Book Review: "Water for Elephants"

"Water for Elephants." A novel by Sarah Gruen. Algonquin 2006. $23.95. 355 pages.

Final exams your final semester in college. The room is quiet except for a clock reminding you the seconds are dwindling. To your left and right, your classmates hunch over, busily scratching away with their pencils. A bead of sweat makes a trail from your brow, down your nose and plops onto your blank paper. You get up and dart out of the room, escaping into freedom.

This scenario runs through the minds of stressed college students every year. Jacob Jankowski, the narrator of Sara Gruen’s third novel "Water for Elephants," lives out this fantasy, ditching his final veterinary exams and jumping a train which just happens to be the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. This engrossing, original novel is told from the perspective of a ninety- or ninety-three-year-old (he can’t remember with certainty) Jacob as he reminisces about being swept up in the bizarre life of roustabouts (circus performers) as a twenty-three-year-old.

Gruen’s use of the present tense gives a sense of immediacy to an already action-packed narrative.

“I reach for the iron grab bar and fling myself upward. My left foot and elbow hit first, and then my chin, which smashes onto the metal edging. I cling tightly with all three. The noise is deafening, and my jawbone bangs rhythmically on the iron edging.”

After jumping the train, Jacob is hired as the circus vet and soon learns the harsh truth behind the glitz and glamour and faces the threat of being “redlighted,” dumped from the moving train as it passes over a trestle, when he falls in love with Marlena, the star of the show and wife of the sadistic, cruel August. August is one of many richly drawn, fully developed characters you will want to spend more time with when the novel ends. Others include Kinko, an angry midget; Barbara, a hooker with a heart of gold; Rosie, an elephant; and Uncle Al, the ringmaster consumed by his obsession with besting the Ringling Brothers.

Gruen skillfully interweaves the story of the young, idealistic Jacob, and that of the elderly Jacob who is betrayed by the weakness and fallibility of his body. The passages depicting Jacob’s frustrating, stifled existence in the nursing home are poignant and compassionately told.

As Jacob waits for family visits, he returns in his imagination to the adventurous days of his youth.

“All I can do is put in time waiting for the inevitable, observing the ghosts of my past rattle around my vacuous present. They crash and bang and make themselves at home, mostly because there’s no competition…Damn ghosts.”

Although the descriptive writing is vivid, the dialogue at times is stilted, even bordering on soap opera-ish.

“‘I love you, too,’ she whispers. ‘I think I’ve loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. But don’t you see? I’m married to August.’”

Ultimately, this fault is quickly forgiven as Gruen casts her spell, making both circus life and nursing home life come alive.

Gruen’s extensive research and inclusion of circus photographs adds credibility and authenticity. The text is peppered with actual circus terms and references to events in circus history such as the Jamaica ginger paralysis, an incident involving 100,000 Americans becoming paralyzed after drinking moonshine in the 1930s.

This imaginative spectacle is well worth the fare, providing entertainment, but still exploring serious issues such as aging and isolation.

-Reviewed by Anna Fry