Roustabout: A Fiction

by Michelle Chalfoun

Book Overview

A strikingly original first novel about a female circus roustabout and her shadowy existence behind the bright lights of the big top, Roustabout marks a debut of uncommon impact that readers will not... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060172975
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

I like Circus Freaks

i like the book a lot. although at times it was a little weird it wasn't slow. we had to pick a book and read it for my modern novel class in high school. my teacher helped me pick out this book. i also liked it because it was realistic to some degree and you didn't have to think too much to get what was trying to be said. another reason that i liked the book was that the characters were well thought out and they seemed like they might people real people that you might run into everyday, if the circus ever came to town. Overall it was a very good book. i would recommend that anyone who likes realistic fiction read this book.

Running away with the circus ain't all it's cracked up to be

Here is a book that turns the child's dream of running away with the circus upside down, giving an account of the harsh life awaiting those who to live the dream which is, in reality, from the author's perspective, closer to a nightmare. The narrator, Matty, a roustabout in a traveling circus, has been subjected to sexual abuse by her stepfather, and has witnessed countless other unkind acts, such as the deserting on the road of employees, and sometimes wives and children. This is a compelling account of the real world of the traveling circus, bared clean of all its apparent glamour and glitter. The book is filled with colorful characters whose hard exteriors match their hard lives, but who are not all so tough underneath. Written by Michelle Chalfoun, who worked as a circus roustabout for three years, this is a novel you won't soon forget.

Let's go to the Circus

I found this book in a bargain book store and picked it up right away. I sat down to read it and was simply amazed. This book is pure genious. For years, we all have seen the cirsus as a place for happy clowns and trapeze artists. It was a place to run away to. Through the eyes of Matty, a circus roustabout, we see that all that glitters is not gold. The circus is a place were dreams are made, but for the workers, it can often be a place of hardship. This is a great book and I wholehearted recommend it.

powerful - infused with strong images-will stay with you

I reviewed this book with my book club - found it so intense - inciteful - I felt I was part of this circus ?family? could see, smell it - wonderful writing - what else is in the works??