Cannonball Read V: Book #7/52
Published: 2006
Pages: 362
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
4 stars: Very good. Would recommend.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this book. It sounded interesting, but I was afraid it was going to be more of a romance than I care for. I am SO happy to say that I was totally wrong. It was mostly about the circus with some romance thrown in, but not overtaking the story.
I loved the circus as a kid and remember the excitement when they started setting up the tent in the field next to the elementary school. We’d all stand and watch them during our recess. I even got to ride an elephant once! So that’s what drew me to this book.
The book starts with an old man named Jacob who is at a nursing home. A circus is setting up down the street and Jacob starts to reminisce about the summer of 1931 when he worked at the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He was just about to graduate with his veterinary degree from Cornell when he finds out his parents were killed in a car accident. He walks out of his exams and hops a train that happens to house the Benzini Brothers circus.
Cannonball Read V 