(I'll have to write a post about my methodology at some point. Because what use are reviews if you have totally different tastes and mindsets from the reviewer. Anyway, B+ = very good)A novel about the circus. By an author who has a career as a technical writer. Hmmm...
Water for Elephants is another book I picked off the top-sellers lists based on reviews. I wouldn't normally read about the circus for no reason, but I was intrigued. The story is set on the rumbling train of a traveling circus, following the rise and fall of a wannabe Barnum and Bailey (literally).
It was exactly what it promised to be: a journey into the tumultuous and often dark side of circuses and the people who live the circus life.
The most interesting thing I learned was the situation of "red lighting"-- throwing circus workers who were no longer worth their pay off the moving train. It was also crazy to think about just how difficult a feat those traveling circuses of yesteryear were. Transporting hundreds of workers and performers along with elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, etc? It made me want to go visit a circus. You always have a better appreciation of things when you better understand how they came to be.
Anyway, it's a well researched story into a world you wouldn't necessarily ever otherwise get to know. Murder and a love story on a backdrop of pink sequins, Polish elephants, and jake-drinking old men.
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