It took me a while to convince myself to read this bestseller from 2006, partly because I was afraid Sara Gruen would present animal circuses as acceptable entertainment venues. Did she? Yes and no.

"Water for Elephants” is fiction, but the author clearly did her research, and so it� s solidly based on the sad realities of life for both humans and animals working in circuses during the Depression. But unfortunately, animal circuses haven’t changed much since that time. Human workers may no longer be “redlighted” (literally thrown off the train when they’re no longer useful), but captive wild animals are still packed into trains or wheeled vehicles without heat in winter or air conditioning in summer, imprisoned in cages or chained up, poked, prodded, whipped and jabbed with sharp objects and forced to perform demeaning tricks for the public, even if injured or ill, given generally substandard, if any, medical care and often, not enough nourishment.

The US Department of Agriculture is responsible for inspecting the living conditions of circus animals, but because of an insufficient work force and often, just plain politics, the USDA generally allows circuses to continue business as usual. It enforces only the most egregious violations (e.g., suspicious deaths and severely injured or sick animals). But often, the penalties are just a fine and a slap on the wrist to the perpetrators.

But back to “Water”. Gruen can tell a story, she has vivid characters, she presented the animal characters in a sympathetic and favorable light, and I enjoyed the read. But I have to say that to me, the happy ending she offers of Jacob and Marlena finding employment with Ringling Brothers so they can save Rosie, Bobo and the horses from having to perform in the new circus is anything but. Admittedly, for those times, it may have been the only option open to them, and there were few if any animal protection advocates out there exposing circuses like Ringling’s.

The truth is that Ringling Brothers has a long history of well-documented animal abuse, particularly of elephants, something Ms. Gruen never refers to in her novel—although, to her credit, in her Author’s Note she recounts the infamous, unbelievably cruel execution by electrocution by none other than Thomas Edison of Topsy, who had killed three humans, including a keeper who fed her a lighted cigarette. Similarly, in “Water”, Rosie kills her abusive keeper, but Jacob keeps her secret, even from his wife, to save her from being punished for it.

More recent circus history shows that over 50 captive elephants have run amok and killed or seriously injured their trainers or the public in the last couple of decades. And baby elephants, who can’t fight back, suffer terribly in captivity. Wild baby elephants live in family groups for approximately fifteen years, learning survival techniques. In contrast, baby circus elephants are generally separated from their mothers (often their mothers and other relatives have been killed in order to capture the babies), and have to pretty much fend for themselves. One young Ringling circus elephant drowned in a pond because he'd lost his mother before she taught him how to swim.

There are numerous incidents of animals dying or being killed by circus staff members. One well-known incident involves a trainer who became angry at a tiger who wasn't "cooperating" and shot him five times point blank, killing him as he sat defenseless in his cage. Another involved a horse who was forced to perform, though chronically ill, and collapsed and died in the circus parade. Circus bears are often de-clawed, or their paws are burned in order to get them to dance or stand erect.

Another feature of the novel that doesn’t ring true is that Jacob and Marlena decide to keep Bobo, an adult circus chimp, as a pet, although they had five children of their own to care for. Chimps become quite intractable as adults; they’re extremely strong, unpredictable and dangerous, and they certainly don’t belong in a human household.

Nowadays, over-the-hill circus animals often end up at canned hunting ranches being shot at, or as inmates of tawdry roadside zoos. But the happy ending to a circus novel set in the 21st century would have Rosie sent to a place like The Elephant Sanctuary to spend her remaining life blissfully roaming hundreds of acres with other former circus and zoo elephants, and Bobo retiring to a wonderful sanctuary like Save the Chimps, where he would join a chimp family and have the closest thing to a normal life a captive ape can have. And Jacob getting a job at a zoo so he can take Rosie along after his circus career is also not a very cheery outcome for me. There's no question that zoo elephants lead short, painful, highly restricted lives, and many zoos are finally recognizing that and are in the process of retiring their elephants to sanctuaries.

The ending of this novel is particularly hard to swallow. It’s unbelievable to me that after Jacob witnessed so much brutality to animals while working for circuses earlier in his life, he would want to join a circus again rather than live out the remainder of his life in a nursing home. That speaks volumes about that nursing home!

I understand that Sara Gruen, whose novels have all featured animals, considers herself an animal lover. But that can mean different things, and I’m wondering exactly what her agenda was in writing this book—which, inevitably, will soon be a movie starring wild animals who are compelled to perform in the film, just like circus animals. I wonder if she understands the sad irony of that.