Historical research for BOY WITH WINGS
Boy With Wings is set mostly in northern Florida, where I’ve lived all my life, and as such I had some familiarity with the historical predicate of the story, but not all of it. I knew almost nothing about sideshows, or “freaks,” which necessitated quite a bit of research on the subjects.
People have asked where the idea to write the book came from, and I tell them that perhaps it was from attending the North Florida Fair as a child and seeing “The World’s Smallest Horse” or the “Wild Man from Borneo.” Somewhere along the way I saw the 1932 Tod Browning movie “Freaks,” and this spawned more interest. When I told my agent I was thinking of writing a novel that delved into this area, he asked if I’d read the novel Geek Love, which I hadn’t, and did. This spawned more research.
There are a number of books cataloguing human oddities that were helpful to bring an understanding of this arena, including Freak Babylon by Jack Hunter and American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman. Eventually I found the book Truevine, by Beth Macy, which sets forth the story of the albino brothers sold into the circus who became known as Eko and Iko, billed as sheep-headed wonders from Mars. I learned a lot from these books, including the fact that for some, including Eko and Iko, their lives became perhaps better than if they’d remained at home.
I also discovered the book Freaks, by Leslie Fiedler, an examination of what attracts us psychologically to human oddities, and the documentary “Sideshow: Alive on the Inside,” by Lynn Dougherty. One of the most insightful finds, though, was a biography of a gentleman named Ward Hall, who for fifty years ran sideshows across the United States. After my book was published, I did several appearances with the current sideshow performer Short E. Dangerously, who paid me one of the highest compliments a historical fiction writer can receive when he told me that I “nailed what it was like to be in a sideshow” and asked me about my research. When I told him about the Ward Hall book, he exclaimed: “I knew it! I was in a Ward Hall show for several years!”
I had a little general knowledge of turpentine camps, as I remember as a child passing rows of pine trees with little tin pans affixed to their trunks. The research in this area involved locating pamphlets and books describing such operations, and a visit to the Florida Forest Capital Museum State Park in Perry, Florida, where displays show how turpentine is extracted from trees and distilled.
Some have asked why I set the novel in the 1930s, and what I research I conducted regarding the Great Depression. I wanted the story to take place at a time things were changing, in some ways for the better and others ways not. By the 1930s, sideshows had seen their heyday and were starting to phase out. The South was still segregated, but cracks were beginning to show in that, too. In the book, I have the show admitting Blacks for the first time in an attempt to garner more revenue. I did quite a bit of research on places, events and language of the time, as I wanted the reader to feel like she or he was there, reading old newspapers, seeing small towns and their quaintness and prejudices, experiencing the people and their foibles that are in some ways not unlike those today. That’s to me what the best historical fiction accomplishes, and I hope I’ve come close to achieving it.
Here’s the blurb
“A brilliant fever dream of a novel, a haunting coming of age story reminiscent of both Franz Kafka and Charles Dickens.”
~ Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Jackal’s Mistress
*Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2025 First Place Winner*
What does it mean to be different?
When Johnny Cruel is born with strange appendages on his back in the 1930s South, the locals think he’s a devil. Determined to protect him, his mother fakes his death, and they flee. Thus begins Johnny’s yearslong struggle to find a place he belongs.
From a turpentine camp of former slaves to a freak show run by a dwarf who calls herself Tiny Tot and on to the Florida capitol building, Johnny finds himself working alongside other outcasts, struggling to answer the question of his existence. Is he a horror, a wonder, or an angel? Should he hide himself to live his life?
Following Johnny’s journey through love, betrayal, heartbreak, and several murders, Boy With Wings is a story of the sacrifices and freedom inherent in making one’s own special way-and of love and the miracles that give our lives meaning.
Buy Link
https://books2read.com/u/mdxEoR
Meet the author
Mark Mustian is the author of the novels “The Return” and “The Gendarme,” the latter a finalist for the Dayton International Literary Peace Prize and shortlisted for the Saroyan International Award for Writing. It won the Florida Gold Book Award for Fiction and has been published in ten languages.
The founder of the Word of South Festival of Literature and Music in Tallahassee, Florida, his new novel, “Boy With Wings,” is out in 2025.
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