Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, swindlers and misfits in a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that Jacob meets Marlena, the beautiful equestrienne who is married to August, a charismatic but violently unpredictable animal trainer. Jacob also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems unmanageable until he discovers an unusual way to reach her. Water for Elephants is a story that has it all - warmth, humour, poignancy and passion.

The circus … love them or loathe them, it was unanimously agreed that they make a great background for a novel! We all loved the world of the travelling circus that Water For Elephants took us to, with a few of us remembering the circus coming to town during their childhood and the sights and smells they conjured up.

Although we were all aware that basically this is a romance, coupled with the hardships of the Great Depression and black market days of the prohibition, we mostly found the romantic element of the story a little wanting. In fact, many of us thought the book could have done without Jacob and Marlena’s doleful looks and unrequited love triangle. But never-the-less, it was well received by our group, with the enjoyment level scoring high.

For the better part of an hour we were able to comb through this novel and come up with some stimulating conversation on animal cruelty, loyalty, discrimination, racism and finally ending up at the movies with memories of films such as The Greatest Show on Earth and Trapeze.

Viti never fails to satisfy with her insight into novels and pointed out that the nursing home where Jacob ended up in his later years mirrored the circus in many ways. They were fed and treated much like animals in the zoo, and it contained an atmosphere and smells quite foreign to those on the outside ... much like a circus. Sharp Viti, very sharp!

Finally, we were impressed with Gruen’s research. Even if she didn’t get right down to the nitty gritty of the human condition of these people and their world, the historical pictures helped to take us there and the little facts and fallacies of circus life planted throughout were all we needed. Then of course there was the enividable happy ending. But we were even willing to forgive that. Not always an easy thing for our group!

So, should you read this book? Our recommendation is yes … before you see the movie. It will be one of your more enjoyable reads this year.

Dubliners by James Joyce

In Dubliners, completed when Joyce was only 25, he produced a definitive group portrait. It is a book, as suggested in the Introduction, ‘rooted in an intensely accurate apprehension of the detail of Dublin life’.

Full of brutal realism, each chapter is a story within itself. And yet, beyond its bitter truths, lies a book full of enigmas, ambiguities and symbolic resonances.

Dubliners remains an undisputed masterpiece, a work that compels attention by the power of its unique vision of the world.

It is surprising how easily our perception can be influenced. When it comes to classic literature, this is doubly so! How long have you had the idea that reading James Joyce is just too hard? Well this year our book club took the challenge and Joyce’s Dubliners has scored the highest yet. We were all in agreement that the writing was superb and that Joyce has that very Irish knack of telling a tale that is entertaining yet sorrowful. As we have said before … no one does it like the Irish!

It was commented that the narration serves as an observer to what, in anyone else’s hands, would be ordinary, everyday stories. But Joyce has a way of bringing his characters to life with everything that makes us human. Clever turn of phrase and descriptive language all come together to weave a picture of Dublin at a time that it was truly Irish.

Our discussion included an interesting look at Joyce himself and some of the challenges he faced getting published. As a group we always try to do a little background into authors. I helps to round out our discussions and also adds an extra dimension to what we learn from the literature we read.

We shared real life experiences in Ireland and had plenty of opinions on the traditions and uniqueness of the Irish people. We also felt we were able to pin point the difficult position the country and its people were caught in at the time of Dubliners publication. Somewhere between the modern and traditional world.

Something that only a writer of Joyce’s calibre would be able to deliver.