Circus in Winter

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