Water for Elephants

Synopsis: When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth a second-rate travelling circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. Jacob, a veterinary student who almost earned his degree, is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

Review: Jacob is ninety (or ninety three .. one or the other, he's not sure) and he's living in an old people's home. When a circus comes to town it starts Jacob reminiscing about his younger days as a veterinary surgeon in charge of the animals in a travelling circus during the Great Depression in America (the rather optomistically and undeservingly named Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.)

The author does a great job of bringing all the circus characters to life .. the beautiful, the daring, the vulnerable, the villains, the sinisters and the freaks ... she paints them so vividly that instantly you're interested in them and hooked into the storyline. Jacob especially is thoroughly endearing, I think I loved the parts about him in the home even more than I did those concerning his circus adventures, he's a bit cantankerous, he's fed up with being treated like an imbecile, he's fed up with the nursery food and the mountains of pills and he can't always remember which relative is visiting him. He's always been a fairly placid person but has just begun to behave just a teeny bit badly. I also loved Rosie the elephant, but then I love a story about an elephant, there's something about them that pulls at the heartstrings immediately. I did think the ending was a bit far fetched and it has 'movie adaptation' written all over it but for all that it was still really enjoyable .. a real adventure story with a thoroughly likeable main character.