Water_for_Elephants

Water for Elephants Sara Gruen Soon after Sara Gruens’s Water for Elephants opens, the reader sees life through 90ish-year-old Jacob Jankowski’s eyes. He is awakened from his tapioca-induced stupor by the traveling circus that has set-up shop across from his nursing home. Jacob’s “girls” or the “gaggle of old ladies” with “hair as fine as mist”, as he lovingly refers to them, hover in front of the windows drawing his attention to the chaos of the circus. Soon, Jacob and the readers are transported back in time to Jacob’s younger years as a veterinarian for the Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It is there that we witness Jacob’s tragedies and joys.
 * **Paperback:** 350 pages
 * **Publisher:** Algonquin Books
 * **ISBN-13:** 978-1565125605

The journey though is not easy. Jacob is haunted by “ghosts”--the ghosts of his past, secrets that he’s kept, and those he’s protected. As we travel by train with the younger Jacob, we become privy to the seedy underside of life behind the big-top. The Great Depression era story becomes a tale of Jacob’s loss of innocence, and, somehow, ours as well. It is not a story of cotton-candy and balloons, but one of freak-shows, murder, and abuse. Jacob’s life though is not all tragic. He learns of love from a gentle gaint, Rosie the Elephant, and her rider, Marlana. These two ladies become