has drawn a portrait of a physical and emotional community in our heartland. Lima, Indiana, the wintering spot for the Great Porter Circus, emerges as a microcosm of the human condition. Through Day's assured and courageous interrelated stories, we learn more than we want, not just about circus life, but the dreams, disappointments and desires that motivate our behaviors.

Psychological tensions abound in this multi-generational novel-in-stories. There is the tension of an America in transition from its agrarian past to its industrial, technological present. There is the tension between men and women, between love and loss, between hopes and despair. There is the tension between illusion and reality. There is even unspoken tension in the names of the characters, particularly the Perdido family, whose Spanish surname signifies being "lost."

One of Day's most significant triumphs is her revisionist interpretation of the ringmaster's oft-repeated benediction: "May all your days be circus days." Said as a blessing, the words often indicate a curse. The author understands the conflicting impulses which draw us to the circus. We wish to be disgusted as much as we wish to be entertained. We hope to be made afraid as much as we want to laugh. We admire the singularity of circus performers but are repelled by their transience, aberrance and recklessness. These contradictory impulses of mirth and menace, of delight and death, of hope and helplessness appear and reappear in the characters whose lives we come to understand in "Circus."

Each story contains its own truth, and every character discovers some essential epiphany. The founder of the circus, Wallace Porter, purchases a floundering circus in 1885 as a result of unbearable loss. Deprived of love, Porter intends to redeem a broken promise made to his terminally-ill young wife. He learns that no endeavor can replace a cavernous hole in the heart. Jennie Dixianna has escaped a brutal childhood and has perfected a "Spin of Death," in which she repeatedly swivels from a hanging rope, leaving her wrist perpetually bloody. She understands men's wants and needs, but is unable to love. Instead, he collects what her lovers have left. In a cedar box is "contained the flotsam of men's pockets, the skeletons that hung like ghosts in their back-hall closets." Her story is a "collage of broken glass from a thousand shattered bottles, and each new shard made her stronger and more beautiful."

Day is unafraid of tackling the circus' perpetuation of racism. Bascomb Bowles emerges as a living symbol of our national need to humiliate African-Americans. His career with the Great Porter Circus ironically begins as an African "pinhead," a perceived promotion from his previous job of cleaning human waste from "honey buckets." Bowles is aware that he is perpetuating a stereotype; yet he brings a quiet dignity to his own struggles for economic and emotional survival. We watch with predictable horror and shame as Bowles' family evolves over the next four generations. The author also shows how one singular event, the death of an elephant trainer, transmutes itself into story and myth over time, affecting the descendants of the deceased and influencing their perceptions of possibility, obligation and purpose. Day compels us to acknowledge that we prefer illusion to truth, interpretation instead of facts, comfort over conscience.

Although "The Circus in Winter" ought be read as written, you could pick any story as a point of origin. Cathy Day's prose is so seamless that each chapter could stand by itself but remains essential to the novel's whole. Her characters, painstakingly drawn and honestly rendered, compel us to examine ourselves, to learn how much we wrestle with the same dilemmas, how much we are circus people. After the greasepaint is removed, after the illusion is replaced by the everyday, after the excitement is tempered by frustration, the characters of the Great Porter Circus must face themselves. When we confront them, we see ourselves.

As a resident of Peru, Indiana, it was a pleasure to read Cathy Day's excellent short stories. I'm a transplant to this small midwestern town with its strange and interconnected history, and all the old stories I have heard about Peru became transformed into lively fiction with just enough truth to make me laugh out loud. My favorite story was "Winnesaw" which was about the 1913 flood, still remembered by many living here. I also loved her ending with circus people and town people juxtaposed. Cathy came to Peru during "Circus Days" to sign and sell her book and it is already sold out. I hope she is writing another set of stories right now!

Welcome to Lima, Indiana: Circus Town U.S.A. Within the pages of Cathy Day's collection of short fiction, centering on the winter home of the fictional Great Porter Circus, you will meet performers, freaks, trainers, managers, roustabouts, gypsies, and townies. Although each of these stories can stand alone, and in fact some of them have been published previously in literary journals, they are best when read together to form an interwoven tapestry that depicts the residents of Lima and how the circus has touched their lives in some way.

Covering the period from the Civil War to the present time, these fascinating tales run the gamut of situations and dilemmas. An animal trainer is killed by one of his mistreated elephants. The daughter of a former clown cannot resist the call of the road even though she is married to a townie. Several generations of descendants of black sideshow performer Boela Man grow away from their circus past but can never leave it completely behind. A flood inundates Lima and claims the lives of a star performer and several circus animals. A tragic accident is prompted by memories of a glamorous circus cowboy. A band of gypsies takes the local campground by storm. Every story is a gem, but in my opinion the most heartfelt is the final story "Circus People," which ties the rest together with a powerful musing on town people, circus people, and the nature of hometowns.

This book contains superbly crafted portraits, touched with humor and tenderness, of a wide array of characters. The tales are set against a backdrop imbued with fascinating lore about the circus. Each story is prefaced with a black-and-white photograph that evokes the mood of the tale that follows. The author, who comes from a circus family herself and who grew up in a circus town, has meticulously researched the history and workings of the American circus and seamlessly merged fact and fiction. Although you will find almost no action taking place under the big top, you will get a realistic behind-the-scenes glimpse into the daily lives of its performers and workers. I strongly recommend this book, and hope that you find it as magical and compelling as I have. May all your days be circus days.

Eileen Rieback

I purchased the book just because the circus topic was unusual enough to provide some interest and it is winter. What I got upon reading it was some of the best writing I have encountered in quite some time. The individual stories are like a collection of jewels, linked by a common setting over a century or more of time. They deserve to be read slowly, repeatedly and savored. Any one of them would be an excellent resource for how to write a interesting short story. The author has lavished care on every paragraph, every incident and character. To the extent there is a common focus, it is on the tragedies and passions that have been buried and forgotten within our selves, our families and our communities, and the stoic lives we lead around and on top of the burial grounds. The circus setting predominates in the early stories, and the stories are full of its color, passion and excitement, and then fades into the backdrop in the later ones.

I loved this book. It's one of those rare books were you enjoy every page, and feel comfortable with, from the begining. I don't usually like collections of stories, because it seems you have to keep track of new characters too often, but Cathy Day, does a great job of her characterizations, so you never feel lost.

THE CIRCUS IN WINTER by Cathy Day purports to be a book of short stories, but it's much more. The stories, told in chronological order, tell of a circus and its performers over several generations, all linked together like charms on a bracelet.

Just as a circus has different acts going on in its rings, the book has various "acts" that interplay with each other, though each can stand on its own. They circle around the center ring of the Great Porter Circus and Menagerie and its owner, Wallace Porter, from 1883 to 1939.

Most of the action takes place in Lima, Ind., where the circus spends the winter. So we see the characters at work and at rest, where the animal trainers, clowns, acrobats or "freaks" get to be just people and show us that we are all "freaks" in one way or another.

I would say these pieces are primarily mini essays on life, character studies with stories wrapped around them. They are strong, moving stories about human need and emotion, though interestingly perhaps the strongest act of emotion is performed by one of the circus animals.

At one point the narrator tells us, "Be warned. This isn't a pretty story." And, indeed, some of these show the worst side of man -- a tale of slavery, another of murder -- and nature -- a devastating blizzard and a horrifying flood that kills most of the animals, leaving their carcasses to be found when the waters recede.

But the book is filled with wit and wisdom, such as these little gems: "The truth ain't nothing but a lie that folks learn to live with" and "I don't think we live just once. We live when things first happen and every time we remember that first time, we live it again."

At times, the writing reminds me of John Irving at his best, with quirky characters and poetic irony: "They cried for a while, then went downstairs to make pancakes." And some of it is just, plain beautiful: "Suddenly, she remembers love; it is a bird inside her heart that flies out the top of her head."

This is a wonderful little book.

There is no hidden agenda in the title "The Circus in Winter". It is what it says it is. This is a book about life when the lights fade down and the tents are rolled up. Cathy Day works off the story of her family and other families (the circus familes that settled in the small mid-western town of Lima, Indiana- the winter headquarters for the Great Porter Circus) and breathes life back into them as she traces their lives from the late 1800's to present day.

The book seems at first to be a collection of short stories, but as we become acquainted with the sons and daughters of the circus we discover that it is really a non-liner novel. It traces the families of several of the circus performers, Ollie the circus clown, his father Hans the elephant tamer, Pearly and Bascomb the Zulu Queen and Boela Man respectively, as well as others. Their stories are no-where near as exciting as the thrills they produced under the big top, some are sad, some tragic, few are surprising. Day writes of life, she's not looking for a big twist or surprise ending, she's just showing us another aspect of the existence we all lead.

I typically read a book a week (more during vacations), and once every year or two a book is so fabulous that I'll sacrifice sleep to finish it. *The Circus in Winter* is that book for this year--I've read it straight through *twice* already. And this despite the fact that each story can stand on its own.

Everything I want in fiction is inside these covers: people I can really care about, involved in romance, heartbreak, and lots of other human situations. Surprises and plot twists that are completely believable. History that's not only well-researched but brought to life, and linked to the present. Old photos. Humor. Mystery. Tragedy and comedy. But please don't expect *The Circus in Winter* to be about the circus. It's about people.

Cathy Day is giving a reading near me this summer--I'm going to go get my copy autographed!

...and it's easy to see that Cathy Day exercised both in the writing of this wonderful collection of related stories. In her notes, she reveals that she began writing these in 1991 -- I'm guessing that it was more or less complete a year or two before publication in 2004, so that works out as around 12 years of composition, preparation and loving polish. The glow of such a method is visible in each and every one of these tales.

Day infuses her characters with that magic we call 'life' -- even the ones (such as Jennie Dixianna) that are a bit 'over the top'. These are circus people, after all -- both in legend and in reality they are larger than life. One of Day's great accomplishments here is achieved through her careful crafting -- beneath the greasepaint and bravado, under the surface of the pain, abuse and depression, lie flesh-and-blood people with talents and faults and loves and heartbreaks and dreams...and nightmares.

Each story in this volume is infinitely believable and intimately touching -- and each one speaks to a different facet of the jewel that is our humantiy. It's a great read, and it makes me hope for more from this talented writer.