An entertaining memoir for those who've always wanted to run off to the circus.
In 2010, author Tessa Fontaine's mother had a near-fatal hemorrhagic stroke, leaving her with a permanent brain bleed and unable to walk or talk. In spite of continuing health problems, three years later she and her husband decided to fulfill a life-long dream by taking an extended trip to Italy together, accepting the risk of a health crisis while abroad.

Fontaine, who spent years coping with her mother's illness and living through "hospital and rehab facilities and emergency goodbyes and brain surgeries and therapies and grim consultations and leaking blood and brain fluid and crises and recoveries," decided she would follow her mother's example. While her mother was abroad she'd also do something she'd always longed yet feared: join a traveling sideshow for five months. Her memoir, The Electric Woman, is a chronicle of her time with the World of Wonders (see Beyond the Book) as well as her continuing struggle with her mother's illness, impending death, and her guilt over their strained relationship pre-stroke.

Fontaine describes the World of Wonders as the last traditional traveling sideshow. She writes, "Sideshows are where people come to see public displays of their private fears: of deformity, of a disruption in the perceived gender binary, of mutation, of disfigurement, of a crossover with the animal world, of being out of proportion. And that is a sideshow's intention—to frame whoever or whatever is on display as being outside the realm of what's 'normal.'" She starts as a bally girl – the person out front who performs while an announcer (the "talker") attracts a crowd and gets onlookers interested enough to come in for the show. She is taught skills such as snake-handling, fire-eating, escaping from handcuffs and turning a one-dollar bill into a five (by folding it into the shape of the number five), almost all of it through on-the-job training. "This was nothing like performing in school plays, where the bulk of time was spent rehearsing—here it was trial by fire...You learned by doing. Onstage. In front of an audience. Good reason to get better quickly."

In her very limited off hours Fontaine meditates on her relationship with her mother, which had been strained for a number of years before the stroke. The author's feelings of guilt and regret for missed opportunities seem to be constantly on her mind. "I like to think that if I'd known that in five years we'd never be able to have a spoken conversation again, I would have grabbed her hands and, tears cresting, told her that of course I loved her then and always had, that I was so sorry I'd been cold and distant but that I'd felt hurt by her for so many years and it seemed like distance from her made the hurt feel better. And maybe now could be a time we could start again, and get to know one another."

Fontaine is at her best when she narrates the far-from-glamorous life at the sideshow. The hours are long and the work is difficult and seems unending; not only must the crew perform non-stop for many hours at a time, they're also responsible for taking down the equipment and packing it up for transport to the next fair. The entertaining stories of life on the road are peppered with sometimes funny, sometimes nerve-wracking vignettes, as well as descriptions of the type of eclectic personalities one would expect to encounter at a sideshow. My favorite is Short E, a man without legs billed as "The World's Shortest Daredevil."

While the sections that discuss the author's childhood and interactions with her mother are carefully woven into the text, they feel a bit forced. The memoir's primary focus is life at the sideshow so Fontaine's angst concerning her relationship with her mother seem like too much of a distraction. I didn't develop empathy for this situation and was eager to return to what I felt was the more interesting topic.

The Electric Woman is fun and one of the more entertaining memoirs I've come across. Fontaine's writing is crisp and engaging. Those who appreciate eclectic memoirs will undoubtedly enjoy it, but it's especially recommended for anyone who's ever dreamed of running away to join a circus.

This was a fascinating, heartbreaking look into a daughter joining the circus after her mother undergoes some serious medical issues. I loved getting an inside scoop into the life of a circus (and the names of these characters were phenomenal), and even more so, I enjoyed the other half of the story where the daughter describes her connection with her mother and the self-reflection associated with that.

Tessa Fontaine runs away to join a circus sideshow after graduate school. It’s dream fulfillment, and a chance to escape the reality of her dramatically ill mother. While many daughters would refuse to leave their mother’s side, Fontaine has a more complicated relationship with her parents. And she doesn’t quite know where she fits in their world, or even her own.

Fontaine tells us about these parallel and yet divergent stories in alternating chapters. One is her present tense of the sideshow. Another is the recent past of her mother’s massive stroke and subsequent journeys. Occasionally she throws in a chapter with childhood stories to illuminate her familial relationships. The shifting topics balance the intensity of each trajectory.

Joining a sideshow without a specific act means you have to learn everything from scratch. Tess starts with snake wrangling, which scares the bejesus out of her. She’s also a fire eater, because of minor previous training in that. Every member of the show is also part of the crew, so they must secure the show every night. Plus put it up and break it down at the end of each fair. The experience is both physically grueling and emotionally taxing.

Fontaine intends to stay just one season, but many of her sideshow cohorts have been at this for a decade or more. Saying they’re a colorful crew is a understatement. Exploring the various personalities and relationships is fascinating.

In between all of this melodrama, a personal drama is unfolding in Fontaine’s life. Her mother had a hemorrhagic stroke, which has both disabled her brain’s functions and refused to completely abate. Fontaine’s stepfather is the primary caregiver, who doesn’t seem to expect much of the two adult children. As Fontaine puts it, she’s both distanced from her mother’s situation and obsessed with it. Whenever she has a moment, it’s clear she’s thinking about how her mother is doing.

My conclusions
As a daughter, I related to Fontaine’s relationship with her mother. Not every daughter will, but I had a similarly complex relationship with my mom. And she had several strokes at the end of her life. At the time, I thought obsessively about her status. Was she eating today? How much could she talk? Were her caregivers on top of their game? Fontaine illustrates the tension she (and I) felt.

But I certainly didn’t join a sideshow! Reading those portions of The Electric Woman was like escaping my humdrum life. The descriptions captured a bold mix of fear, restlessness, and sweaty costumes.

Fontaine is a skilled writer who knows just how to weave a story. She doesn’t linger in the depressing moments, and isn’t afraid to make herself look a little odd. If you like memoirs about relationships, with a lot of quirky stuff thrown in for good measure, this is for you.

Acknowledgements
Many thanks to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and the author for a digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Fontaine's story of joining a circus sideshow after her mother suffers a series of devastating strokes is both captivating and heartbreaking. The reader gets introduced to a crazy cast of characters (with quirky names like Sunshine, Snickers, and Pipscy) and really gets an inside look into how circus people live. The secondary story of Fontaine's experiences caring for her disabled mother provides a well-rounded story of how complicated it can be to be a daughter. I did find a few faults with this memoir. Because some of the portions were written separately for literary journals, there were sections that felt repetitive, portions of text that were already explained. Second, the book did feel a little on the long side because of this repetition. Some tighter editing would have resulted in a 5-star rating from me.

Tessa Fontaine's The Electric Woman is an interesting peek at the author's life behind the curtain, so to speak. I enjoyed learning about her experiences with circus life, with all the difficulties that that life entails. The sections on Tessa's mother's illness read as cathartic and not entirely necessary to the circus life story, which kept me from flying through this book at lightning speed. Otherwise an enjoyable read!

An interesting perspective on grief, told through the grieving author about her ill and recovering mother. She hasn't passed, but we can still grieve for someone's health as we once knew them. The author's foray into sideshow acts adds an interesting lens, though, as others noted, it does seem to go on for longer than is quite necessary or quite so interesting.

Fontaine's stories are quite engaging, which makes up for the fact that the book seems to skip around quite a bit. However, the back and forth gives readers insight into Fontaine's deeper emotions, emotions that are often on the surface of this book. Fontaine uses emotional vocabulary throughout the book to describe her worries and hopes, which I appreciate tremendously. It is one of the reasons I'm often drawn to memoirs, as I love to hear people's emotions about their real life experiences.

Fontaine tells two primary stories in her book: the story of her joining a carnival show and the story of her mother's journey through recovery from a stroke. Each story is peppered with descriptions that took me on a journey along with her, experiencing smells, sights, and the textures of her world. Her journey with the sideshow shows her new tricks she never thought she'd be a part of, and she both loves and hates every minute of it. 

Fontaine's honesty about the necessity of pain and moving through fear by accepting the pain is the major theme to her story. Fontaine is constantly thinking about her place in the world with regards to everyone else. She wonders what it would like to be in others' shoes, and wonders if she's good enough to hold up to the test of being part of a grueling sideshow with very little pay and intense physical labor for long hours each day. Each day, no matter how she's feeling, she faces her fears and pushes through the pain because she's agreed to herself to make it though the carnival season.

Fontaine explores a lot of her relationships with other sideshow employees, the audience, and her family throughout this book. She is open and honest about things she does well and things she feels like she didn't do well. I enjoy that kind of perspective about relationships, and again I find that is often an element of memoirs and why I am drawn to them.

For some reason, this book took me a while to get into, but as Fontaine started picking up the pace with her work, I found myself picking up the pace in my own reading. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a little danger and adventure. 

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fantastic read. Well written with some very colorful characters. I was engrossed from start to finish. This is about Teresa's mothers struggles while getting better after a stroke and about Tessa being in a Carnival. I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Netgalley

Electrifying. See what I did there? Ha ha. Seriously though it's just a good book. I love reading memoirs of all kinds because it gives me fascinating peeks into the lives of other people and I loved how Tessa Fontaine took me on her journey. Really felt as if we were two friends that she was telling a story to. In my opinion that is a sign of a very well written and told story. You won't regret picking this up because who doesn't want to read about a woman who runs away to join the circus? Haven't we all felt like that at some point in our lives? Happy reading!

I requested this book because I love anything related to freak shows and carnivals. This did not disappoint. This was full of self discovery, strength and healing. I will recommend this book highly and will purchasing a physical copy as well.

This was an interesting, entertaining memoir. It is an interesting insight into the sideshow lifestyle

What a delightful, surprising book. This memoir follows the author alternatively through a stint in a carnival sideshow and through her mother’s life after suffering from a massive stroke. She ties the two narratives together by reflecting upon her mother’s adventureous personality and her desire to celebrate and be inspired by her. Lovely and unexpected.

Tessa Fontaine was 30 when she was invited for a 5-month stint with America's last traveling sideshow, the World of Wonders. She started as a bally girl (someone that lures people to buy tickets for the show), then progressed to snake handling, handcuff escape, and fire eating. But her education in the sideshow arts did not end there. She performed the illusion of a 4-legged lady and what she considered her ultimate triumph...as the Electric Lady. For this she sat in an electric chair and lit up light bulbs with her tongue! She also practiced sword swallowing using a twisted up hanger, but this challenge proved insurmountable.

This unique and all-consuming experience (sideshow artists get very little sleep) was a parallel story to that of her mother Teresa recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke. Tessa's parents were divorced when she was a toddler, but her mother remarried a man named Davy who loved her absolutely. While others essentially gave up hope for Teresa's recovery, Davy could not fathom life without her. Not only did he nurture his ailing wife in every way possible, but against all rationale took her on a dream trip to Italy. Tessa struggles with guilt from once telling her Mom she didn't love her, and not being around for her rehabilitation as much as she could be. Signing on with the traveling sideshow was a thrill, a challenge, and a means of escapism.

I do enjoy reading about carnivals and sideshows. They are mysterious, magical and yes...a form of escapism. I think of the colorful striped circus tents, flashing bulbs and various oddities to be found there. It was interesting to read about how these traveling performers withstand extreme weather conditions, sleeping arrangements, ability to shower/toilet, and set up and break down their shows. In fact, inside the big trailer where they bunk at night and basically live, if someone cannot withstand the life, their name is immortalized on the wall with the moniker " couldn't hack it."

While I enjoyed the peek inside the inner workings of a traveling sideshow, I wasn't as interested when Tessa waxed poetic about her mother's illness in tandem. I also felt she could have edited the book down a bit more. Sometimes less is more!

A fun and exciting look at the carnie life. Loved the relationship with her parents.

Thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it