Water for Elephants

"When you're five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties you know how old you are. I'm twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It's a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I'm-you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you're not. You're thirty-five. And then you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end, It is, of course, but it's decades before you admit it."
So begins chapter one of "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. I enjoyed reading this fascinating novel about a depression era traveling circus and the wonderful characters and animals that populate it. I greatly appreciated the author's attention to detail and the wonderful descriptions of setting up and tearing down the big top and train travel in that time.