Jacob Jankowski was twenty-one years old when he dropped out of Cornell's Veterinary School and joined the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth during the Depression. The circus is third rate at best, peopled with some of the most unsavory characters and yet this is where Jacob fell in love with Marlena, the wife of August, a cruel paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer. His second love is Rosie, an elephant, who returned his love just as equally.
Gruen's meticulous research about life in the circus in the 1930's is rich in detail, bringing to life the horses, the lions, the midgets, the drunks. The book is very rich in atmosphere with vivid description of their train arriving in town, the set-up and take downs and unsparing in the grunginess and smell of the menagerie.
The book is narrated by Jacob who is now "ninety or ninety three--one or the other." It is about surviving in the direst of circumstances; it is about animals showing us how to love and trust.
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