By Sara Gruen
List Price:$16.29
Set in 1932, a veterinary student is put in charge of caring for a menagerie of animals in a second-rate circus during the Great Depression. He meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, an untrainable elephant. He falls in love with one of them...
Review:
Publishers Weekly Review:
"With a showman's expert timing, [Gruen] saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale."
New York Times Book Review:
"Gruen has done her homework...lively with historical detail and unexpected turns....[A] delightful gem springing from a fascinating footnote to history that absolutely deserved to be mined."
Denver Post Review:
"One of the many pleasures of this novel is the opportunity to enter a bizarrely coded and private world with its own laws, superstitions and vocabulary....The pleasures of that world were so compelling, so detailed and vivid, that I couldn't bear to be torn away from it for a single minute."
My review:
First, let me share a reader review from another site:
"When I saw the reviews for this book I was tempted to read it but did not do so because I thought "I don't care about circus books!" But, I kept seeing it reviewed favorably and then a friend recommended it (we give each other tips on books so she knows my tastes) and I said "Ok, I'll try." WELL!!!! I am so glad I did. It is NOT a circus book."
WTF? There is a whole world of fiction called "circus books?" Are they in the Science Fiction or Romance?
I really liked this book. It is a fast read with emphathetic characters and a solid story line. Gruen took a lot of effort into researching this novel without making the book a belabored history lesson (a la Margaret George)--or a "circus book" for that matter.
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