Today I finished Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen, a book I happened to find by chance at the airport last month.
Water For Elephants, set in the early days of the Great Depression, is the story of 23 year-old Jacob Jankowski. Jacob, on the verge of graduating Cornell University to become a veterinarian, is orphaned, skips out on taking his final exam, jumps a train and ends joining the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.
The details of Depression-era circus life were so carefully researched by the author for this book, that they are as intriguing as the story itself. The conditions of circus life… The tensions between performers and workers… These added so much depth and realism to the story, making it a pleasure to read.
Jacob’s time in the circus is intertwined with Jacob remembering the story as an old man in his nineties. This back and forth between the 23 year-old Jacob and the 90 (or 93) year-old Jacob effectively gives us two stories to follow: first, the young Jacob’s struggle to ingratiate himself in the circus as their veterinarian, and his love for Marlena, a star performer in the circus and wife of August, the head animal trainer; and second, old Jacob’s coping with old age and his awaiting his family’s arrival at the nursing home he lives in on the day the residents are going to circus that has come to town. However, 23 year-old Jacob’s story is an overwhelming majority of the pages and is the primary story being told. How the two stories come together at the end, and where it takes the old Jacob was fantastic.
I’ve never been to a circus, so I am not sure what exactly drew me to the purchase the book. I’d never read Sara Gruen before, and I am disappointed I didn’t discover this book sooner, as this book easily is one my favorite novels read this year, if not the favorite. I expect to read more of Sara Gruen’s work in the near future.