"The whole thing's illusion, Jacob." -- August
Finishing up the discussion of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen where I'll look at the villains in the piece, the sidekicks, and the other elephant in the room -- did any of what Jacob tells us really happen in the novel?
The word "creepy" is one I and many others associate with the circus. Consider the aspect of the music -- it's weird, undulating, designed to manipulate your mood, underscore terror during daring acts, frenetic when the clowns come out, martial for the entrance and final exit, always over the top. Another aspect of the creepiness is the garishness of costumes make-up, props that are intended to highlight the idea of fun, but often strike fear in the hearts of the children whose parents believe the circus is age-appropriate entertainment. It is creepy when human traits are exaggerated and dressed up to both disguise the humanness and accentuate the freakishness -- stilt walkers, lurid side-show attractions, silent mimes who sneak up behind you and pop artificial flowers in your face, plucked from thin air. Nothing is as stealthy as a mime, or as suggestive of villany.
In spite of what August says, there is one thing that is not illusory about circuses and that is their frightening artificiality that signals "anything can happen here."
And frightening things do happen in the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth because the two most powerful men in the organization, Uncle Al, the owner, and August Rosenbluth, the animal supervisor are, in the first case, ruthless, and in the second case, mad.
Uncle Al reminds me of a lurking autocratic octopus with the moral values of a present-day investment banker or hedge fund operator and a crippling inferiority complex (don't mention Ringling Bros. in his hearing). He runs the circus like a mafia don, offering his employees deals they can't refuse. He forces Jacob to persuade Marlena to return to the circus after she's left August, following a beating. If Jacob can't make it happen, then he can kiss certain people good-bye, including himself. He's a wheeler-dealer without scruples; he's a boss without consideration. He swoops in like a vulture to pick over competitors whose business has failed. He has no qualms about paying his employees, knowing that with the circus, even without pay, they have a place to sleep and food to eat -- no small thing during the Great Depression. That he absconds (with all the portable assets) following the stampede, never to be seen again, doesn't surprise anyone. In short: one slimy bastard.
More complicated, more ambiguous, and even more dangerous is August who most likely is a paranoid schizophrenic. He is especially frightening because he has brilliant moments of lucidity that are interspersed with black periods of irrationality. He can be personable one day and brutal the next; he can be caring toward the animals for one week, then savage against them the moment something kicks his mood; he can be voluble, genial, and generous, only to follow displays of normalcy with menacing silence, violence, and scheming. He viciously abuses Rosie (and other animals) to punish Marlena for imagined infidelity. Yet, once he learns rudimentary Polish, he sweet-talks the elephant into purring with pleasure. August, more than any other human character reminds me of a tiger with an abcessed tooth. He is more like a ferocious carnivore than a human being. You see a man deteriorate from the weight of conveying too much illusion, from feigning human emotions without possessing a human heart. You could hardly blame either Rosie or Marlena if either she killed him.
Jacob has two side-kicks: Camel, an old roustabout whose body and mind are addled with alcohol and the poisonous effects of Jamaica ginger. His decrepitude descends into incapacity, which is a death sentence. You can't work, you can't stay. And that means redlighting. Because Camel initially saved Jacob from being thrown off the train by Blackie, and secured him a job with the circus, Jacob feels responsible for him and, with the help of his other side-kick, Walter the dwarf, manages to keep Camel hidden and fed in their car. The second half of the novel is taken over by this subplot -- keeping Camel's whereabouts and condition secret from Uncle Al until Jacob and Walther can safely restore Camel to his son's care. It is an extremely risky undertaking and ends up in failure.
For me, the most interesting character of all is Walter, aka Kinko. He embodies all the creepiness of the circus and all the normalcy of a benign human being. At first hostile to Jacob's presence in his sleeping car because it denigrates his status and because he catches Jacob meddling with his books (Shakespeare and porn), he is won over by Jacob's kindness to his dog Queenie, and simple curing her of "the trots." They seal their detente in a drunken show of male bonding. From then on, Walter sheds protective layers of illusion, daring to nurture Jacob in his sexual forays, offering to share his books with him, protecting him from possible redlighting, and becoming an active conspirator in the "Camel project." In contrast to August, Walter's love of animals is pure and mirrors Jacob's. However, faithful to the formula concerning side-kicks, Camel and Walter pay for their devotion to Jacob with their lives.
There are no happy endings in lives devoted to illusion unless the narrator is the master illusionist who fabricates a happy ending for himself. This Jacob does, returning to the circus at 93, a trick he is only able to pull off by manipulating Charlie into lying to the policeman and creating the illusion that Jacob is his father.
Sara Gruen has written an entertaining and thought-provoking story of Depression circus life and created an unreliable hero -- almost a creepy hero -- to give voice to colorful figures who may really only "exist" inside the head of ambiguous Jacob Jankowski who, I half believe, may have lived a mundane life as a zoo vet, never leaving Chicago, married to Catherine, his Cornell coed, who suspiciously looks like Marlena. Retired now, in a boring institution, he builds a fantasy on her and the woman who cares for him -- Rosemary. Her name a clue that combines Rosie and Marlena. Jacob's real life may have been one long Walter Mitty existence brought on by the shock of his parents' deaths. His final life as a runaway to the circus follows on the heels of Rosemary's announcement she is leaving her job and seems to be a repeat of his reaction to emotional trauma in his youth.
On the other hand, it may all be true and not just an illusion. After all, anything's possible in fiction.
Join me THU August 25th at 2PM when we'll begin discussing a work of nonfiction: Longitude by Dava Sobel,
the history of the solving of the thorniest problem of the eighteenth century made possible by John Harrison who made the first chronometer sufficiently accurate to use in determining longitude at sea.
I haven't cracked it open, but did note that there are 15 chapters, which may mean three session covering 5 chapters each. Although, my Kindle tells me it's fewer than 200pp of narrative. Let's shoot for discussing the first 5 chapters next time we meet.
While we focus on being a book club for "e-ditions," all format readers are welcome. If you'd like to suggest a title for future e-Book Club reading, please remember our two rules: Must be less than $8.00 and must NOT be one of a series.
Kindle: $2.99
Amazon paperback from $5.00; hardcover used from $5.52
Powell's $3.95
See you in two weeks!