Water for Elephants

My dear friend Emily and I decided to start intentionally reading the same books and chat on the phone about them. We live about 250 miles away from each other, so we don't see each other often and thought this would be a fun way to keep in touch. (I wouldn't call it a book club because club makes me think of more than two people, and who get to meet in person.)

For our first book she suggested Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, so I checked it out of the library. I had started reading it once before but didn't get very far into it when I put it down because it seemed too sad for the mood I was in at that moment. The book is a bit dark, but it's fantastic, and as most of it takes place during the Great Depression and a murder occurs in the prologue, dark is appropriate.

In the first chapter of the book Jacob Jankowski says that he is "ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." He is depressed that his children placed him in a nursing home and reflects back on the younger years of his life with The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Jacob was the show's vet, and worked with the circus's menagerie, including their elephant, Rosie. Working for his charismatic but sometimes violent boss, August, could be dangerous, especially when Jacob fell in love with August's wife, Marlena, an equestrian in the show.

Circus life was gritty, which is why this book is shelved in the Teen or Adult section of the library. Gruen did extensive research about circus life, and this book transported me to the circus train in the early 1930s. In an interview, Gruen said that many of the incidents in the book actually happened; she discovered them in her research and felt they were too good not to include in the story. I highly recommend it and suggest reading it before the movie comes out next year.