Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
$14.95

Paperback: 350 pages

Publisher: Algonquin Books (April 9, 2007)

ISBN-10: 1565125606

ISBN-13: 978-1565125605

Annotation/Flashtalk:

“I DON’T TALK MUCH about those days. Never did. I don’t know why—I worked on circuses for nearly seven years, and if that isn’t fodder for conversation, I don’t know what is.

Actually I do know why: I never trusted myself. I was afraid I’d let it slip. I knew how important it was to keep her secret, and keep it I did—for the rest of her life, and then beyond.
In seventy years, I’ve never told a blessed soul.”

Summary:

The novel opens almost immediately with the murder of August, the animal trainer for the Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth.  Gruen proceeds to tell the story, from the perspective of a 90+ year old Jacob Jankowski and his current life in a nursing home and a much younger Jacob as he is working on the Depression-era circus so many years ago, including how he came to witness August’s murder.

After the sudden death of Jacob’s parents, he finds himself just 0ne exam sort of his veterinary license, but without a penny to his name.  The shock of the events sends Jacob adrift, where he winds up as part of the Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets Camel, part of the circus’ menagerie crew; Walter and Queenie, the show’s resident dwarf clown and his dog; August and Marlena, the animal trainer and his wife the show-horse rider; Uncle Al, the owner and ringmaster; and a host of other circus workers and performers (kinkers, but not to their faces).

Gruen’s level of research is apparent in the details she brings to the story, the language of the circus, the workings of the circus, the politics of the circus, and the subtle nuances of the time, including a real Depression-era affliction called “Jake leg.”

It is only at the end of the novel that the murder is solved, and the murder identified. Gruen leaves several breadcrumbs so that the astute reader may figure out the shocking truth.

Genre/Subgenre: Historical Fiction/Romance/Mystery

Evaluation: 4-stars.