Cat Man

by Edward Hoagland, Roger Sale (Introduction)

Fiddler, an intelligent young man, has joined the circus because he is broke. He becomes the Cat Man, keeper of the big cats, and his hands have the scars to prove it. The cats: the panther, the jaguar, the cheetah, the tigers, the enormous lazy male lion named Joe, and Rita, the killer leopard, all become intriguing characters in their own right, brilliantly populating the novel along with their freakish human cohorts, who include the animal department head, the train crew, the seat department, the prop men, the winos, and the townies. Etched in exquisite detail, Cat Man is a crystalline portal into the bizarre and fascinating world beneath the big top.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Edward Hoagland (born December 21, 1932, in New York, New York) is an author best known for his nature and travel writing. His non-fiction has been widely praised by writers such as John Updike, who called him "the best essayist of my generation."

Reviews

[GoldGato]

Edward Hoagland is a writer I've enjoyed, especially his essays. With that in mind, I couldn't wait to get into this novel about the circus, which was the first novel he wrote, in the 1950s. Hoagland was a 'cat man', an employee who took care of the big cats, including lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, and the dangerous jaguar.

I guess I'm not a circus person.

The circus comes across as a cruel world, leading me to cringe as I turned the pages. There isn't much description of the characters, mostly relying upon dialogue. The chapters are named after the circus stops, in the north-central section of the United States. Like that part of the country, the pages fill with small-town gloom, as the crews complete their work and jump on board their next train destination. Although the action takes place in the mid-20th Century, it feels more like the dust-strewn 1930s instead of the optimistic '50s.

A hard read for me. I still like Hoagland, but I'll stick with the essays.

Book Season = Autumn (dead-end)

[Penny]

This fascinating book brought many questions into my mind. Did the author have intimate knowledge of the circus? Had he once worked in and traveled with the circus? Did he work with the big cats?

His descriptions, so detailed, about the various breeds – lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs – make absorbing reading – about not just their physical differences, but their personality differences as well. He was able to bring each into your mind’s eye with clarity.

The author was equally capable of delineating the circus workers of all kinds, and the townies who came to gawk and question and force themselves into compromising positions. He shared with the reader the disgust and fatigue experienced by the workers as the public pompously and quite literally shoved themselves and their children onto the men and women who lived the circus life and were attempting to do their circus chores.

He reveals step-by-step the manner in which the circus workers must set up the tents and arrange all of the different segments, unloading or reloading equipment.

This is almost a documentary. You feel it is almost not fiction.