Jacob begins Water for Elephants alone. Orphaned by his immigrant parents, he is weeks away from his Cornell graduation, but he simply cannot return to the life he has known. He jumps aboard a moving train-the train carrying the Benzini circus to its next production. No one on the circus cares that Jacob didn’t finish his final exams. The diploma, he is told, “is just a piece of paper, and nobody here gives a damn about that. You’re on a show now. The rules are different.”

In fact, the circus seems to have no rules at all. Jacob somehow finds other kind souls among the misfits, and these people work together to protect themselves and the animals. The villians-Uncle Al and August-are well described and three-dimensional. You understand why they behave the way they do. These villians are not cookie-cutter images, and their real-world sensibilities make them even more frightening.

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