Water for Elephants: A Novel | Sara Gruen | My Favorite Book In Years!

Water for Elephants: A Novel | Sara Gruen | Still thinking about this book after more...

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Water for Elephant...

	Water for Elephants: A Novel Sara Gruen Algonquin Books, 2007 - 350 pages average customer review:based on 1363 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

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My Favorite Book In Years!

Once I picked this book up I couldn't put it down! I loved it! Everyone I recommended it to has loved it! Please don't allow the circus setting to persuade you from giving this fantastic read a chance, as I almost did (I have a phobia of clowns and all freakish-like things which is usually what I associate a circus to be all about). This is a definite must read!!

Still thinking about this book after more...

...than a year after I read it. What a sweet story. I highly recommend this book.

Fantastic read

I bought this for my book club, not knowing what to expect. I absolutely loved it and couldn't put it down! The rest of my club liked it, too. None of us found anything about it we disliked, and our discussion of it ran almost twice as long as normal. I especially loved the twist in the plot ...

I had to go reread some parts to see where my mind had tricked me and how Gruen had written the double meaning so it didn't sound ambiguous at all during the first read. Quality writing.

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Great Summer reading

Water for Elephants is deliciously written. It takes you to a different time. Life in the circus was revealed to me, in a way that made me want to know more. The story is full of action, deceit and romance. I couldn't stop reading it.

Could have been so interesting...

Jacob Jankowski, the ultimate outsider to the life he will infiltrate, jumps a train after the death of his parents. It happens to be a train of a touring circus company and his status as an almost-vetrinarian seals his employment ("how predictable", I find myself sighing). This "fish-out-of-water" scenario has done too many times.

To Gruen's credit, her research is fantastic. However, I can scarcely believe that of all she uncovered about traveling circus shows and the Great Depression, this was the story she found the most compelling. It was a love story that had almost nothing to do with the rich background Gruen provided. I couldn't help thinking that the Great Lucinda, little Walter or conniving Uncle Al would've told made a better, nuanced protagonist. I wanted more history, more real-life grit of circus life, more developed characters with interesting backstories than the whining of Jacob ("He hit her!" he said, stamping his foot like a five year old) and pouty Marlena ("I've bruised my heels! Please carry me...")

I'm left wondering what kind of book this could have been.

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