On Christmas day, I was about 50 pages into my latest Jodi Picoult pick and was loving every page. I'm pretty sure it was called Keeping Faith, and from what I read, I would definitely recommend it. In fact, I think I might have to go buy another copy. Thankfully, it was one of the $7.50 copies and not one of the $15.00 copies. (Those who regularly buy Jodi Picoult books can sympathize with my frustration in the cost department.) Anyway, Keeping Faith was about this little girl named Faith who is struggling with her parents' divorce and conjures up an imaginary friend. Her mother worries about Faith's mental state, having done some time in a mental institution herself. The imaginary friend's resemblance to God snags the attention of Faith's psychiatrist who presents the case at a convention. News of the story reaches the media and, in turn, a famous teleatheist. This teleatheist is traveling the country in an RV trying to disprove religious miracles. At the time I lost the book, he had set his sights on Faith's story. I'll have to pick up another copy, for sure.
Anyway, later on Christmas day, while visiting with my grandparents, my grandma made another of her fantastic book recommendations. She loaned me her copy of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. All she told me was that it was about a circus during the time of prohibition. I was intrigued.
In the following week, sitting poolside at another Opti regatta, I began reading. The first day was tough. I really couldn't seem to get into the story from the beginning. Because I was excited to jump right into 1920's circus fun, the initial scene taking place in a nursing home was a real downer. I would later come to appreciate these periodical visits back to Jacob Jankowski's present-day reality.
The story is told in a series of flashbacks, both intentional and accidental, in the mind of now ancient Jacob Jankowski. In his younger days, Jacob studied to be a veterinarian at Cornell, but ran away from tragedy and his senior year final exams to join the circus.
On a whim, Jacob decides to jump a train and comes face to face with a group of dirty old men with every intention of throwing him off.
As Jacob works his way up the ranks in the circus business from grunt to the show's vet, he meets an array of characters. Gruen does a fantastic job creating these colorful personas. Jacob's bunkmate, a larer than life dwarf, is possibly Gruen's finest character.
Jacob meets Marlena while tending to Silver Star, her prized show horse who is fatally ill. The only thing that stands in Jacob's way of winning her over is Marlena's psychotic husband, August. Clearly the villain in this Hero story, August's character is written with such skill that I hated him nearly as much as the characters in the story did.
Jacob's flashbacks are thrilling, colorful and dark throughout the book, but my favorite part, by far, is the final chapter. This epilogue is wonderful, probably because it seems so unexpected, but makes perfect sense. I wish I could describe it better. You'll just have to read it to find out!
