The Circus In Winter: A Debut Literary Novel of Family, Love, and Small-Town Dreams

by Cathy Day

From 1884 to 1939, the Great Porter Circus makes the unlikely choice to winter in an Indiana town called Lima, a place that feels as classic as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and as wondrous as a first trip to the Big Top. In Lima an elephant can change the course of a man's life-or the manner of his death. Jennie Dixianna entices men with her dazzling Spin of Death and keeps them in line with secrets locked in a cedar box. The lonely wife of the show's manager has each room of her house painted like a sideshow banner, indulging her desperate passion for a young painter. And a former clown seeks consolation from his loveless marriage in his post-circus job at Clown Alley Cleaners.

In her astonishing debut, Cathy Day follows the circus people into their everyday lives, bringing the greatest show on earth to the page.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Historical Fiction, Historical, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2004

About the author

Cathy Day was born and raised in Peru, Indiana, which is best known as a circus town, but is also the birthplace of Cole Porter and the Spanish hot dog. She is the author of two books. Her most recent work is Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love (Free Press, 2008), an immersion memoir about life as a single woman set during the Indianapolis Colts 2006-2007 Super Bowl season. Her first book was The Circus in Winter (Harcourt, 2004), a fictional history of her hometown. She teaches at Ball State University. (Note: she only writes the occasional review on Goodreads. Mostly, she uses Goodreads to keep track of the books she's reading for research and for pure pleasure.)

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked the perfect time of year to finally read this book by Indiana author Cathy Day. "The Circus in Winter" has been on my shelf for years (and I regret to say I've missed opportunities to hear Day read very nearby at least a couple times recently), but at last, I picked this up at just the right time of year -- the cozy months when it's best to curl up with a good book and blanket while the snow flies outside.
Day captures the bleak Indiana wintertime landscape in the in these stories that are at times equally as cold and disheartening as the weather we've been enjoying, but they are so rich and well-articulated, she takes readers on a journey so tactile, it's as though you're walking among the circus people, animal barns and halted railroad cars in north central Indiana as they rest from a regular touring season. The interrelated stories span generations of families who lived in and worked around the fictional Wallace Porter circus in fictional Lima, Indiana. The circus is based on the real Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, which really did winter in the real circus town of Peru, Indiana, where Day is from. Some of the stories are based on her family members' stories of their days of working in the circus.
As each story introduces a new character's point of view, the overall story's dimension deepens, so that the whole book reads like a novel.
Fans of "Water for Elephants" will love this book. Even if the circus or circus life doesn't appeal to you, circus literature will.

[Patricia Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. I am sure this is a very good book. It's just not for me. I wanted to read it from reviews and I wanted to like it but just could not get into it. It's more like non-fiction than fiction and fiction is what I love, especially drama. It seemed to me like too many facts and could not begin to care about the characters. They were interesting and I'm sure it's just me and I would say, don't give up on this book. It's a family story.

[La Tonya Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Porter Circus & Menagerie would winter in Lima, IN every year from 1885 to 1939. In this span of 54 years, the circus flourished despite the outbreak of influenza in the spring of 1901, railroad tragedy of 1903 outside St. Charles where 111 cars are hit from the rear burst into flames 61 men died, flood of 1913, Spanish flu of 1918, and the great depression of the 30's. The stories and life of the circus people will leave you in wonder from start to finish.

How does one get into the circus? How does a person stay? Is there life after the circus? Do the bonds of friendship last a lifetime? What lurks behind the circus smiles portrayed before the crowd? Take the journey with Wallace Porter the owner of the circus that bears his name. You will meet the roustabouts, acrobatics, pinheads, elephant trainers, a human cannon ball, and behind the scenes cast of characters. A good read.

Quotes:

Porter looked at his shoes. "There are women yes. But no ladies."

It's a horrible thing, taking things away from where they belong to put money in a man's pocket.

Daddy wouldn't never tell me what he really thought of Master Grimm, so that's a secret he took to the grave.

NOBODY ASKS YOU where you're from until you leave the place you're from.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be fair, this review must be prefaced by disclosing a personal preference (possibly a passion, certainly a strong like) for all things circus. Ok, not all things circus, certainly not the animal cruelty, but most things circus just seem positively magical to me and sparkle accordingly. So I was predisposed to liking this book and ended up absolutely loving it. Taking the write what you know advice, Cathy Day did just that and created a book inspired by her place of birth, Peru, Indiana or Lima, Indiana (aptly enough) as it is known in the book. A small town whose claim to fame (besides being Cole Porter’s birthplace) is serving as a winter quarters of a traveling circus. Day’s got circus in her veins, her grand or great grandfather operated one, so this book is a sort of mish mash of fictionalized accounts of his show and showmen/women and other real live stars. The book follows their lives and those of their children’s and their children’s children, it’s a multigenerational saga told through interconnected storylines and it works exceptionally well. And no, not just because to me circus is magical, I genuinely enjoyed Day’s narrative style, she’s got a talent for conveying emotional complexities in a deceptively plain language. The book comes across economic and lush at the same time. It’s tragic she hasn’t written more books, but then again if one must have one it book, this is a great one to have. And it’s understandable, because this is such a personal story, there’s even a fictionalized Day in the book, the teacher who leaves Lima only to have fond recollections of it. This book reminded me in a way of Geek Love, if Geek Love was a kinder saner book. And if you don’t at all care about an art form that is circus, you can still appreciate the descriptions of a quintessential American small town (with a twist), lives rendered lovingly and realistically and just a generally well done representation of the era, which is to say it works very well as historical fiction alone…it just has that something extra, the pizzazz of a great show. I absolutely loved this book. And the cleverly interwoven personal and fictional aspects of it added a definitive singular extra element to these stories. For writing and showmanship both this novel gets all the highest compliments and a glowing recommendation. Step right up, an unforgettable visit to Lima, Indiana awaits. Lovely. Awesome. Pure magic.

[Alec Rigdon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Circus In Winter is a thoughtful collection of interwoven stories that come together the more you read. While some of the figures are left as caricatures, a few are fully fleshed out with comic, disturbing, or heartbreaking narrative. The final piece is a beautiful meditation on what it's like to leave the small town you grew up in.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of interconnected short stories, this collection is more about a small town in Indiana than a circus. Yes, at one point in the town's history, the circus did winter there, but that hook is never given the space and room it deserves. Honestly, the premise could have been anything. There’s nothing that makes the circus a necessity, which is a problem when that’s the supposedly unifying element of a short story collection.

As for the stories themselves, they’re not bad. But they aren’t great. I lived in Indiana for a few years, and other than a brief comment about the weather and how utterly depressing winter can be, there’s nothing in the book that captures Indiana’s unique character.

Another problem, for me, was lack of character diversity (by which I mean personality). In the last story, there’s a comment about there being two types of people: those who stay and those who leave. The Circus in Winter is entirely about people who want to leave (and in some cases, do leave). There’s no attempt to get into the mind of someone who wants to stay, which leaves the stories as mostly being about miserable people who want to leave a small town, which once had a circus in it but doesn’t anymore.

It’s not a bad read, but I was looking forward to stories about well, the circus in winter. I’m not a fan of stories centering on dysfunctional small-town American life. People who do enjoy will probably enjoy The Circus in Winter. Fans of books about circuses should stay away. Quasi-recommended.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finally finished it...what a LONG read. This book read like a mishmash of weird nonfiction and not like the fiction it is. I had high hopes for this book but was sadly disappointed. The storyline jumped all over the place which made it difficult to follow. Some of the stories were good or interesting but overall this book is lackluster.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book with little to no expectations. The plot was interesting, sure, but this was more a book I wanted to get through to get to the other side, so I could interview the Ball State group working to turn its themes into a musical.

Talk about a fantastic surprise to have discovered such a gem of short stories. Obviously these are all the more poignant to me since I'm a Hoosier (and Day herself grew up in Peru, Ind., the town not too far away from me that, at the turn of the century, was home to the very circus she based these stories on). What I didn't expect was how great the characters in each story would be — from Jennie Dixianna, the beautiful acrobat whose Spin of Death captivated audiences, to Hans Hofstadter, whose evil treatment of animals he cared for would backfire on him in the worst way, I loved every one of them. Rich, layered characters in stories that all, in some way, interconnected with one another in the crazy web that was circus life.

It's obvious Cathy Day loosely painted herself as one (or more) of these characters, a female protagonist who longs to leave the tiny town she grew up in. But what I loved about her writing is how she didn't leave us with just a snarky/stark-y portrayal of our state. No, she brought the story full circle and it was in the closing chapter, with a passage that contained these lines, where I decided I loved this book:

"It's taken me a long time to figure out one very simple thing: The world is made up of hometowns. It's just as hard to leave a city block in Brooklyn or a suburb of Chicago as it is to leave a small town in Indiana. And just because it was hard to leave Linden Avenue in Flatbush or the Naperville city limits or Lima doesn't mean you can't ever go back."

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most unique books I've read in years. The book is comprised of a collection of stories of several characters, whose stories all intertwine by the end of the book. (With the exception of one story, "The Lone Star Cowboy," which only relates to a story near the beginning of the book.) I am in awe of how Day introduced each character and how each one impacts the lives of all of the others. Each story can easily stand on its own, which is refreshing in its own right.

Overall, the stories are all very sad, very much depicting the realities of life and not those that you read of in other works of fiction. There is no main character, per se, but rather a town (Lima, Indiana) which is the focal point of the book. I am impressed with how Day developed each character's relationship with the town and how that affects each character's outcome.

This truly is a wonderful book that I will recommend to many friends. Bear in mind, though, that this a very emotional read and that picking up this book will not, necessarily, be a walk in the park.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally heard about this book while listen to NPR several years ago. The author read an exerpt from a chapter about a flood hitting Lima, IN. Lima is where the circus stayed in the winter. I was excited to finally find the book and was eager to read the other chapters. Day read a scene in which an elephant was seeking safety along side the house of a circus worker as the water continue to rise. The elephant had stretched its trunk up and into the house in an attempt to continue to breath and anchor itself again the water.

But what started off as the tale of what happens to a circus when not traveling the country, turned into a historical overview of what happened after the circus stopped traveling and how intertwined the lives and legacies of the original circus crew was with Lima. As the story gets further and further away from the original group of characters, I grew tired of trying to figure out how they were all related and traced back to the start of the story.

[Jenny Wegner-Tamo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might say four and a half stars actually. The stories in this book transcend the fantastical setting of circus life and are woven together within universal themes of of humanity. I found myself incredibly moved by each story and additionally relating to them as well. As a person who also ran screaming from my hometown, the last two stories resonated with me especially loudly. It is so difficult to leave one's hometown and even more difficult to ever go back. I feel a connection to mine and at the same time know that I don't fit in there at all, nor would I ever want to. The narrators of these two stories capture these sentiments beautifully.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The author is very creative, imaginative and has provided a well written book. This book helped me to escape to another world and I felt I was in the story with the characters. I loved that the book was a series of different stories. Even though they were different stories they still tied in together under a common theme. Being a native Hoosier I felt I could sympathize with the author regarding the cold, gray dreary winters and flat landscape of Indiana.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautifully written book contains many interwoven stories that all somehow relate to a circus that “wintered” in Lima IN beginning in the late 1800s. While short stories are not my thing, this book weaves them all together so that it’s not really short stories at all, but almost like listening to an elderly relative tell you stories about the past. Highly entertaining.

[Lisa of Hopewell · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Interest

Like many people I’d read Water For Elephants and, back in the day, I’d read a circus book called The Circus at the Edge of the Earth for a lawyer who was involved in a case with an elephant in the book! I read the book and wrote him a precis. I loved The Greatest Showman movie–more circus. I preferred If I Ran the Circus to If I Ran the Zoo as a child. And I’ve even watched the John Wayne epic Circus World.

Then, too, the author was or is a professor at Ball State University (and is or was part of the fabulous Midwest Writer’s Workshop) where nearly all of high school my friends went to college since we lived in the same town (ok, outside the town, but barely). I haunted the library there waiting for Mom to finish work in the library or for my math tutor. It’s where I discovered the Illustrated London News and looked at every single issue of Life magazine and started my royal reading. Finally, I’m pretty sure this was an Amazon First Reads book. Whew! Lots of interest!
The Story

A look from a elephant. A bunch of horses needing shoes. A sick child. A business deal. That’s how it began. This is a collection of stories about the Great Porter Circus whose winter quarters were in Lima, Indiana. We learn how the Circus came to bear the Porter name and the sad story of the owner’s tragic wife. We are told of how many of the performers came to join the circus. The stories detail the horrible racism that landed some of the “performers” in their roles–roles much like people brought to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair “Anthropology Days’ (Yes, that Fair–the one Judy Garland sang about in Meet Me In St Louis). Except these were “Negros” (as was then the term) born in the United States, but paid to pretend to be “savages.” Paid way better than for emptying buckets of “waste matter” on river boats. We learn of the “sideshow freaks”–the lady with 15 fingers and all the rest of that cast of characters.

But wait. This is FICTION. It reads exactly like a nonfiction “biography” of the circus as both a performing troop and as a business. These were real people–right. Nope!
My Thoughts

The premise here was very good–tell about the circus as it was in “real life” and not in the show ring. Let us meet and get to know the people who bring the magic. Except it fell flat for me. It’s hard to put my finger on just why, but I think it had to do with it being fiction. That was a let down.

While the stories were vivid, many were hard to like. The people they described were hard-done-by to be sure. They deserved better lives than they got and that may be why it being fiction fell flat for me. A sort of invented appropriation of misery. Then there were the animals–the elephants and horses and all that had to work and perform. I don’t have a problem with circuses using animals if they are treated humanely. That’s part of the magic of the show. But back in the day of these stories, just like the performers, they were usually pretty miserable. That made for a bleak reading experience.

“Enjoy” would not be the right word for “liking” this book. Saying it was “well done” for the subject matter or a similar phrase would be the thing. It is not “badly done.” It was just flat. I was not surprised that some reviews said “DNF.” It was tempting. But, it was the circus. I had to see the whole show. And, though it fell flat to my ears, she can tell a story. Maybe not in a key that made this story resonate with me. I’d definitely try more of her work.

[Anjanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content warning—Contained a few scenes of short sexual explicitness, but for a book based upon circus and sideshow…it wasn’t too frequent, or the primary focus. Too often I want the creativity and whimsy of a circus setting, and end up with the macabre and grotesque. So really, this book was an acceptable compromise for my boundaries. I really liked the organization: short story format, where (at least) three generations of circus families gradually became interconnected and richly textured. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes humorous-I enjoyed the progression of shared community history and culture down and across family lines; the influence of late 1800s historical events upon early 1900s Indiana; and the economics of small town business fluctuations upon the characters. It was hard to differentiate between fiction and nonfiction, but for me that added to the allure and mystery of the circus subject.

[Andria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for pretty much anything about circuses, so this was an easy win for me. It's a fictionalized series of historical vignettes about different "characters" making up this past circus life and winter town of Lima, Indiana. Funny in parts, emotional in others, with interesting tidbits pulled from real history throughout.

If you like historical fiction and stories without a conventional narrative, you might like this one. It was a nice winter read for me 😊

[Peg (Marianna) DeMott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was halfway into this book before I realized it was more of a collection of short stories than an actual novel. It was probably one of the more depressing books I've ever read. I guess in a way that's understandable. Other books I've read on the circus such as Water for Elephants have highlighted what a tough life circus people actually live. There's a bit of glamour and glory but lots and lots of backbreaking work and deprivation in this way of life. I also had a hard time liking the many of the characters, no make that any of the characters. Other authors I've enjoyed more seem to make a hard life story enjoyable, not this author.
What elevated it to three stars for me was learning about the history of a nearby small town, Peru, Indiana. Day did an excellent job of showing us the ins and outs of this unique Indiana small town. She also revealed the strengths and weaknesses of all such places, but seemed to dwell more on the weaknesses than the strengths. For someone who has spent her whole life living in a variety of small Indiana towns, the wheels of my mind are still turning.

[Bethany Swafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a small town in Indiana, a circus winters every winter from 1884 to 1939. Generations of circus performers live and die in the town and their lives become intertwined.

This book has been on my shelf for a couple years and I finally had time to read it. I can honestly say this book is...odd. I'm think I was expecting more fact mixed with the fiction but short stories that are told out of order to show how they are all connected was not exactly enjoyable.

Although based around circus performers, there is little about what life was like. Set in Indiana, the story doesn't show what the state is like. Yes, it mentions long, gray winters and how depressing it can be, but there is more to Indiana than that. Even if the stories with couples' experiences with sex, this is not written in a way I would enjoy.

I did appreciate the details that were pulled from history: the elephant who killed its handler and the flood that devastated the area. Those stories were told in grim detail that lept from the page for me.

Those looking for a book inspired by real life but not tied to fact might enjoy this one more.

[Didi Delighted · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this I enjoyed, and other sections were a little flat to me. All the female characters are angry or bitter or both, and the only happy couple in this book happens to be the pinhead family. Everybody else is "trapped" in sad, dismal marriages. It gets a bit repetitive. I felt like the author's definition of circus and non circus folk was sort of silly. If you want to stay in one place- fine, but you'll end up bored to tears in a loveless marriage with a person who is as distant as the hills while your children shoot each other in the barn. Your other option is to be a circus wanderer, and be subjected to whoring, thieving, boozing, and death by strange accidents. Take your pick, sugar, cause either way the stories are a little more sad than vibrant. I like bittersweet, but I'd have liked a touch more of the sweet in here. I think the best of the book is the beginning, and the character Jennie Dixianna. After that there's just too many broken dreams and sorry ass relationships. More humor may have helped.

[Kris Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story of a town in Indiana and the circus folk that came to winter there. The book spans 100 years and connects the lives of some of these interesting and well developed characters. The author's final chapter is a wonderful summary. I liked the words "...my mother told me there are basically two kinds of people in the world: town people and circus people. The kind who stay are town people and the kind who leave are circus people." She goes on to say, " At the college where I teach, I am surrounded by circus people...No place is home. Every place is home. Home is our stuff."

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was gorgeous. It's sort of a novel and it reads like fiction, but it feels like non-fiction and is presented as a series of interwoven short stories. This is a multi-generational story of a community of circus people who spend their winter downtown in Lima, Indiana. Each individual story is so captivating that when each one ended I forgot the whole book was not on that one story. Unusual - a clown who runs a cleaners, an elephant trainer drowned during a snowstorm by an elephant - but still real and relatable, this book was really a treat.

[Tia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of related short stories follows the lineage of different circus characters to modern day - from the man who brings in the circus to a distant relative who runs kicking and screaming from her hometown. CIRCUS creates a magic about heritage (through characters, through different families, through stories in the story) that later questions itself and, eventually, asks the reader to consider what magic could be in their own hometown.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gem! I picked this book up at a Little Free Library, knowing nothing about it but liking the cover. I'm so glad I did. It's a collection of interrelated stories about a circus and people of the small town where it winters. It is fiction, but very much based on a real circus. The stories ring true. The writing is interesting: chapters/stories are presented in different styles that set them apart.

Definitely a fun read and I recommend it!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

really magical circus stories. I read this a couple winters ago just after having watched HBO's Carnivale, which is itself an enchanted and twisted tale.

[Marshawc · Rating 5 out of 5]

this collection of related short stories is woven together quite cleverly,
giving the reader a grand feast, one tidbit at a time.

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

It had enchanting prose and took place in Indiana, but there was way too much sex/profanity/violence/etc for me to finish this.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I’d read "The Circus in Winter" when it was winter. Well, winter arrived, and I put it on hold. I was thinking maybe it would be a non-fiction book about what happens with circus animals and performers in the winter. Also, Peru, Indiana, is about an hour from where I lived. It’s home to a circus that many of the town residents take part in.

This book was quite a bit different from what I expected. Author Cathy Day was born a Hoosier, and “The Circus in Winter” is a fictional book made up of ten stories. At first, the stories seem to be unrelated, but as you read on you’ll find that they all have some characters in common. Those characters are mostly involved in the Great Porter Circus, which wintered in Lima, Indiana from 1884-1939. The book really reads like non-fiction, right up to the final chapter which features Day as a character, but in an afterword we learn that basically the whole thing is fictional.

Day writes really beautifully, and many times I thought of similarities to another Hoosier-based book I loved, “A Girl Named Zippy.” The authors are similar in age (and also close to my age). The book is not a love letter to Indiana. Over and over, the state’s winter gloom is referenced: “… the sky was dark all the time, gray and brown, the same as the water that was all around us … Stella told herself that was their problem — another long Indiana winter. Like the sky and snow, people turned gray inside and out … She felt surprised and disappointed, like she did on winter mornings when she woke up sensing snow, anticipating a new, white world, only to rise and find everything just as brown as the day before … My mother once told me that if she had to draw a picture of loneliness and despair, it would be Indiana in winter: a wash of gray, a stand of naked trees, and a line of electric poles disappearing into infinity.”

So, this was not a cheery book. After a few chapters, I considered tossing it back. Who needs this kind of gloom ‘n doom when you’re already enduring an Indiana winter in real life? I thought of my pastor’s late-December sermon where he mentioned a local meteorologist sharing that the past two weeks had seen exactly twice when the sun had shone for any length of time.

But, I stuck it out, and for me, the book kept improving. Day has an ability that I love: she’s able to take little snippets, objects, etc., and mention them, then bring them up again in a later story. Things you notice but don’t think are that important will come up again later and give the book cohesiveness. These are not cheery stories; the people in them have lousy marriages and hard lives. I felt so bad for many of animals. But I loved the way we could follow threads through generations. I have an admiration for people who can “stick it out” throughout the hard situations that life throws at most of us.

“The Circus in Winter” has been one of my favorite reads in quite a while.

“May all your days be circus days” — epitaph of one of the book’s characters, and the last thing the ringmaster said at the end of circus shows.

[Mark Einselen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in high school when this book was first published. I grew up just south of the reservoir that is mentioned in the book. I remember the county historical museum with the elephant skull, the great flood in the early 1900s, the Gypsy wagons. I met a 99 year old elephant trainer. The hippo pool, the monkey cages, the lion ring, the elephant graveyard... these sites were subjects of an internship. I went to youth group with kids who became professional circus performers and were shot out of cannons in shows on the other side of the world. My favorite coffee shop was in a building that had been rampaged by a loose elephant. I was - briefly - in the world's largest amateur circus.

If you're from Peru, IN, (or nearby) none of these things are strange to you. This is the town Cathy Day is from, and it's the town she sets her story. Even though she changes most of the names of people and places, they are familiar.

Everyone knows the showy and public side of a circus, but what about the private lives behind the scenes? The circus in summer is a sensational experience, but what about the circus in winter? This book depicts the lives and loves of various characters during the down time between summer traveling seasons. Rather than detail the true intimate details of real people, Cathy Day instead writes about "types" of people. While this reveals some of the unsavory realities of circus life, Day honors their humanity by respecting their privacy. She paints a colorful silhouette of fanciful events that - anywhere else - would seem too odd to be possible.

Day utilizes a variety of story telling devices to bring a host of tales together. Together, they form a moving ode to peculiar hometowns. Not just Peru (or Lima, Peru's alias), but every small hometown. The conclusion makes you proud to be from somewhere, even if it isn't where you are now.

[Carol D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was a mixture of history and fiction. But leaning more on the history of the winter circus town of Lima, Indiana and the performers who resided there. While each chapter was often told ‘fictionally’ the facts of the story were often true. I especially liked the ‘back lot’ which listed what happened to many of the performers after they retired from the circus they worked in.

[Mich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um. Really not bad. Not raveworthy. If you see it for free give it a go. Weird pacing. Disjointed BuT it did make sense? Sorta
DID like the stories. Maybe a 3.5