Anything to escape the sound of death

Reviewed by
SHERIDAN GRISWOLD
Correspondent

All the magic of Water for Elephants is captured in the opening pages. The prologue is only four pages long. It would pay to read it twice. And not to read the epilogue until you get there. The circus animals are loose. "I staggered inside and met a wall of yak" ... I was "desperate to find Marlena ... a girl and an elephant". "I don't talk much about those days. Never did. I don't know why - I worked in the circus for nearly seven years, and if that isn't fodder for conversation, I don't know what is". The narrator, Jacob, is an old man of 93, or thereabouts, who kept Marlena's secret for over 70 years, and more. Now he is telling his story because a circus has come to town and another inmate in the old folks' home, a lawyer named McGuinty, thinks he knows all about circus life. Jacob just can't stand it and starts recounting his convulsing tale.