Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Depression Era romance novel, just the time period alone makes me wanna swoon. 

There’s a boy and there’s a girl, and then there’s her husband (who is crazy), and the elephant that doesn’t understand English.  Makes for a crazy journey…oh what a story!

Jacob Jankowski grows up humbly with his parents which are Polish immigrants, they raise him with good morals.  He wants to follow in his daddy’s footsteps and be a veterinarian.  They die in an accident on the day when he sits to take his finals.  Devastated by their deaths and the knowledge that he is completely in debt, he takes to walking by the train tracks in hopes to get to the big city and get a job.

He ends up hopping  a train, that is carrying a circus.  The story revolves around his relationships with the circus workers and how he adapts to this new culture.  For the first time in his 22 years he sees what real desperation, hunger and sex looks like.  He also falls in love for the first time.  With the wrong girl of course. 

Marlena, the star performer of the circus is marries to August, the ringleader.  He is the moodiest man ever, can reach dealthy rages in a 30 seconds and then be a sweet bon bon in the next breath.  He is unforgiving, brutal to animals, his workers and even with Marlena.

Jacob loves the animals and then Marlena and wishes he can save them all from August.  The story is told from the point of view of Jacob as a 90 something year old man and as a 22 year old man.  Sometimes I found 90 year old Jacob cumbersome to read through, but other times he was so endearing and hilarious.  Jacob as a 22 year old was sweet and innocent and so incredibly out of place on the circus circuit, but because of his innocence, he was able to win over so many of the people in the circus.

It’s an awesome love story., but not just a love story.  It's also a story of survival. I love that it’s a period novel and the characters are so very rich in detail.  August, as hateful and mean as he is, I still felt compassion for him.  You have this huge group of dysfunctional people that have made themselves into a family.  It was hard to say good bye when this book ended.

Sara Gruen’s narrating is very rich and melodic I would try anything she wrote.