Just who are the animals here?

For years, I'd been hearing from people how excellent the novel Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen is. And, for years, the idea of reading the book totally put me off. Why? Because the setting of the book is one I personally abhor: a travelling circus. However, I had no real choice in the matter when one of the members of our library book club chose it for our selection for March. And I loved it.

The book is from the point of view of Jacob Jankowski, now in a nursing home, looking back seventy years to the Great Depression, when he was a budding veterinarian. On the verge of taking his final exams and graduating, Jacob's parents are killed in an automobile accident. He discovers that his father, also a veterinarian, would rather treat another person's ill animals and be paid in beans and corn than let the animal suffer. Thus Jacob, an only child, is left alone, homeless and destitute, and, while dazed and stupefied as a result of recent events, runs off and hops aboard a passing train.

There, he meets and becomes part of a dysfunctional 'family' of circus folk. The definition of family in this context is that of loyalty, among some, but also jealousy, favouritism, and hatred. Uncle Al, the owner, and August, the animal trainer, are two incredibly repulsive, abusive, and opportunistic men. Neither people and animals are immune from their anger and manipulations, including Marlena, August's wife, and Rosie, the elephant which Uncle Al acquires at the expense of his workers, both of whom are subject to August's outbursts of violence, then treated like queens when they 'behave.' The prologue of the book hints at August's fate, and I found myself compelled to get read quickly so I could have the satisfaction of the culmination of the scene.

And when I got there, it was even better than I had originally anticipated!