The aerialist

the long version

"On the edge of the gritty town of Venice, Florida, lie the winterquarters - a circus in repose. One day Gary - who hasn't cared much what sort of job he's had - finds himself signing on as a circus hand.". "Everyone has seen or heard of the wirewalker, the trapeze artist, and the clown, but there are others: the "twenty-four-hour man" who arrives in a town first to post arrows that point the way to the lot; the "bullhands" who remove the elephants' excrement out from under their tumultuous bodies; the "butchers" who distract the audience from the wonders on stage so that they might purchase cotton candy or a plastic ray-gun; the "animal people" who tend to the animals and keep to themselves. Gary becomes instantly familiar with this new life - riding in the circus train from one town to the next in the odd hours of the night. It is a life for which he has abandoned everything and nothing at all."--BOOK JACKET.