Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group.  I was pleased with this decision, because my wife Mary Anne had read it years ago and told me I’d really like it, so I’ve been looking forward to reading it for years. 

Summary in 4 Sentences:  This is two stories running in parallel – and the story goes back and forth between the present day tribulations of an old man in his 90s  in a nursing home, and his memories of being a young man working in the traveling circus during the 1930s. He got into the circus by accident – he was distraught when his parents were killed in a car accident and he saw few options.  The story progresses with him learning “the ropes” of working in the circus, under the manipulating and exploiting circus director, under a charming but vicious bi-polar menagerie director, with friends who included the roustabouts, his dwarf compartment mate, various freaks and performers,  and of course the beautiful girl who did the rode the horses and did the elephant act with Rosie the elephant.  The story is about the dysfunctional dynamics of the culture of the traveling circus, the various power cliques, how these people struggled to survive performing a few days at a time, traveling by train from town to town mostly in the Northeast during depression era America. 

My Impressions: Fun read! And well researched, well written, and a great story.  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, was fascinated by the culture she described and the adventures of our protagonist trying to adapt, stay out of trouble, get along and survive in an often cruel and unforgiving world of show business  – the story behind the glamor and excitement.  A lot of women authors don’t do a great job writing in the first person as a male, but she did.  I was pleased but not surprised to read at the end the author’s note about how much research she did on the culture and stories that grew out of the travelling circuses in the years before WWII.

Our protagonist Jacob Jankowski was just finishing veterinary school when his parents were killed, and he was therefore not able to complete his exams.  Distraught and somewhat disoriented,  with no-one to turn to, he jumped a train, which happened to be a circus train.  Some of the older workers took him under their wing and when the circus manager learned that he was almost a vet, he hired him as a vet.  Then as a “college boy” he struggled to integrate himself into the rough and tumble blue-collar culture of the circus.  

It was a cruel environment – the powerful managers in the circus exploiting the workers who during the depression had few options for other work. And they likewise exploited the animals, and Jacob’s job was simply to keep them healthy enough to perform. Jacob loved the animals as a vet should, but had little power to stop the cruelty he observed. 

There is also a love story complicated by the fact that the woman Jacob falls in love with is star of the animal show, and also the wife of his boss.  And the boss is a classic wife abuser – alternately charming and sweet, and violent and unpredictable.  This same boss is also in charge of the animals and is the same way with them – alternately caring and very cruel.

As a young man in this dysfunctional organization, Jacob doesn’t have a lot of options, and it was clear that Big Al the circus manager had his ‘enforcers’ who routinely and violently enforced Big Al’s directives – step out of line and people simply disappeared – including when they weren’t needed anymore.  The practice was called  “red-lighting” – getting visited in the middle of the night and thrown off the train, often as the train is going over bridges or trestles.  These men had no status or identification and the circus got away with it  for years. 

The story continues as Big Al’s circus comes on hard times and Big Al becomes more and more desperate to make ends meet. Jacob gets caught up in a web which clearly threatens him and those he cares about – as he tries to maintain a sense of humanity in a cruel, dangerous, and unforgiving world.  

All the while, as the story of Jacob in the circus unfolds, every few chapters we go back to Jacob in the nursing home, and we learn from his own internal dialogue of the challenges of being old and frail, treated like a child by the nurses in the home, tolerated, patronized and often forgotten by his own family.  He strives for some sense of control over his life, lamenting the loss of his physical and mental capabilities. And then, the story returns to the 1930s with the circus.  

How does it all end?  I liked the way Sara Gruen wrapped it up – there would certainly be room for a sequel.  

I really enjoyed reading this book – a fascinating look at a world that exists no more – at least in the US. 

At the conclusion of the book, there is an interesting interview with the author about her background, why and how she wrote the book,  as well as thought questions for book club discussions of Water for Elephants. Those will be useful for me as I prepare for our reading group discussion.