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The Final Confession of Mabel Stark

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Robert Hough may be a new voice in fiction, but his storytelling talents are like those of a veteran.
"The Final Confession Of Mabel Stark" tells the tale of a rebel, who finds both her calling, and her salvation in the unorthodoz world of tiger training. Stark was a real-life entertainer, who was a noted act in the Ringing Bros. circus, reaching her peak of popularity in the 20's and early 30's - but the book is an imagined biography, giving the author license to fashion a life as large and colorful as Mabel apparently was.
Told in a breezy style, with great humor and very talented wordplay, the author takes us from Mabel's "traditional" life (nurse, housewife) through mental problems, abusive marriages and dance girl days, until she finds both her calling (as a cat trainer) and the love of her life (a lipstick wearing man named Art Rooney, who is a wonderful character, deserving of his own book). Hough gives Mabel a literary voice that begins as sad, shifting to (extremely) wise-cracking, and finally all-knowing. Her adventures with the circus and her many cats (the best parts of the book involve Mabel's interactions with her many felines over the years, and this interaction propels the story and brings about the shifts in Mabel that prove to be her ultimate triumph), are both hysterical and thought-provoking - much like something Tom Robbins would write.
This book is an unexpected pleasure - I picked it up because of the classic circus design on the cover, because I had never heard of the wirter, or book before (it is a first novel by Hough). I'm glad to welcome him as a new talent, and hope that he has more of this wonderful type of storytwlling within himself.

My name is Virginia Barnes Stonehouse, and I am the daughter of Al G. Barnes, one of the "characters" in this novel. I enjoyed this novel about Mabel Stark, and I know it is mostly fiction, but I would like to address two points relative to two of the not so fictional characters therein. One is a reference to a particular showgirl who visited Al G. Barnes frequently, who I suspect is my mother Jane Hartigan whose relationship and marriage to Al G. Barnes lasted several years, and whom the novel refers to as "vermin." Although I was very young, I well remember living until the age of five on the circus's private railroad car "Canadia." I remember all the people mentioned in the novel, including Mabel Stark and her famous black leopard. I was the one who took the role of "Alice" in the "Alice in Jungleland" spectacular and it was a great success. The second point is that the novel attributes the loss of my father's circus as due to the claims made against him by various women. I do not recall this to be true either. When my parents divorced my father was ordered to pay my mother a monthly sum for alimony and child support, but he rarely paid these sums on time and my mother had to call or go to him to receive what he owed her. After my father sold his circus, he invested the money he received into trying to find oil on his property that had once been the winterquarters of the circus. There was no oil and he was left penniless. After he died my mother claimed the home left on the property, and we lived there for several years until my mother sold it. We never received anything more. Al G. Barnes is still remembered and talked about by many people, including myself, several of his grand children and now his great great grand children. I thought I should make clear that despite how the novel portrays it, my mother was not "vermin" and my father was not a pathetic victim of voracious women.

Mabel Stark a real circus performer known for her famous tiger taming acts from the 1920's is the main character of this fictional memior by Robert Hough. The story begins with the 80 year old Stark telling her life story or confession and it is a thrill for us to read. Mabel has had more action packed into her life than most.
She begins life as Mary Haynie a teenage nurse in a small Kentucky town who ends up in a disasterous marriage and as a result finds herself in a mental institution suffering from a supposed nervous breakdown. When a sympathetic psychiatrist helps her to escape, she finds a job the only place she can, a cheap carnival as a dancing girl. Following another disaster of a marriage she is forced to dance "cooch" and finally gets spotted by Al. G Barnes who runs a somewhat more respectable carnival. It is here that Mabel encounters her beloved tigers and marries for a third time to well know animal trainer Louis Roth. Although the marriage doesn't work out, her career taming tigers is a smash hit. Barnes buys her a tiger cub named Rajah and Mabels life changes. Hough does a fascinating job describing life in the carny and creating the fictional life for all these historically real people. Mabels accounts of raising Rajah and the act she develops and the maulings she survives are nothing short of astonishing. She has a very interesting relationship to the animals.
As Mabel moves through husband number four, she is sought after and hired by the Ringling Bros. circus and becomes a bonafide star. She discovers that fame is not all it's cracked up to be and it is at one of her lowest points that she meets her true love Art, husband number five. It is a very poignant love story that the reader is treated to and you can't help but root for Mabel to be happy after what she has endured. But this story is full of surprises and twists and I was hanging on every word wondering much as Mabel would muse, what life was going to bring her next. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, at 422 pages, it was slow in some parts but overall it was a pleasure to discover Mabel, her world and the unique,quirky characters in her life.

"The Final Confession of Mabel Stark" is a colorful novel about an equally colorful circus performer during the Roaring 20s. It is loosely based on the life of Mabel Stark, the greatest female circus tiger tamer in history. Since little is known about Mabel's actual personal life, author Robert Hough uses his imagination to paint a vivid portrait of a spunky woman, plagued with self doubt and self-destructive tendencies, who has more problems handling men than she does her beloved tigers.

Mabel was orphaned early in life, married young, and was committed to a mental institution when she would not perform her wifely duties. She escaped the institution and joined the circus. She suffered through five unusual marriages and many a serious mauling by her animals. This story is told in flashbacks by the 80-year-old Mabel as she looks back on her life and confesses her guilt over the tragic things she feels responsible for. Be forewarned that Mabel has some quirky sexual escapades with both men and tigers in this story.

This well-researched tale immerses you in circus life in its heyday, when animal acts were much more dangerous and scams much more blatant than in today's circus. You meet carnies, grifters, freaks, cooch dancers, and star performers. You travel circus trains across the country, watch the big top being erected, and then sit under it and watch the show. You learn about the temperament of the big cats and how they are trained. You meet circus owners John and Charles Ringling, as well as Clyde Beatty, and Al G. Barnes. I recommend this book for its realistic circus ambiance. I also enjoyed the interesting voice of Mabel herself, sometimes happy, often sorrowful, always uncertain, as she unburdened her soul. Read the book now, then see the upcoming movie starring Kate Winslet as Mabel.

Eileen Rieback

I was a *huge* fan of Glen David Gold's CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL. In fact, that book ruined my appreciation for most of the last year's fiction. It was a long road back, until now. Hough's great work in this book makes it a *perfect* book to read after suffering Carter withdrawal.

Take the early 1900s in American circuses as the setting, light a spot on a unique female tiger trainer, and prepare to be entertained silly. Hough's writing isn't complex, nor is it necessarily lyrical. What it is, if you must know, is perfectly on spot. He works masterfully with the flavor of the piece. It's like going to a great restaurant versus glitzy. He serves you something you go home talking about.

This is a perfect book to give someone who's looking for something different to read.

I picked up "The Final Confession of Mabel Stark: A Confession" at the airport. I was looking for a little light reading to keep me occupied during a boring flight, but what I discovered was a fascinating read I couldn't put down. This book worked for me on several levels. Being a writer myself, I was charmed and captivated by the unique 'voice' author Robert Hough gives Mabel. The writing is crisp, clear and wonderfully evocative. You don't just see, hear and smell Mabel's life... you feel it. I found the depiction of Mabel to be far more multi-faceted and textured than the typical fictionalized hero. The Mabel of this book is courageous and heroic, yet at the same time she is a deeply, deeply flawed person. Her poor choices and self-destructive tendancies keep her from true happiness throughout her life. Yet the reader still has sympathy for Mabel and finds an inordinate number of reasons to admire her. Mabel is not the typical 'hero' who is so close to perfect that he or she doesn't seem human. The message in this book is that even flawed humans can contribute in lasting ways. Finally, I found this book to be an intriguing insight into a world that no longer exists. The descriptions of circus life in the 20s and 30s illustrate a time before people grew so jaded... when they willingly suspended disbelief and allowed themselves to truly enjoy the magic and illusion of the circus. If you enjoy biographies, historical fiction or have an interest in an insider's view of circus life you will likely enjoy this book.

When I read the enthusiastic review in the San Francisco Chronicle, I rushed to buy this book. I was disappointed on two fronts.

First, the story seems like an odd choice for a "truth-based novel." On one hand, this truth was apparently stranger than fiction, so why did he fictionalize it? At times, I desperately wanted access to "the truth." For instance, I wanted to read Mabel Stark's own account of her quasi-sexual relationship with the tiger -- an account that actually exists -- not the author's speculation about her state of mind. On the other hand, the very idea of Mabel Stark evidently triggered the darker corners of the author's imagination, so why did he limit himself to the plot laid out by the biographical details of her life? At times, it felt like he was hiding some emotional truth that an invented story might have revealed.

Throughout my reading, I often felt frustrated.

My second area of complaint is somewhat superficial, but I think this contributed to my sense that the author's own emotional and psychological perspective intruded upon the writing.

Stark was evidently a woman who had (at best!) ambivalent relationships with men, and one who earned her fame in feats of athleticism and bravery that were amazing in a person of any gender. I was a little disturbed that Hough's fictional Mabel would choose to frame the narrative of her life as a journey that starts with...er...manually servicing a bedridden man, and ends with...er...orally servicing another bedridden man!

I wasn't prepared for the adventure this book took me on. I loved the flavor of the book and despite first thoughts came to love the heroine and sympathize with her. Mabel's circus history was full of fun characters and wonderful moments. I think it's the perfect pick-me-up book for anyone feeling blue. It's like taking a trip to the circus!

I cannot wait for the Kate Winslet movie which is in the process of being made.

The Circus is In Town! A Book Review of The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough, Grove Press Books, 2001, paperback p.430.

This is one of those books that is plastered with quotes like "Great Storytelling!" and "Extravagantly Entertaining!" With its hodge-podge, yellow and red drawings of tigers in a ring with a wavy haired, female tiger-trainer...it was eye-catching enough to give it a chance. I was glad I did. This Final Confession frolics through an eye-opening, e, sometimes shocking, sometimes sad life, a life fully lived.

Through research, writing skill and imaginative recreation of a colorful, explicit, no-holds-bared character, Mr. Hough revives Mabel Stark. He dives to the core of Mabel's being, let's her develop and tell her story as she wants. She meanders back and forth through time, from her childhood to the death of her parents, to various marriages, and to "the circus coming to town". Through the detailed description of animals, landscapes and various characters brought to life through "recollected" dialogue, we traveled back and forth across America and through the first half of the twentieth century.

It is one of those stories I don't want to tell much about, as the unfolding and the surprises, in spite of much foreshadowing, were phenomenal. Mabel, the most famous female tiger-trainer in history, was quite an animal, herself. She experienced life without much pretense, was straight-forward and seemed to embody a tiger's spirit. If a tiger could talk...what would she say? Well, I guess Mabel does tell us that, and much, much more, in her last confession.

Interesting novel, but not a biography, November 22, 2004
Reviewer: Natasha Gerson "Natasha Gerson" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This book is a riveting read, but it's not an autobiography, or faction-type historic novel. It doesn't come even close.
It is pure fiction and doesn't give any real insights into the life of Mabel or her circus counterparts at all, or indeed into general circus life. It might seem wellresearched but in its circus detail leans heavily on books like Fred Bradna's My 40 years under the Bigtop, so those interested in real circus history had better read that. That this one is pure fiction is masked by the pictures of Mabel in the book, and the mentioning of real people, which gives off its biographical air and which causes it to frequently be sold and reviewed as a biography. But it really isn't.
The discription of Mabel's domestic arrangements with the tiger Rajah is no more than absurd. Nobody can share a bed in a Pullman car for years with a full grown Bengal. There are strange conclusions in the book, such as animals that have gone 'rogue' are not in fact killed as ordered but sold off on the cheap within the circus. The question would be, why would they do that? A dead tiger is, and has always been, in it's bits and pieces like skin, claws and teeth, much more valuable than any living tiger, certainly a live one gone vicious out of domesticacy, which is worthless. In the same vein as mrs Barnes saddening remarks on her mother being branded as 'vermin' by the book, the author places Lilian Leitzel at a 1921 Ringlings night out with Mabel remarking upon Leitzels 'insane husband, Alfred Codona'. Leitzel didn't meet Codono until 1926 though, and married him in july 1928. Codona was far from insane till after Leitzels accidental death in 1931, generally known before that as no more than a dedicated, if somewhat arrogant, artist.
The circus life as portrayed in this book comes across as very leasurely to me, everyone seems to have so much time to do all kinds of other things, to go out, even on holiday, skip performances, maintain complicated love lives.
The truth of circus then and now though, is that it is no more than a constant of gruelling hard work that leaves little lifes beside. But thats not so interesting, so the true stories are never told. Mabel, however, a woman working with tigers all her life, and her counterparts, deserve a better way of being remembered than a fictional, in places sordid novel