Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

February 9, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I had a dumb moment reading this book where I thought…hmmm, this reminds me of Bahktin’s concept of the carnivalesque. Which is pretty much the same as reading The Trial and thinking Hmmm, how Kafkaesque. The joke here is that this book begins us literally in describing a carnival. The opening of the novel really is this way. It’s like the opening of Carousel, where we’re getting a lot of information, told through multiple forms and voices, bringing us into the story slowly by really […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: William Lindsay Gresham

vel veeter's CBR14 Review No:54 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: William Lindsay Gresham ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Life is a Carnival

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

November 28, 2021 by jeverett15 2 Comments

William Lindsay Gresham explores the effects of greed on the soul through this story of Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, who starts the novel as an ambitious carnival magician and rises to incredible heights before a calamitous fall. Stan’s rise is based on his ability to charm people into giving him what he wants, but eventually his greed surpasses his talent. Starting out at the carnival, Stan discovers that the itinerant showbiz lifestyle agrees with him and he seems to have camaraderie with his fellow carny folk, […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: William Lindsay Gresham

jeverett15's CBR13 Review No:51 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: William Lindsay Gresham ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments


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