Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (4 stars)

This story is told in a series of flashbacks or dream sequences by Jacob Jankowski, a 93 year old man living in a nursing home. Usually with this style of narration I find the present-day a boring, cardboard prop for narration of the story, however this book is different. Jacob's character gives us a real insight into the trials of growing old, losing independence, and having any sign of independent thought be interpreted as the complaining of a cantankerous SOB.

But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It's a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I'm - you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but your're not. You're thirty-five. And then you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the the end. It is, of course, but it's decades before you admit it.

I saw some of Jacob in my own grandmother as she aged: the difficulty she had in recognising her own family members, and the increasing need to supply more of the conversation as her days became less active and provided less fuel for conversation.

My platitudes don't hold their interest and I can hardly blame them for that. My real stories are all out of date. So what if I can speak firsthand about the Spanish flu, the advent of the automobile, world wars, cold wars, guerilla wars, and Sputnik - that's all ancient history now. But what else do I have to offer? Nothing happens to me anymore. That's the reality of getting old, and I guess that's really the crux of the matter. I'm not ready to be old yet.

But old Jacob is really only a small part of the story. Most is taken with his time spent in the circus after a final year exam freakout due to the death of his parents. It is a rocking read, with plenty of colourful desperate characters set against Depression era poverty and exploitation. Larger circuses mop up smaller bankrupt ones in a ruthless manner: cherry-picking the best animals and 'freaks', as Uncle Al calls them, and disposing of unwanted employees by throwing them from the moving circus train during the night.

Some reviewers have complained of lack of character depth, but I don't think this was a huge problem. I thought August's character was interesting with his ability to be completely charming and completely ruthless, and Jacob's noble-sounding love of animals, that he frequently compromised to keep his job and avoid conflict with August, rang true for me.

I'll leave you with another poignant quote:

With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.

4 stars.