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Richly textured and meticulously researched, The Advance Man is an incomparable bridge from the circus past to the present. It is a spellbinding narrative inhabited by strange and seductive characters: Chang and Eng, the Siamese twins who couldn't be engaged in unlike conversations simultaneoulsy; Irvin Feld, the Napoleonic genius who wrested control of the circus from Ringling's heir; the smallest man in the world who continuously stymied the show's most verile man; the naive, young woman who risked too much aspiring to become a model; the Cleveland tycoon and a host of others from extraordinary every-day people to well-known celebrities. [editor summary]