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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Escape to the circus, April 8, 2004
"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
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
From the daughter of Al G. Barnes, September 25, 2004
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Circus is In Town! A Book Review of The Final Confession, April 12, 2004
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.
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