Rating: 
Summary: As Entertaining as the Circus Itself
Review:
Mabel Stark, a real life circus performer, is someone I never would have known about if not for this very amusing novel. In this fictional memoir, Ms. Stark recounts her life story from a rebellious Kentucky teenager through her various marriages and through her rise to superstardom under the big top. A real gender-breaker Ms. Stark becomes the world's first and foremost tiger trainer during the era when the circus was the king of entertainment. Through the colorful narrative of her tumultuous life we also get a glimpse into the universe of the circus and all the eclectic characters (human and otherwise) that dwell in it.
Author Robert Hough does a great job in keeping the action fresh and fast-paced in a writing style that is easy reading and highly entertaining. If you are looking for something different to read, try The Final Confession of Mabel Stark.
Rating: 
Summary: mabel was my kind of gal
Review: I gave this book five stars because I think its an origianl work and since this is huegh's first novel I'm super impressed. This is a fictinoal bio told in the first person. Mabel's expressions and emotions are laid out for the reader in a wonderful style. The story courses back and forth from present day 80 year old mabel to 20 something novice learning the ropes of big cat training. The reader is taken on the road with the circus and mabel and experinces the ups and downs of her affairs and her tiger act. A good portion of the story is spent with Raja mabel's true love a six hundred pound bengal tiger. The story is compelling, at times humorus, and bitter sweet.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked Carter...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful adventure!!
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A very cinematic novel
Review: In enjoyed the world of Mabel Stark! I thought she was such a character! But I had a problem with the occasional clumsy plotting and the ad hoc narrative flow with this book. I thought that Hough's main character was more than interesting, but I just felt that he didn't go far enough with her life. There were great gaps left out, especially in her later life, which I found myself really wanting to know about. She certainly would have had to have been arguably the greatest (certainly the greatest female) tiger trainer of all time. Recounted as Stark is turning 80 in 1968, the faux memoir follows her path to superstardom through the 1910s and '20s as she learns to tame tigers and men, and finally tours with the famous Ringling Brothers Circus. One of the best attributes of this novel is the wonderfully, colourful cover! It's a real swift read, layered with lots of other characters as well, which are all as equally entertaining. And I couldn't help sympathizing with Mabel, particularly her bad luck with men! I think Renee Zellweger would be perfect for a movie version of her life. Michael
Rating:
Summary: A Tiger of a Woman
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: As Entertaining as the Circus Itself
Review: Mabel Stark, a real life circus performer, is someone I never would have known about if not for this very amusing novel. In this fictional memoir, Ms. Stark recounts her life story from a rebellious Kentucky teenager through her various marriages and through her rise to superstardom under the big top. A real gender-breaker Ms. Stark becomes the world's first and foremost tiger trainer during the era when the circus was the king of entertainment. Through the colorful narrative of her tumultuous life we also get a glimpse into the universe of the circus and all the eclectic characters (human and otherwise) that dwell in it. Author Robert Hough does a great job in keeping the action fresh and fast-paced in a writing style that is easy reading and highly entertaining. If you are looking for something different to read, try The Final Confession of Mabel Stark.
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