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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Sloan, Holly Goldberg

The Elephant in the Room

256 pp. | Dial | March, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-735-22994-5 $17.99
(2) 4-6 Sila is having the worst year of her life. Her mother, a Turkish immigrant to the U.S., has returned to her homeland to sort out some immigration troubles and has been gone for months, leaving Sila and her father worried and depressed. The tide turns when they meet Gio, a retired carpenter, recent lottery winner, and fairy godfather figure. All the story needs is a link between these characters, handily provided by a traveling circus, down on its luck and wanting to off-load Veda, its Asian elephant. Lonely Gio installs Veda in the grounds of his mansion, and life gets much more expansive for Sila as she helps to care for the animal. A clutch of subplots--one involving an autistic boy who joins Sila in her project and another focusing on a labor dispute, a wrongful dismissal case involving Sila's mother--mutes the off-beat story's impact. Once we encounter a circus bear (who seems introduced for his role in an admittedly hilarious slapstick scene) and the adoption of a flock of flamingos, the narrative loses some focus, but the friendship of old man, child, and giant pachyderm is convincing, touching, and just odd enough.
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis

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