A Ticket to the Circus

“In this blazingly alive memoir of her 32 years with the late Norman Mailer,
sixth wife Norris Church Mailer proves herself every bit as fascinating as her illustrious mate.
Her narrative glitters with famous faces and events, from Bob Dylan and Bill Clinton (whom she dated) to the 1975 Ali fight in the Philippines…. ‘I’ll never write about you. Nobody would believe it,’ Norris often told him. You’ll be glad she did.”—People Magazine, four stars

“Norris Church Mailer’s reminiscence, A Ticket to the Circus, still manages to add a fat new sheaf to the public dossier on her late husband, Norman Mailer, and tells an involving coming-of-age story to boot… She shows exactly what type of woman could tolerate and at least partly subdue such a king-size corkscrew of a man. The book will be of interest to anyone who works in a university marriage lab. It also shows that Norman wasn’t the only talented raconteur in the family.”—New York Times Book Review

“Entertaining…A Ticket to the Circus is not a tell-all memoir; it’s a tell-enough memoir.
It’s Ms. Mailer’s own plucky and sometimes sentimental autobiography….
[A] gracious memoir.”— New York Times

“A Ticket to the Circus is one wild ride….in her entertaining, well-composed memoir,
she reveals what it was like for a smart, gutsy woman to subsume herself to a legendary jerk who was as incorrigible and irresistible in life as he was in his art…Lovely and inspiring.”—Miami Herald

“A memoir that’s candid and poignant, filled with joy and humor, sex and heartbreak.”—USA Today

“Norris Church Mailer’s surprisingly honest, graceful and forthright memoir of life with Norman as his sixth and final wife.”—Washington Times

“A Ticket to the Circus is a remarkable memoir–blunt, funny, extraordinarily candid and self-aware; deeply moving, as it is wonderfully entertaining; above all, a memorable double portrait of two very unusual people, a couple for whom the term meant for each other is wholly appropriate.”—Joyce Carol Oates

 ”A Ticket to the Circus is a brave memoir. Norris Church Mailer writes with grace, clarity, and verve. She achieves what a good memoirist must: believability. Norman Mailer would be proud.”— Douglas Brinkley

 ”A Ticket to the Circus is an honest, witty, revealing, thoughtful, fascinating memoir – a magnificent piece of work. It makes the reader fall in love with the brave and beautiful woman Norman Mailer could not live without. We recall Norman Mailer as a literary lion, but now with this book Norris Church Mailer, too, will be remembered for many years to come.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin