3 1/2 stars. This was a book I'm glad I read, but I was surprised that I actually finished it since I put it down more than once. A series of haunting interconnected short stories about a fictional version of the author's small town in Indiana, the overall mood is one of dreariness and depression. The book is written as if it is a true documentation of the lives of people who are either related or connected by the circus that winters in the town of Lima, Indiana, beginning in 1884 and ending in the present day.

Having undertaken an enormous amount of research on the history of the circus, the author incorporates fictional characters seemingly stuck in this town, in the circus, and/or in their sad lives. I just happened to have read Truevine by Beth Macy last year, which is mostly a history of the origins of the circus from freak show to animals and acrobatic acts. Much of the circus background was familiar to me from Macy's book, which interestingly also has a pervasive feeling of sadness, mostly because of how the circus abused people by marketing them as freaks. The difference between the two books is vast. While Circus author Cathy Day has obviously researched the topic as well as Truevine author Macy, I found myself caring about Day's characters, even the elephants. They seemed so real while Macy's characters, who really did exist, were lost in the forest of facts and never seemed three-dimensional.

Despite the depressing mood and unhappy characters, The Circus in Winter is uniquely and admirably written. Heartbreaking and dark. Not for everyone. ( )

I love reading books set in my home state, Indiana, but they are few and far between. So I was excited to discover this book, the story of a circus whose home base was in Indiana. The whole book is about the circus, but each chapter features a different star, a different player in the overall company of characters. It begins with the tale of the circus’ owner in 1884 and then winds through the decades.

I’ve seen it compared to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and that description is spot on. Both books breakdown small-town life and the dark secrets that lie in everyone's past. There are sweet moments, but overall it's about the heartbreak inherent in the human condition.

Day draws each character beautifully and you're invested in their story from the first pages. Each person is fragile despite their sometimes tough exteriors. Wallace Porter is a resident of Lima, Ind. and buys the circus from a man named Hollenbach. Porter’s own story is so tragic that it sets the tone for the rest of the book.

There’s Jennie Dixianna, who was raised in the Alabama bayou and now performs the “spin of death,” wearing her perpetually bloody wrist as a proud talisman of her both talent and stubbornness. Then we meet the Boela tribe, which includes generations of members. It starts with Bascomb and Pearly, but continues with their son Gordon, his daughter Verna, and her son Chicky who is a dwarf. Even characters that aren’t human, like Caesar the elephant, find a way to pull you in.

There are stories set within the circus and others that feature the lives affected by it. There’s the lonely wife of its manager who fills her home with murals of the circus. One family moves to Peru years after the circus has closed, but vestiges of its glamour still seep into their lives. The circus also barely survived a huge flood in 1913, which wiped out many of its performers and animals.

I loved how all the stories are tied together. The son of the elephant keeper lived in the Colonel’s house, later his daughter Laura is featured in her own story. Because the time period in which many of the stories take place, there is an inevitable tone of racism. The way African-Americans are treated throughout the book breaks your heart. They could be a featured act in the circus just by being black. That made them a wild curiosity that might have come from the “jungle.”

The author grew up in Peru, Ind. which was the home of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. It wintered there and many of her family members were involved in it. I was curious how much of the book was inspired or based on true story she might have heard growing up.

BOTTOM LINE: Hauntingly beautiful stories about loneliness in so many different forms. The circus may be the stage for these particular stories, but their resonance and relatability reaches across the years.

"The world is made up of hometowns. It's just as hard to leave a block in Brooklyn or a suburb of Chicago as it is to leave a small town in Indiana."

“This is why they call it the heartland. In the summer, the fields on either side of Mrs. Colonel’s house glowed a brilliant green, rippling in the wind. The air stretched above like miles of blue canvas, and Mrs. Colonel pictured a center pole rising up from Indianapolis’s Monument Circle to hold up the endless sky.” ( )

When I first started reading this book, I felt it might be a bit dark for my tastes...but the pages kept turning! As I read, I realized it was not so much 'dark' as gritty and real, each story told of life exactly how it really was for folks during the time period and how some truly felt about things when nobody was looking--deep down inside. This made for a page-turning story of humans and life, void of rose colored glasses and many comforts.

As I was almost finished reading, I ran across a quote I loved...a quote I've loved for YEARS (I didn't realize I'd read this book quite awhile ago...hey, I read A LOT!!) and could never find said quote again. To say I'm thrilled is putting it mildly!

'Maybe every town in America transmits that radio signal, and on certain nights when the weather and the frequency are just right, we can all hear our hometowns talking softly to us in the back of our dreams.'

I like stories of the old circus days...of the people who lived them and this was a very good one--a very good book about real life for these folks...during and long after the circus.
( )

Cathy Day's The Circus in Winter is a collection of stories woven through the lives of people connected in some way with the Great Porter Circus. The "feel" of the stories is almost historical/biographical, rather than what one normally considers fictional. The subjects of Day's stories are well-written and elicit from the reader a kind of depth of feeling not often found in short fiction.

An amazing piece of contemporary fiction, The Circus in Winter is undoubtedly a book worth reading and relishing. Cathy Day's style of writing is simple and without unneeded embellishments. I enjoyed each of her stories for what it was: a work when blended together with the others contained in the book, completes a beautifully moving portrait of the circus and small-town life. ( )

I thought this was pretty weak--lots of plot cliches, not enough detail, generally depressing. ( )