The Ordinary Acrobat
ISBN: 9780307472267
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE US
Year first published: 15 Nov 2013
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback / softback
An incredibly charming account of Duncan Wall's novice plunge into the strange and wonderful world of contemporary circus, and a nostalgic look back at circus history and inside the current Cirque du Soleil-fueled phenomenon.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
When Duncan Wall visited his first nouveau cirque as a college student in Paris, everything about it-the monochromatic costumes, the acrobats singing Simon and Garfunkel, the juggler reciting Proust-hooked him. Soon he was attending circuses two or three nights a week, and soon after that, he entered the intensively competitive training program at France's cole Nationale des Arts du Cirque. The Ordinary Acrobat is a magical, funny, sometimes scary story of what happens when one average American joins a host of gifted-and flexible-international students in a rigorous regimen of tumbling, trapeze, juggling, and clowning. Brimming with surprises, outsized personalities, and plenty of charm, this personal history of how the circus evolved into the thrilling experience it is today delivers all the excitement and pleasure of the circus ring itself.
