Book Review

Okay, a book about a guy who works for the circus sounds weird. My mom had read it and when I asked her if it was any good, she told me I should read it. I thought, "Yeah, okay. I'll get right on it." Then I saw pictures in a magazine with Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon for a movie called Water For Elephants, which'll be based on the book, and I made a mental note to get around to reading it sometime or another. I finally did, when I was searching for a book to read for Read For the Fun of It during interim term. Even after I started the book, it took a little while to get into it - or, rather, get used to it. The first few pages revealed that I was reading from the perspective of a "ninety or ninety three-year-old" man in a nursing home, and that there was a circus in town, which was important to him for some reason. Being a teenage girl, it was a little strange to read from an old man's perspective, and I couldn't decide if I liked it or not, at first. The majority of the book, however, is written from the point-of-view of a much younger Jacob Jankowski. He's a student at Cornell University, studying to become a vet and take after his father. During one of his classes, he is called out of the room and given news about a car wreck involving his parents. It is then revealed, to Jacob's shock, that his parents left him without any money to his name. This brings to question whether or not he will be able to stay at Cornell, and what he's supposed to do once he graduates a few months later. He is told that he will be able to stay at Cornell and take his final exams, but he still doesn't have a plan for the rest of his life. That is, he'll be allowed to take his finals. But the author then shows Jacob trying to take his exams, but he gets stuck and looks around at the other students, realizing that he can't put a name to a single face. He is reminded of his first year, when he knew everyone in his classes, and was friends with plenty of them. He looks back at his test, which is still completely blank. Not knowing what else to do, he gets out of his seat and takes his test to the professor at the front of the room, who tries to tell him that he couldn't have finished so fast and he hadn't even started and if he left the room, he wouldn't be presented with an opportunity to retake it. But with absolutely no money, and virtually nothing to return to, he keeps walking. Eventually, he finds himself at a river, and washes his feet. When he hears a train, he goes to see it and jumps onboard before he even thinks twice about it. He soon learns that the train he jumped onto is the train for The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. After going through a few cities, and a few shows, the ringmaster, Uncle Al, learns about Jacob's education at Cornell, and appoints him as the show's veterinarian. The story is set during the Great Depression, and depicts the struggles that the circus and its workers are faced with. Jacob meets many new people along the way - a midget named Kinko (or Walter, as only his friends call him), a performer named Marlena (who he falls in love with), her husband August (who, as it's later discovered, is ill - I won't say how), an older man named Camel (who becomes paralyzed from drinking Jake), and tons of other eccentric people who are, in some way, involved in putting up the circus.