Publisher's Synopsis
Mabel Stark was the greatest female tiger trainer in history. During the golden age of the big top, she was the superstar of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, and one of America's most eccentric celebrities. It is 1968. Mabel, nursing her most serious mauling yet, is just turning eighty and about to lose her job at Jungleland, a Florida game park. Devastated by the loss of her cats, she looks back on her life and her five husbands: the fifth - a cross-dresser whom she married without bothering to divorce the other four - would one day be tragically mauled by her one true love, her ferocious yet amorous 550-pound Bengal tiger, Rajah. Starting with her escape from a mental institution to begin her circus career as a burlesque dancer, Mabel's exquisitely voiced confession is a live wire of dark secrets, broken dreams, and comic escapades.
