What do you see in a year on the road with traveling carnivals? A father tells us in 'American Oz'

CHICAGO - Some years ago, a not-so-young and close-to-penniless journalist named Mike Comerford took a trip. It was not his first trip, but it was a long trip, taking him across this country and into Mexico. He traveled by bus (5,740 miles), train (2,130 miles) and by that vanishing means of transport, hitchhiking (13,700).

This journey changed him, as you might imagine, but in ways that he could not have anticipated when he got the bold (to some) and foolhardy (to some) idea of joining and working for the country's traveling carnival companies.

The result is a remarkable book, colorfully lively and filled with a cast of characters