Early Praise for Circus Clowns and Carnival Animals

Sort of like cotton candy on a rainy day or popcorn when it’s snowing, Bobby Austin’s Circus Clowns and Carnival Animals is a comforting memoir of small-town America. Sure, there are tragic events and sad things that happen, but with a sure touch and a good heart, Bobby allows us into his childhood world. You really do need a quilt and a good dog by your feet to fully give yourself over to this wonderful reading experience.

Nikki Giovanni

Review of CIRCUS CLOWNS AND CARNIVAL ANIMALS: GROWING UP IN THE EBB AND FLOW OF RURAL BLACK LIFE by Bobby Austin. Nashville, TN: Cold Tree Press, 2008.

“I had my kaleidoscope with me that year, and I would put the kaleidoscope up to my eye and look out into the street at the people, whom I saw as many pieces of multi-colored glass. As I turned the barrel of the kaleidoscope, they would fall into many different shapes and pieces”.

Bobby Austin’s collection of short stories describes life for a Black child growing up in Kentucky before the advent of the Civil Rights Movement. In these stories, the main character, Joey, tries to find logical explanations for what is going on around him. Why can’t his parents explain things to him before he gets teased by his classmates? Why does a Black child have to be the caddy, never the player, on the golf course? Who says the soap box derby is reserved for “little fair-headed boys”?

Joey is proud to visit his Uncle Leroy and Aunt Sally in New York. Uncle Leroy is doorman in a beautiful apartment building, where he wears an impressive uniform--a black suit with a gold braid around his shoulders. Joey is impressed that Uncle Leroy has a rule that he never takes packages; the mailman needs to take them directly to the mailboxes. Only later does Joey discover the reason for this rule—Uncle Leroy doesn’t know how to read. In a strange twist of events, Uncle Leroy’s illiteracy results in a missed opportunity to land a job in France. But at the end Joey’s uncle heads off for Paris, vowing to travel, and perform his music, and learn to read. “You can’t go through life ignorant, and it’s never too late.”

And the short stories do leave one less ignorant, and wanting more. I found myself wanting to know what eventually happened to fictional Uncle Leroy, and Jenny Mae whose father beats her up when she leaves town to get an education, and most of all to Joey when he grew up. The poignancy and freshness of the stories lead me to believe that most have some autobiographical features, and so I would love to know how Bobby Austin himself went from small-town Kentucky to academia and beyond.

In Zone Free, Joey has a wonderful day: “I flew just like a bird in the sky. They couldn’t touch me. It was unreal. They simply collapsed on the ground, mortified that I had beaten them in magic Indians and baseball and now in football.” It turns out to be a dream while Joey is unconscious; he has been struck by lightning. His family and friends are relieved, “Well, when lightning strikes you, sometimes you just don’t come back, son.” And one suspects that there was no turning back soon after these stories occurred—the Civil Rights Movement took place, Joey took off, and rural Kentucky was never the same.
Esther D. Rothblum, Ph.D.
Professor of Women's Studies
San Diego State University

In Circus Clowns and Carnival Animals, Bobby Austin has written a book comprised of tender and touching short stories about the triumphs and tragedies facing a boy, coming of age in Kentucky, in the fifties. He tackles race, religion and intolerance with insight and humor, giving the reader a unique perspective on what it was like growing up black in a segregated world, where insults and exploitation tore at the fabric of youthful dreams and ambitions. In every story, through keen observation and often through his own self-awareness and exceptionally supportive family, the boy learns hard lessons. He sees the world through many different lenses, some of them impossible to imagine, but through his ability to withstand the slings and arrows of injustice and prejudice, he never lets disappointment and disillusion turn to bitterness.

To me, the most extraordinary aspect of the book is the delicate balance of candor, truth and humor than run though each of Bobby Austin's compelling stories. Circus Clowns and Carnival Animals is joy to read and reread; transfixing and translucent, it transports and reminds.

V V Harrison, Author, Changing Habits

"I loved the book, each chapter or vignette kept me reading. I saw the problems coming in some cases, others kept me guessing. I cried and laughed as the characters went about their lives, learning life’s secrets and lessons. Congratulations on a book well done. I would like to recommend this as a must read collection of short stories. Please let me know how I can assist in moving this book forward. I think high school kids could read this, very appropriate."

Dr. Elizabeth Primas, Director of Advanced Programs, DC Public Schools, Member, National Council of Teachers of English’s, Children 's Literature Commission and Member, International Reading Association

“Thank you for introducing me to this book. Each story is a return to a time of more solid and more visible values in the African American community even while the hypocrisy of the larger community was evident in our daily lives. The entire book was a nostalgic journey that had a firm undergirding of gritty truth (Kaleidoscope) and always seemed to end in a moral victory. It was an uplifting book to read and I thank you for acquainting me with it. With gratitude”!

Constance Thomas-Razza, Retired Teacher and Peace Corp Volunteer