Cat Man

Fiddler, an intelligent young man, has joined the circus because he is broke. He becomes the Cat Man, keeper of the big cats, and his hands have the scars to prove it. The cats: the panther, the jaguar, the cheetah, the tigers, the enormous lazy male lion named Joe, and Rita, the killer leopard, all become intriguing characters in their own right, brilliantly populating the novel along with their freakish human cohorts, who include the animal department head, the train crew, the seat department, the prop men, the winos, and the townies. Etched in exquisite detail, Cat Man is a crystalline portal into the bizarre and fascinating world beneath the big top.