“Water for Elephants”

Last night I finished up “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen.  It’s unbelievable because I only got it from the library yesterday morning.  But I just flew through the book and enjoyed myself immensely.

Jacob Jakownski is in his 90’s (he’s always saying 90 or 93, but I can remember which) and for the present moments he lives a dreary life in assisted living.  He finds assisted living to not be so much assisted, as directed.  Out of all the nurses, he’s come to rely on Rosemary the most.  She coddles him and actually listens to him, puts up with his temperament and usually with a smile all the while.

But that is not where we begin the book.  The book begins with a flashback to a death scene.  We do not know who has been killed, but it was my assumption that Marlena was the culprit.  It is not until the end that everything is revealed (of course, I won’t tell you what happens because that would be rude).  The only thing I had to go on throughout the book is it was someone with a silver cane and a top hat.

The story is set in the 1930’s and its focus is train circuses.  Sara Gruen says she used a lot of stories from Ringling Brothers Circus and other famous acts to comprise some of the happenings in her book.  One that I liked best was when their elephant Rosie was stealing lemonade from the juice stands and nobody could figure it out for the longest time.

Back to the story.  Jacob was 23 when he fled home and academia.  His parents had just been killed in a car crash and he really didn’t have anywhere else to go.  He was lost and confused and full of desolation.  Somewhere along the line he chooses between being caught by coyotes or jumping on a train.  On the train he meets Camel, Blackie, Grady and a few other handmen.  A few of them try to convince him to go back to his former life, the circus life is hard, but Jacob is adamant about staying.  Over the course of a few days he goes from being just a workhand to a bouncer like man at a titty show, to the circus animals’ vet.  Nobody seems to care that he ran out on his final exams, the fact was that he had gotten as far as his last year and that was good enough for them.  And in my opinion, I think any level of education would have been good enough for them.

Uncle Al runs The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.  He is what some people call a vulture, he made his way up to ringleader by picking up the decimated remains of other cicuses, including this namesake.  Jacob’s boss is August.  He has a charming and vibrant personality that is clouded by a sinister nature.  He’s married to one of the performers, Marlena.  She’s beautiful and handles herself with a certain kind of grace.

Jacob’s first item of business is to look over Marlena’s favorite horse, Silver Star.  He pronounces that the horse has something wrong with its foot and needs to be on bedrest for a few weeks.  When asked if it will ever heal itself, he truthfully answers no.  Jacob makes the decision to put the horse down when Marlena asks that he make it quick, since there is no hope for the horse.  He knows that his job is on the line with Uncle Al, but can’t bear to let Marlena down or let the horse live in pain.  Luckily for him, August has taken the death of Silver Star into a win for all.  He has instructed that Silver Star’s remains be given to the cats (lions, tigers and the such) since their own food has long since gone bad.  Jacob keeps his job and enjoys late nights drinking with August and Marlena in their private room.

Along the way Uncle Al picks up an elephant and a few new animals from a broken up circus.  This would have been all good and fine if anyone in his circus knew how to handle her.  Rosie has been proclaimed by all her previous owners to be dumb and never once used in a circus show.  August is incredibly annoyed at the amount of money that has been spent on her and her special trailer that’s hooked onto the train.  It means that people’s pay is cut and some don’t get paid at all.  August’s relatinoship with Rosie is where we seem him at his most violent.  He viciously uses it to prompt her to move and adhere to his commands.  Once after a show where she stampeded off and Marlena had to make a jump, August beat the elephant so violently it took weeks for her to fully recover.  During her recovery, Jacob makes the discovery that Rosie has been trained in Polish.  With this knowledge, August becomes a loving and doting owner and Rosie warms up to him.  Jacob feels slightly betrayed thinking that Rosie should remember August’s violence towards her.  But she seems to forgive him and purrs up against his touch and soothing words.

In the meantime, Jacob begins to fall in love with Marlena.  He knows he shouldn’t and at the warning of everybody else tries to stop wanting her.  But it’s to no avail.  On the night of Rosie’s big premiere, Marlena has set up a private surprise for August.  Jacob is helping her and gets the champagne ready for when August walks in the door.  But instead of seeing it for what it really is, August goes crazy and accuses the two of having an affair.  August and Jacob go head to head and beat the hell out of each other.  It takes two men to pull Jacob off of August and one to knock August out when he goes back into his trailer where Marlena is.  Later, when Marlena tells August that she is leaving him, he gives her a black eye and she walks out on him.  Uncle Al tells Jacob to set her up in a hotel where August can’t find her.  During this time, Marlena and Jacob give into their passions and plan to run away from the circus together.  The time needs to be right though because Jacob is also looking out for his roommate Walter and Camel.

Uncle Al decides that Marlena and August need to make up.  The show must go on after all and they need to work together.  So he decides that it would be in everyone’s best interest if the pair made up.  Jacob can’t believe it.  He keeps saying that it would be irresponsible to put the pair back together.  August hit his wife and there’s no excuse for that.  Uncle Al tells Jacob that August cannot be held accountable for his violent outbursts, he’s a paranoid schizophrenic and everyone knows to tread lightly around him.  This infuriates Jacob more, but he promises to ‘try’ and says it may take a few weeks.

A few weeks has passed and August has attempted to reconcile with Marlena on his own, but to no avail.  Jacob is ‘trying’ but Uncle Al isn’t impressed with the results.  He claims that he’s going to do it his way and everyone knows this can’t be a good thing.  One night after watching August run off with Marlena and being clubbed in the back of the head, Jacob wakes up incensed and with a feeling that he needs to finally end things.  Walter tries to talk sense into Jacob saying that if they play their cards right for the next 3 days, things will go well and they can escape the circus for good.  Jacob doesn’t believe it and steals Walter’s only form of protection, a knife, and heads off towards August’s train car.  It’s a perilous journey for him, for the train is moving and Jacob has a concussion.  But he’s as determined as ever to end August’s life.  Once he gets there, however, something overcomes him and he cannot manage to do it.  Instead he leaves the knife on the bed next to August and manages his way back to his own car.  He is surprised and heartbroken to find both Walter and Camel gone, with only Walter’s dog Queenie left.  Queenie is whimpering with fear and Jacob knows that the two have been redlighted.

Their circus was infamous for redlighting people.  Usually when someone was redlighted, they were thrown off the moving train by a red train light so they could find their way back to town.  Sometimes, if the point was to kill someone, they were thrown over a tressle.  The next day Jacob discovers that this is exactly what has happened to Walter & Camel and that he had been the intended victim.  He feels terrible that he stole Walter’s only form of protection to do a deed that hadn’t even been done.  Uncle Al is surprised to see Jacob walking around the next day, but bears it well.  Jacob has a few fleeting moments to speak with Marlena before being ‘kicked out’ by one of the bouncers.  That night brings us back to the scene in the prologue, but with names put in where it had previously been vague.  A stampede takes place and it takes a few days for things to be sorted out.  Uncle Al’s previously half-decent circus has been picked apart by other circuses’ traveling through.  Jacob manages to save Rosie from being auctioned off to a circus who would probably treat her much like August and Marlena saves her team of horses.  After saving their respective animals, Marlena calls the Ringling Brothers and sets them up with jobs with the circus.  In the end, they leave circus life for good and have 5 beautiful children who each have many children of their own and many grandchildren.

In present time, Jacob remembers that his family visits him on a rotating schedule on Sunday’s and that this Sunday is the day that someone will take him to the circus.  He is excited to see the circus and compare it to his own days.  When no one comes to pick him up and Rosemary tells him that truthfully his children forgot and made other plans, he breaks down for a moment and then insists on sitting right in front of the doors watching the circus from the outside.  Then after awhile, he decides that it’s now or never, he’s going to see that circus.  So he precariously drags himself out of the wheelchair and places his hands unsteadily on the walker.  It takes him a half hour to cross the street and get onto the fairgrounds, but he makes it.  The ticket seller is yelling at him to buy a ticket or go home when the manager arrives.  He asks what the problem is and instead of backing up his employee, takes Jacob into the big tent himself and chats for awhile.  Jacob tells him that he was part of a circus and revels in his memories.  After the show they sit in one of the circus RV’s and drink and talk and basically shoot the shit.  The cops come to his door and the owner lies saying that he has not seen a slightly senile old man wandering around the fairgrounds and no, this is my dad, not the man you’re looking for.  And thus, Jacob’s life comes full circle.

My only problem with the book, and it is slight, is that somewhere towards the end, Rosemary alludes to the fact that Jacob may have Alzheimer’s.  It’s the only mention of it and Jacob muses that there had been signs, but he hadn’t realized it.  Then that’s it.  No more talk of it, nothing.  So it makes me wonder why she even bothered to put that in the story.  Is it so we question the validity of his story?  I’m not sure and it bothers me.  But overall I really liked this book and recommend it highly.  I think it is one of those books I will have to buy and read over and over again.  But it’s nice that my library pass is finally getting some use too   Next on my list is “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte.  Why?  Mostly because this book club I’m half-ass in has it next on its list.  I’m half-ass in it because I didn’t read the last two books (I was busy with the other books I had just bought) and have barely partaken in conversation.  But, with this book under my belt and ready to debate next month, I’m ahead of the game!