Water for Elephants

Over the weekend I read (in one wonderful sitting) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. 

Not SpecFic, but a beautiful novel with wonderful characters. It is set during the last of the circus days in the USA in the early 1930s. Until the depression, Circuses were big business, and travelled the entire US via rail in beautifully decked-out trains. They were both glamourous and decrepit; both romantic and a haven for bums and scum.

Water for Elephants tells the tale of Jacob, now 93 (or is it 90?) and living in an assisted-living home. As we learn about Jacob as he is now, he also takes us back to when he was a young, unqualified-veterinarian who runs away and joins the circus after both his parents die. This is where the early 1930s, the depression, the circus trains and animals all come together to paint an amazing portrait of the times.

Water for Elephants is also a love-story, about a man, a woman and a very fussy elephant. It has wonderful characters, and comedy, and tragedy, and everything a good circus tale should have. It is both a celebration and an apologia for what I think is an amazing period in American history.

Highly recommended.