Water For Elephants

I am currently reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book goes in and out of two different time periods in a man's life. This man's name is Jacob Jankowski and at the start of the book he is 90 years old and about 20 pages in he becomes 25 years old. The writing is really descriptive. Jacob's 90 year old self is living in a nursing home and he is bored out of his mind. He was diagnosed with depression and got in a "fight" with another elderly man at the nursing home. His 25 year old self dropped out of college (Cornell in fact) because his parents got in a tragic car accident and died. He soon found himself on a circus train, The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He gets a small job as the veterinarian for the animals and has a small crush on the circus leaders' wife. I am not quite sure, but I think this book is set in the 1950's (as his 25 year old self). I'm really excited to keep reading this book because I am not quite able to identify the genre yet. It seems that it is realistic fiction right now, but I have a feeling there is more to this book.