Jacob is a young veterinary student during the Depression whose parents are killed in a car accident as he is preparing to take his final exams. In his grief, he runs off, hops a train and finds himself with a circus. The story is told through flashbacks from "old Jacob", now in a nursing home and largely forgotten by his 5 children. "Young Jacob" is pretty naive, and is quickly shown the cruelties of life as a working man. He falls in love with Marlena, the beautiful horse performer, who is unfortunately married to an abusive man who is Jacob's boss in the circus. Overall the book was good, although at times it felt like Ms. Gruen was trying too hard to show life in the 30's - in Chicago they go to a speak-easy (and get raided) and Jacob passes a hobo town. But I love historical fiction, and I remember my father talking about the excitement of the circus coming to town, and she captures this well. The parts with the old man were hard for me, since my mother is in a nursing home, but I liked the ending, because this is after all a fiction book. The movie is coming out this year with Robert Pattison and Reece Witherspoon.
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