Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
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Sometimes you need a little levity in your life, and Water for Elephants
One of the things that strikes me in novels set in the past is how much violence actually occurred in everyday life. For some reason I always believe that the amount of violence we hear about on the news today is something we’ve invented recently, but historical books including the Bible always seem to bring me back to the realization that the two oldest things in the world are violence and sex. Water for Elephants recalls the tales of Jacob, now in his 90’s (you know my penchant for older men), as he joined the traveling circus of Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth after losing both of his parents just before graduating from college as a vet.
The Benzini Brothers Circus is run by probably the most notable narcissists I’ve seen in a novel recently, one of which is a paranoid schizophrenic with a penchant for violence named August. Jacob is thrown into circus life, almost becoming a victim of redlighting, the practice of throwing men off the train to their deaths when the management didn’t want to pay them anymore, and falling in love with August’s wife Marlena, which of course can’t end well.
Over on the really unexpected side of the circus was the practice of a “cooch tent.” Yes, a cooch tent. Similar to a burlesque show, but with a little twist at the end where the performer would take gentlemen callers at the end of the show. I never would have guessed that a prostitute was an actual part of the circus show! As you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with many wives, or local law enforcement. Many a circus was run out of town due to such delightful treasures, and of course liquor smuggled out of Canada during prohibition.
Jacob’s life is paralleled by his youth where he must learn to exist in a subculture with no family, and his current life in a nursing home where he has been dumped by his children to be surrounded by “old hens” and a newcomer that is trying to steal his thunder by relaying stories of carrying water for the elephants in a circus when he was a young boy.
You never know what is going to happen when the circus comes to town and the entire nursing home waits for the opening act…
Novel Whore Rating: 3 Notches on the Bed Post
Wine Pairing: Wine? Oh no, this calls for some moonshine
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