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silvia_gio 's review for:
Nightmare Alley
by William Lindsay Gresham
Almost five stars.
This is an ugly tale of greed, unbridled deceit and the basest impulses of the human heart
It tracks the progress of Stan as he grows from a young boy dreams of wealth to a con artist always on the hunt for the ultimate trick. Stan isnt the only trickster, he learns his con from a fortune teller, partners up with a naive young woman, but ultimately is fooled most of all. Recurring themes of freudian analysis, parental trauma, alcoholismand the recurring tarot decks. Stan is haunted by a nightmare, the titular alley. It's the story of a man who is all ego and no heart. You want to feel sorry for him; he had a terrible childhood, but he just plain does not deserve it. He uses and abuses others just as he was used and abused as a child, forcing others to provide him services in exchange for a display of affection. The fall is sudden and swift once you pass the obvious turning point. In rapid succession, he goes from neophyte carny to vaudeville mentalist to highly polished practitioner of the seance racket. Which is to say he convinces the gullible wealthy he can connect them with deceased loved ones. Inevitably, he flies too close to the sun and undergoes a breathtakingly brutal fall from grace.
Along the way, there are carny freaks and geeks and rich men with desperations of thejr own to sate.
Set in the world of the American carnivals it follows the rise and fall of a sideshow magician with an unrelenting bleakness. Gresham creates a world of life on the margins and the people who inhabit it. The life itself is captured with lots of details and characters, described very vividly in every chapter.
The ending comes back around ties the noose around the main characters neck with a surprising con.
Highly recommended to readers not turned off by the dark, depraved, gut wrenchingly cruel side of life.
This is an ugly tale of greed, unbridled deceit and the basest impulses of the human heart
It tracks the progress of Stan as he grows from a young boy dreams of wealth to a con artist always on the hunt for the ultimate trick. Stan isnt the only trickster, he learns his con from a fortune teller, partners up with a naive young woman, but ultimately is fooled most of all. Recurring themes of freudian analysis, parental trauma, alcoholismand the recurring tarot decks. Stan is haunted by a nightmare, the titular alley. It's the story of a man who is all ego and no heart. You want to feel sorry for him; he had a terrible childhood, but he just plain does not deserve it. He uses and abuses others just as he was used and abused as a child, forcing others to provide him services in exchange for a display of affection. The fall is sudden and swift once you pass the obvious turning point. In rapid succession, he goes from neophyte carny to vaudeville mentalist to highly polished practitioner of the seance racket. Which is to say he convinces the gullible wealthy he can connect them with deceased loved ones. Inevitably, he flies too close to the sun and undergoes a breathtakingly brutal fall from grace.
Along the way, there are carny freaks and geeks and rich men with desperations of thejr own to sate.
Set in the world of the American carnivals it follows the rise and fall of a sideshow magician with an unrelenting bleakness. Gresham creates a world of life on the margins and the people who inhabit it. The life itself is captured with lots of details and characters, described very vividly in every chapter.
The ending comes back around ties the noose around the main characters neck with a surprising con.
Highly recommended to readers not turned off by the dark, depraved, gut wrenchingly cruel side of life.