When Jacob Jankowski is 21 his parents die in an auto accident. Traumatized he walks out of his final veterinary medicine exam at Cornell without writing a final answer. With no family, no money, and no degree he runs away and joins up with a second rate circus train Benzini Brothers. What follows is a recount of his first days on the job until the end of the Benzini brothers. Gruen fills in the details of how a circus is run as well as what the depression looked/felt like. Jankowski is recounting the tale while in his nineties so you know he makes it but you are not so sure about the other characters that liven up his life.
On the Four Star Scale
Sap Factor (**) - Definitely some sad bits.
Naughty Bits (****) - Some language. We are talking about circus grifters who are not exactly on the up and up. Some ladies from the circus get Jacob drunk and take advantage of him. Someone is murdered. Also Jacob falls in love with the psychotic animal trainers wife and some stuff happens there as well. For the most part Jacob tries to be moral but he struggles in this moment in his life.
Readability (***) - 350 pages. Reads easily.
Final notes (***) - This story has some naughty bits that need to be skipped over but it really is intriguing. Jacob the protagonist is lovable and you really feel for his plight as well as most of the characters that are just trying to survive each day of the depression with something in their bellies. Also it is particularly enjoyable that ninety year old Jacob is telling you the story because you are able to see the resolution to some of the tale.
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