Ebook239 pages3 hours
Tonic and Balm
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
It's 1919, a time when traveling medicine shows can still find audiences eager to buy miracle "cures" and watch old-fashioned variety acts onstage. Stephanie Allen's novel Tonic and Balm follows one such troupe, Doc Bell's Miracles and Mirth Medicine Show, as it winds through Pennsylvania, struggling to stay afloat amidst internal discord and dwindling revenues.
Doc Bell's show, which features both black and white performers, includes a song-and-dance team whose marriage is fraying, a sword-swallower and her charming but fickle lover, and a medical doctor in a downward spiral of alcoholism. Performers and crew alike are caught off-balance when the show takes on a new addition, a young woman with hydrocephaly, who finds herself cast into a dismaying role as a sideshow exhibit.
Set against a backdrop of rural poverty and a wave of anti-black violence, Tonic and Balm examines the tenuous solidarity and shifting alliances of people on the fringes of society.
Doc Bell's show, which features both black and white performers, includes a song-and-dance team whose marriage is fraying, a sword-swallower and her charming but fickle lover, and a medical doctor in a downward spiral of alcoholism. Performers and crew alike are caught off-balance when the show takes on a new addition, a young woman with hydrocephaly, who finds herself cast into a dismaying role as a sideshow exhibit.
Set against a backdrop of rural poverty and a wave of anti-black violence, Tonic and Balm examines the tenuous solidarity and shifting alliances of people on the fringes of society.
Read more from Stephanie Allen
The Little Book of Leadership Development: 50 Ways to Bring Out the Leader in Every Employee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hour That Matters Most: The Surprising Power of the Family Meal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Tonic and Balm
Related ebooks
The Coming: The Hidden Series, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPurgatory: Sin Series, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death Watch Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild Thorns Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fima: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellow Gloves: A Misty Night Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ibrahim and Reenie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen the Birds Begin to Sing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYellow Gloves Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kidnapping of Aaron Greene Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SUSPECT: A Murder Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Corners of the Sky: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When the Birds Begin to Sing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuried for Pleasure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Speaker: The Speaker Series, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tale of Suliman and Hector Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBecause I Can't Whistle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Safe Place: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immigrants Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoon Shadows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Ghetto Violet From "Christian and Leah" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Beaver Cove and Elsewhere Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMake-Believe Bride Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Coalition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When the Siren Cries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconciled People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrawberry Fairchild And The Green Flame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Million Dollar Mystery Novelized from the Scenario of F. Lonergan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFourth Down! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCherokee Friends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Historical Fiction For You
Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hallowe'en Party: Inspiration for the 20th Century Studios Major Motion Picture A Haunting in Venice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Eve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Invisible Hour: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rules of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellow Wife: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House Is on Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Life of Mirielle West: A Haunting Historical Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Island of Sea Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I, Claudius Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Euphoria Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sisters Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Journals of Sacajewea: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Magic Lessons: The Prequel to Practical Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kitchen House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Clockmaker's Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Tender Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Tonic and Balm
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Tonic and Balm - Stephanie Allen
)2^ book_preview_excerpt.html u\˒HhTU&YI-jGf$$ N{/YwH ,͘ʹ ۾^}'z/8E^I]>?~Sy'~/ߞCh1KoX]¸;ƼcaP~zR]~Nm]KC]uiLC5T/1tնitUM54t~L
bk&Ttt
}TfKu4>Xx=>MSu]
2u[}ci|3]z< W]dg[!m0VC
]0V'iM#_B4&u0Y״J[zVncb0ئj$/Z}FcOv0yjۈFs`N0cWK8Ż=36}V[z-d=+qb^Wpűt9406#SݰshI1equU]p^\E|1-p佧t%\u'j~-7c-Cd1laFngn Qs=X\wȰ<|RfO]K#n62th }
={NwY8<۽xw◱8tvW4!b7ݘ0w[^}j<0oP軌E|R㒉B,xpq7m3{hHqېGaܠkd&,#݆\@Wm|s1 /15G/&So Y{\Wk`>:Oj%= @Ė23m9
[At,o4bHp_WxAVk۰?rkW~{t> W&čG>.!+>n7:6]te=G`7/c7|Gz"Я!v8b