Bruce Feiler

When I first read this, I congratulated myself on already knowing some stuff, but was surprised at just how much this book still taught me. The author gives a detailed, proud account of his time performing with a big circus as a clown. He intersperses his experiences with the history of circuses in America. The book opens with a circus elephant undergoing surgery. The narrative abruptly switches to the author's circus experience. Switching back and forth between the author's experiences and circus operations and history is constant throughout the book. At times on second read, it's a little annoying. I got why he did it, though. He lovingly describes the animals the circus performs with: their looks, temperaments, trainers. He genuinely believes they like performing.

I've never been to a circus. let alone performed in one, but I've worried about circus animals when they're mentioned, since I was a teen. I'm not a fan of having animals perform for entertainment unless it's a dog show or a youtube video or something. I've watched the documentary "Blackfish" twice. The first time, I had nightmares for a week. The second, I was so freakin' sad and unsettled. I don't blame Dawn Bradchau at all. I blame SeaWorld. Despite my views that training animals to perform for humans is generally bad, an old friend of mine's husband was a circus animal trainer for twenty-five years and enjoyed talking about it, and I enjoyed his stories. He happily showed photos he'd saved. Tigers, lions, and wolves were his specialty. Somewhat meekly, I always inquired about his training methods, and was he ever scared? I'm sure I was far from the only one asking. His face would light up as he spoke with such fondness of these animals. He laughed about how big cats are still cats. They rubbed their faces on him as a sign of affection and sat on things constantly because they could. He wasn't scared exactly, but knew to always be alert. Treat the animals with respect, he insisted. He talked about some of his training methods, and I was surprised at how--humane they were. He stopped training animals in the early 2000s. This book was written in the 90s, so I bet he and the author had similar experiences as far as time periods and the social messages they picked up.

When the author first describes the tigers, he notes that some are tabby type, and describes what that looks like: light brown with blond stripes. I did a google search and describe the color as "it's basically a washed out color with no stripes, and I wonder if the tiger is sick due to it looking so different." As I kept reading, I thought of different circus disasters over time. I couldn't help it. The author discusses them as others matter-of-factly and respectfully. It was interesting reading this again.… (lisätietoja)