A Trip to the Light Fantastic: Travels With a Mexican Circus

Rating:
Summary: Grand grand circuses
Review: This book follows an English woman and her husband's year with a Mexican Circus. She talks about the people, the places, and the tragedies with such great love and fondness. It is a great read, and although I felt it was not always well written and prone to the side of sentimentality that occasionally distracts what is of interest to a reader. I also wished she paid more attention to the minor characters in the book, because each and every one of them seemed to have a story to tell, in fact those minor stories seemed to have more changes, tragedies and secrets to reveal. Instead Hickman concentrated on the powerful, the stars, and the family behind the circus.

Criticisms aside it was a wonderful travelogue and fulfilled a lot of my childhood fantasy of running away with the circus. The characters in the book are real, with their flaws and their good sides exposed. The details of how the circus is put together, the hopes and dreams of the people, the feeling of performance are all encompassed. The book does give you a sense of the great dramas, loves, and loyalties that involve a moving, roaming group of people. I know I used a lot of grand words to describe the book, but it is because circuses are a grand endeavor.