A Ticket to the Circus: A Memoir
This candid, entertaining memoir proves that Norman Mailer wasn't the only talented writer in the family. Norris unveils her life story with warmth, wit, and grit, despite some occasionally precious prose. While a few critics were disturbed by Norris's stated willingness to stifle her individuality and ambitions to please her temperamental husband, her frankness in sharing many of the grim and often humiliating particulars won them over, and she provides plenty of juicy details about Norman and his contemporaries. Skimming over his body of work, Norris paints an affectionate, if unappealing, portrait of Mailer as husband and father, andA Ticket to the Circusis a love story, as well as "both guilty pleasure and good read" (Cleveland Plain Dealer).