Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Quit: "Queen of the Air" by Dean Jensen

Quit: Queen of the Air: a true love of story and tragedy at the circus by Dean Jensen, 2013, 9780307986566.

History and biography of famed circus trapeze artist, Lillian Leitzel.  I stopped reading because the author was recreating conversations and thoughts of long dead people.  Those recreations in chapter one really annoyed me.

Jensen had many, many interviews and conversations with people and relatives.  The recreations in Chapter One are from conversations remembered between Lillian's brother and mother, Alfred and Nellie.  Jensen is clear in his notes that Alfred and "was not a direct witness to the events described, but learned of them through Nellie."  Yeah, maybe Alfred heard everything from his mom but his memory is still third hand.  That makes the book fourth hand.  I think Jensen should have skipped the recreations and gone with straight history.

Maybe I am being too picky. But, I'm done.

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