num_pages: 275
description: Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geekalcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowds gleeful disgust and derisiongoing 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.
language: English
title: Nightmare Alley
publisher: New York Review Books Classics