Okay-- I picked this book up because it had been on the bestsellers' shelves for so long. I truly didn't expect to like it. The circus is not my favorite thing-- what with the smells, the "freak" acts, and the clowns, which frighten me if truth be told! The setting of the book lies mainly in a circus, but the story is about relationships, coming-of-age, aging, and all the other things that tend to grab our attention because they are a part of the human experience. 
 The story is of an elderly gentleman ("90, or is it 93?"), Jacob Jankowski who lives in an assisted living facility. News of the circus coming to town sends him into a reverie about his days working as a veterinarian for the circus during the Great Depression. The majority of the story is told as a flashback to that time. 
 The plot moves along quickly, and it is easy to get a sense of all that Jacob and the other circus performers and hired hands experience. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised that I did enjoy the book, and toward the end, had difficulty putting it down, as I wanted to see what would happen next.