Monday, January 10, 2011

A Ticket to the Circus by Norris Church Mailer


This is one to keep your eye out for especially when its in paperback.
From humble beginnings in Arkansas, Norris rises to the lofty positon of Normal Mailers 6th wife and what a glorious ride she takes us on both getting to Norman and after she is married to him and not for one moment does she lose her sense of humour. From highs to lows and back and forth, she never stops and he sure as hell doesn't, there are times in this book when you would like to throttle Norman Mailer other times you wanna hug the little guy.
As well as living her life and managing his, all the kids, ex wives and writing a darn good novel (A Wind Chill Summer) she keeps her humanity in tact and never loses her dignity, even if the Bill Clinton stories are a bit tacky.
Sadly both she and Norman are now dead but both had lives well lived and the cast of characters that dip and dive throughout this book make it well worth reading! If you have never read Norman Mailer try The Executioners Song, one of his best and don't try her second novel, it wasn't anywhere near as good as her first.

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