Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Not once while reading this book was I emotionally hooked -- unless you count my anger at the author. For all Gruen's indepth research into circus life of the 1930s, the atmosphere of the narrative felt wrong. The dialogue sounded far too contemporary and the stage directions -- "I looked out the window"; "He moved his jaw before answering"; "I looked steadily at her then looked away"; and the dramatic "in the distance I heard the sound of a camel" -- were intrusive. Add to that the constant cutting back and forth from young-buck Jacob to retirement-home Jacob and you feel not that you're immersed in another world, but rather reading the script of a touching Hallmark Theater production. The characters are from central casting: the good hearted whore, the tyrannical boss, the crazy husband and his sweet but long-suffering wife. And the noble hero. Young and bereft of family, Jacob stumbles into circus life and is hired as a vet. He is painted as the champion of the small and weak, regardless of sex or species, always wanting to do good and right. And yet, at the moment when his friends need him most, he's gone, taking their only means of protection, a knife, with him. And the elephant for whom he professes deep affection he leaves to the hands of a crazed maniac, to be beaten not once but twice, and our hero does nothing about it. How can we possibly cheer for him? Too bad the story wasn't told from the POV of a minor character named Greg. Greg shows up twice, first when he retrieves the elephant using what he knows she loves, booze. He shows up later ministering to her wounds from one of the beatings. He's speaking Polish to her, the language she understands. Why did we need Jacob? Sounds like we already had a vet, and a worthy hero, standing in the wings.