Water For Elephants 2

I am still reading Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. By this point, I am pretty sure that the genre is realistic fiction. Also, I have come to the conclusion that the time period is not the 50's, but the early 40's. At the circus, (when Jacob is 25) Jacob had to kill Marlena's (his boss, August's, wife) horse because it was very ill. Many of the animals were being malnourished because Uncle Al (owner of the circus) spent a lot of money on buying performers from a different circus. One of those purchases from another circus was an elephant. At first, everyone was so excited that they finally got one, but then August found at that the elephant was really dumb and could hardly do any tricks. At that point, August put Jacob in charge of taking care of the elephant. Things are starting to get tense between August, Marlena, and Jacob. Jacob loves Marlena and I'm quite positive that Marlena loves him back, but obviously she is married to August. August often loses his temper about the dumbest things, and many times, Marlena is subject to his wrath. In other words, she is being beaten by August, but for some reason Marlena is willing to live with it. Meanwhile, "old Jacob" (90-ish)" is being visited by his family and they are taking him to the circus. Truthfully, my words do not give this story justice. The plot may sound childish in the way I describe it, but trust me it is an AMAZING book!