text: First, the story takes place in the 1940s (Harold's brother is MIA in WWII, not in Vietnam, as the Amazon.com review erroneously states).  Second, the writing is superb.  Mr. Lawrence makes you feel emotions without telling you what to feel.  His characters are very real.  His setting (a small, struggling circus, traveling the western U.S.) is historically believable, peopled with 'freaks' who  suffer as sideshows, unable to find any other way to live because of the bodies they were born with, but peopled also with 'normals' who are either afraid of or cruel to the freaks.  Harold, the 14-year-old albino central character, tries to straddle both groups of people.  He finds his niche in the circus as an elephant trainer.  I am admittedly ignorant about such things, but Mr. Lawrence again makes the storyline with the elephants--crucial to the plot of the novel--seem believable.  My only complaint about this otherwise very moving book has to do with the writing at a crucial death scene near the end.  I do want you to read this book, so I will try not to give anything away here, but the writing at this important point becomes formulaic in the dying character's last words and even Gomer Pyle-like (People actuallly say "Gosh!").  This did detract from the impact of the death, unfortunately, but I still very strongly recommend this book.  Five stars for a book with a major flaw says a lot!         
  