Nightmare Alley (New York Review Books (Paperback))

ISBN: 1590173481

Author: Gresham, William Lindsay

Condition: New

Now a major motion picture from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Toni ColletteNominated for 4 Oscars, including Best PictureNightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek-alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowds gleeful disgust and derision-going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. Theres no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough hes going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stans for the taking. At least for now.