Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants has everything that I hope for in a novel: a great story, wonderful characters, romance, history, a bit of a mystery, and a twist at the end that brings it all to a richly satisfying ending.

The storyteller switches between the past, when 23-year-old Jacob Jankowski, by a stroke of luck (good or bad) joins the BENZINI BROS MOST SPECTACULAR SHOW ON EARTH, and the present, when 90 or 93-year-old Jacob remembers the past from the nursing home where he lives. Both stories are compelling but for very different reasons. The circus is naturally a great source of stories and fascinating characters, among them the curmudgeonly dwarf who turns out to have a big heart to go along with his diminutive size, the manic-depressive ringmaster who combines charisma with brutality, beautiful and talented Marlena, and the equally talented Rosie the elephant, who only understands commands spoken in Polish.

While the circus story tells of a world, time, and lifestyle far removed from my own, the present day Jacob's story is completely resonant with what so many of my friends and I are facing now, as both we and our parents age. Here's the setting: the circus is in town and of course Jacob plans to go, but his 70-year-old (or thereabouts) son, Simon forgets that it's "his" turn to visit Dad, and Jacob is left alone. Jacob understands that his children and grandchildren have lives of their own, but he nonetheless feels discarded. Meanwhile, his health and memory are intermittently failing.

I love this book. It deserves all of the accolades that have been showered upon it. I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it, but I'll want it back, because is this one of those few books that I will read again.