Water for Elephants: A Novel | Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants: A Novel | Sara Gruen | Amazing read for anyone!

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Water for Elephant...

	Water for Elephants: A Novel Sara Gruen Algonquin Books, 2007 - 350 pages average customer review:based on 1414 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Incredible

This book was incredible and has haunted me since I finished it. Read it!

Amazing read for anyone!

This was an amazing book! I waited forever to get this book for some unknown reason. Then I borrowed it from my boyfriend's mom and couldn't put it down! From the very beginning you are sucked into the world of a Depression Era circus. The characters are engaging and make you feel for them. You forget that you are just reading a book. Just when you think you know what is going to happen, you are thrown a new curve ball right up until the amazing ending. Gruen clearly did her research of the time and stories of life on the circus creating an amazing world for readers. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for an escape to a great world that most people will never experience.

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Running away, to and from the circus

I've been to the circus only once in my life, as a small child, towed along by my parents for what they surely thought would be a treat. It wasn't. We never went again. Even as a small child, I seemed to instinctively pick up on the abuse required to get wild animals to do what they do in the three rings of a circus. If nothing else, the sight of such wonderful creatures as elephants, lions, tigers, bears and various others, forced to do what they would not normally do but for cheap human entertainment, galled me. I loved animals. I loved them at a distance, to view them in either their natural habitat or through some telescopic lens that would keep the disruption of their lives in the wild at a minimum. For that reason, out of my respect for their wildness, I have avoided both the circus and zoos.

Sara Gruen's novel, "Water for Elephants," reinforced my decision. It is the story of Jacob Jankowski, both at age 23 and at age 90-something (he can't clearly recall, as he narrates the story in a series of flashbacks from the nursing home where he is at present wasting away his final days). He does not run away to the circus for the usual romantic reasons of seeking adventure and freedom, as it is commonly viewed. His parents have died in a car crash, and he finds himself without any inheritance, a veterinary student who must suddenly face the need to become financially self-sufficient. He can no longer afford to remain in school. Instead, he hops a train that carries all that is the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Through his eyes we come to see the behind-the-scenes reality of the circus.

The star of this show, this book, is Rosie the elephant. She is the center point, and around her tangle the many eccentric characters: Uncle Al, the sadistic circus boss; August, the equally sadistic animal trainer, and his wife, Marlena, entrapped in the marriage, but quickly returning the love Jacob shows her and hoping for escape; and many others, circus hands and assorted circus characters, midgets and clowns and fat ladies and circus prostitutes, each with their own sad story.

The story moves quickly, interspersed with fascinating black and white photos illustrating typical circus scenes of the day and adding historical credence. Gruen's writing skill is evident in keeping the pages turning and involving the reader, educating and tugging at heart strings as we witness scenes of cruelty against both human and animal. It is a not a literarily honed writing style, but an involving and entertaining one. We are moved, and we wish to know what happens to this array of colorful characters, even if the ending is quite predictable in its revelation of who murdered August and what action the aging Jacob will take at first opportunity to escape the nursing home.

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Page turning book!

I just finished reading Water for Elephants and thought this book was pretty good. I really could not put the book down! I had to force myself to close the book because If I wanted to, I could finish it in a day. I choose to read this book since it had such high ratings. I'm glad I picked it up.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I'm torn on my opinion about this book which I just finished last night. I loved the parts where Jacob was old; it successfully portrayed the anguish and confusion anyone would feel when their independence, privacy, and basically their rights are taken away from them. I really felt it. The story grabbed me right away and continued to be enjoyable and interesting through about half the book; then it deteriorated a bit after that. All in all though I enjoyed the book and the characters and am not sorry I read it. Definitely easy reading.

Laura

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