Night After Night

Rating:
Summary: A book about the circus that is also about people and nature
Review: ...To learn more about my work, see website www.naturestudy.org

This is a wonderful book. It is about the circus, but it is more: it is about people and animals, and in this way about people and nature. It shows the circus vividly from the performer's and the audience's points of view. The author persuades us of the long and deep relationship between horses and people, and other circus animals and people, and the profound effects their presence has on us and we on them. "The further we've moved, in this century, away from daily proximity to, and relationship with, real animals, the more we have altered, sanitized, desexualized, and humanized their images, to make them safe company for the young, with whom we seem to think they belong," writes the author. The life of the circus performers – their cares, their professionalism – is a metaphor for our lives. The book has some very quotable phrases, from "Where there's no knowledge, symbolism goes crazy," to, in a conversation with lion experts, "Space is not what matters most to a lion. It's nice, but the most crucial thing is security," to "The circus is the most civilized place I know." This is one of those small, charming books, elegantly written, that one can read in a few hours. If you like, you can read it as a pleasing vicarious visit to the circus on both sides of the curtains. But as you read more carefully, the book becomes a story about us and our lives.

Rating:
Summary: A book about the circus that is also about people and nature
Review: ...To learn more about my work, see website www.naturestudy.org

This is a wonderful book. It is about the circus, but it is more: it is about people and animals, and in this way about people and nature. It shows the circus vividly from the performer's and the audience's points of view. The author persuades us of the long and deep relationship between horses and people, and other circus animals and people, and the profound effects their presence has on us and we on them. "The further we've moved, in this century, away from daily proximity to, and relationship with, real animals, the more we have altered, sanitized, desexualized, and humanized their images, to make them safe company for the young, with whom we seem to think they belong," writes the author. The life of the circus performers – their cares, their professionalism – is a metaphor for our lives. The book has some very quotable phrases, from "Where there's no knowledge, symbolism goes crazy," to, in a conversation with lion experts, "Space is not what matters most to a lion. It's nice, but the most crucial thing is security," to "The circus is the most civilized place I know." This is one of those small, charming books, elegantly written, that one can read in a few hours. If you like, you can read it as a pleasing vicarious visit to the circus on both sides of the curtains. But as you read more carefully, the book becomes a story about us and our lives.