14. The Final Confessions of Mabel Stark - Robert Hough

It is a testament to how busy May has been that a)I didn't entirely finish this book before it was due back at the library (for a second time so I couldn't automatically renew again) and b)it has taken me more than 2 weeks since I returned the book to find a few moments to sit down and write about it. And now I am at the point where I don't really know what to say. I mean, I guess it is one of those books that is so extraordinary that it feels like anything you do say just does not do justice. It made me feel like I was sitting down with one of my grandparents and they were telling me the story of their life. It felt very intimate and beautiful and very strange all at the same time.
Mabel's life wasn't one I have much in common with. The closest I have come to lions and tigers would be in the nosebleed section watching a circus, so to read about someone who worked so up close and personal with those animals, who cared for a tiger practically from birth and slept with it and loved it more than she loved most humans ... well that was magical. And also a little unreal.
The book was crafted so that I felt like I was there, I was watching the circus, I was the one Mabel was telling her story to. And that is a powerful feeling.