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jdarnold 's review for:
Nightmare Alley
by William Lindsay Gresham
The Great Stanton's rise and fall, from doing magic tricks at a traveling carnival to being a highly sought after "mentalist", to becoming the leader of a Spiritualist Church, scamming his way at every step. He finally teams up with a dubious pyschologist, who grabs him right by the cojones and leads him astray, with promises of sex and money, of course. And it all ends badly.
It reminded me of *Addie Pray*, in that I felt quite skeevy following along with a scammer like Stanton Carlisle. He was an even worse person than Addie Pray and her father, a generally unlikable guy who treated everyone around him like crap until the tables were turned on him. Really, not many likable characters in this whole book, save the real carnies like Molly and Veena.
But I really enjoyed the vernacular. There were some amazing turns of phrase and some old timey words and phrases I had to look up. Really good stuff. But I have to admit, I liked the movie better. The beginning was pretty close to the book, but when he and Molly left for the big time, it was handled quite differently and, to be honest, I liked it better. So it is more like a 3.5 star book that went on just a bit too long.
It reminded me of *Addie Pray*, in that I felt quite skeevy following along with a scammer like Stanton Carlisle. He was an even worse person than Addie Pray and her father, a generally unlikable guy who treated everyone around him like crap until the tables were turned on him. Really, not many likable characters in this whole book, save the real carnies like Molly and Veena.
But I really enjoyed the vernacular. There were some amazing turns of phrase and some old timey words and phrases I had to look up. Really good stuff. But I have to admit, I liked the movie better. The beginning was pretty close to the book, but when he and Molly left for the big time, it was handled quite differently and, to be honest, I liked it better. So it is more like a 3.5 star book that went on just a bit too long.