"Let me tell you something, kid. In the carny you don't ask nothing. And you'll get told no lies."
W.L. Gresham, Nightmare Alley
One of the best (if not the best) "skeptical" novels ever written has to be William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley. The story is classic noir, depicting the rise and fill of Stanton Carlisle, an all-around faker who gets his start in a carny ten-in-one show. It opens with a revolting description of a "geek," a word that Gresham claimed he had ...
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