Summary: An elderly gentleman, Jacob Janowski, who now lives in an old people’s home, reminisces of his past. Jacob begins his story with remembering his parents death in a car accident. Jacob was sitting to write his final final examination for his veterinary degree at Cornell when he was notified of his parents death. Following the news, Jacob leaves his home town upon finding out about family financial troubles that left him penniless. He ends up jumping a train, not knowing that it was a travelling circus. Under the wings of a few of the circus workers, he is hired to be the veterinarian. There is trouble brewing from the moment he lays eyes on Marlena, who would be Jacob’s one and only true love. She is married to the ringmaster, August, an abusive man with wild mood swings.
My thoughts: The history of the travelling circus including the inner workings of it’s maintenance was intriguing and made the book a quick read. It did play a central role in the novel while the story took a backseat. The interactions between the workers and the performers was interesting although it could have provided a better backdrop to the story by adding more drama and unpredictability to the love story. As I don’t typically read girly books, I thought the love story was predictable. As previously mentioned, the book did portray a lot of circus history with the story weaving into it. I thought it could have been written slightly differently with the storyline taking centre stage. Jacob did provide his synopsis of living in the old people’s home but he portrayed himself as a grumpy old man with little attention from his children. I thought it was unnecessary on a grander scale and didn’t add at all to the novel. Overall, I enjoyed the book even though I thought it was an ok book.
