"Water for Elephants"

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a very popular book. It deserves to be popular. Gruen gives us a first-person story of a very old man in a nursing home. "I am ninety. Or ninety-three," he says --and at the end, finally, we learn what he is missing: he's not sure what year it is.

Jacob Jankowski, the narrator, quite vividly describes his thoughts and feelings about old age and what he hates about it. He explains his efforts to stay alert, remember about his surroundings, and to keep walking despite the discouraging attitude of the staff.

The title at first connects to his distaste for fellow old people and their memories, in particular to the boast of a table companion who says he carried water for elephants in a circus once. As Jacob recalls his past, you learn the other meanings of the title -- and you are drawn into the events that trigger his seventy-year-old memories. We know from the start how extraordinary Jacob's memories will be, because the climax of the tale is also presented as a Prologue before we learn anything else. This contributes to a fascinating reading experience: despite the seeming "spoiler," it's an entirely suspenseful tale.

If the theme of old age and its discontents were the whole story, it would be a boring book. But Jacob is no ordinary old man. As a college student he was suddenly deprived of all promise of a future. Desperate, he ran away and randomly joined a circus. It was a small circus, whose owners were insane -- and insanely jealous of the real thing: Ringling. In the circus, also, he found the most beautiful girl in the world.

If the circus theme were only a scholarly reconstruction of depression-era circus life, the story would lack its main attraction: Rosie the elephant. At first Rosie seems stupid and untrained. Then we find out that she understands and responds only to Polish. Rosie knows which of her handlers are good and which are evil, and acts accordingly. As the narrator relates more and more of his circus life, Rosie becomes the main character in the tale. The wrap-ups of both the present-day nursing home story and the very old circus story also are skillful and satisfying.

The plot of Water for Elephants is complex, with many colorful circus characters and practices. Gruen creates a wonderfully exotic atmosphere. In terms of evoking a different world from early 20th century Americana, I'd compare this book to Seabiscuit: An American Legend.