![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Book review - Water for Elephants
This isn't a book I would normally have read (as it isn't SF of fantasy), but my mother was given two copies by a friend who was evangelical about the book, so she passed one onto me.
I took quite a while to get around to reading it, but greatly enjoyed it when I did.
The story is mainly set in depression era American in the world of the travelling circus. One night per town. Even as the last member of the audience has filed into the big top for the show, the roustabouts outside are already starting to clear down the midway and the concession stands and load them onto the train for the next venue. It's a transient community with its own customs and rules.
Those who watched 'Carnivale' will recognise the world of the couch dancer and the freaks, the performers and the roustabouts.
This circus also has a menagerie with an assortment of animals to entertain the public. But this is the Depression, and things are tough. When the circus hits bad times, the manager will do anything to try and improve profits. As other circuses go down, the manager of Benzini Brothers arrives like a vulture at a carcass to scavenge what he can. And what he really wants is an elephant.
He spends large sums of money to get one and then has to save money elsewhere to pay for it. Read the book to discover what 'redlighting' means... (nothing to do with brothels)
The story is told through the eyes of Jacob Jankowski who joins up with the circus almost by accident, and retells the story as an old man in a nursing home.
There's a really good twist near the end of the story and I like the way the writer handles it.
Well worth reading - the writer got hooked into doing this book after seeing some old circus photos. She ended up doing masses of research, and really brings the world of the circus train to life.
I took quite a while to get around to reading it, but greatly enjoyed it when I did.
The story is mainly set in depression era American in the world of the travelling circus. One night per town. Even as the last member of the audience has filed into the big top for the show, the roustabouts outside are already starting to clear down the midway and the concession stands and load them onto the train for the next venue. It's a transient community with its own customs and rules.
Those who watched 'Carnivale' will recognise the world of the couch dancer and the freaks, the performers and the roustabouts.
This circus also has a menagerie with an assortment of animals to entertain the public. But this is the Depression, and things are tough. When the circus hits bad times, the manager will do anything to try and improve profits. As other circuses go down, the manager of Benzini Brothers arrives like a vulture at a carcass to scavenge what he can. And what he really wants is an elephant.
He spends large sums of money to get one and then has to save money elsewhere to pay for it. Read the book to discover what 'redlighting' means... (nothing to do with brothels)
The story is told through the eyes of Jacob Jankowski who joins up with the circus almost by accident, and retells the story as an old man in a nursing home.
There's a really good twist near the end of the story and I like the way the writer handles it.
Well worth reading - the writer got hooked into doing this book after seeing some old circus photos. She ended up doing masses of research, and really brings the world of the circus train to life.
no subject
It is also, because Mannix is Mannix (author of the laugh out loud memoir about his wild animal pets All Creatures Great and Small) funny and moving.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject