Water for Elephants: A Novel | Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants: A Novel | Sara Gruen | Sorry I waited!

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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

Best book ever!!!

This is one of the best...if not the best...book I've ever read. When I'm 90+ and in a nursing home, drooling on myself, I want this book read to me over and over and over.

Sorry I waited!

I've had Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen in my TBR pile for a bit now and I finally got it read. I'm sorry I waited! Very good read! I think I liked it most because, in the truest sense, this novel is a historical romance.

The story starts off with a prologue from Jacob Jankowski's POV. Jacob is a circus vet for Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth- although we don't know all that in the beginning.

There's been a stampede and, in the midst of it, someone murders one of the bosses.

Immediately after the prologue, the story jumps to Jacob, now ninety years old - or ninety-three years old, he can't quite remember- sitting in a nursing home. His circus life is long over but the memories of that time come rushing back when he hears a circus will be in town that coming weekend. The rest of the book alternates between now and the 1930's when the tragic death of his parents changes his life so drastically he runs away and falls in with The Benzini Bros. traveling spectacular.

There's something about stories during the depression area that draws me. Not sure why. Perhaps it's because of The Grapes of Wrath which I read eons ago. I didn't necessarily love the book, but there was something about it- about the setting- that intrigued me. The fashions, the atmosphere, and the people so haunted are almost tangible whenever I think of it.

Sara Gruen does a fine job of keeping with that time in Water for Elephants. Though the story is focused on circus life and the people and language that accompanied it, you still can taste the culture of the 1930's.

Jacob is a great protag. I loved young Jacob's kindness and noble humility, although I got frustrated with him because he took a back seat at times when shouldn't have, imo.

Yeah he's a gumpy old man in the present- but can you blame him? His wife is dead and his kids' visits are perfunctory. I found it interesting that during the depression young Jacob came alive, even after his parents death, and in the now- he's depressed. Once the love of his life is gone, he longs for the second love of his life- the circus.

The tale itself is a good one. From the time Jacob joins the circus he's drawn to Marlena, a beautiful performer who happens to be married to one of the bosses. It's a hard life and particularly harder for her, as we come to find August, her husband, is more than unstable.

Soon after hopping the Benzini Bros train- though Jacob had no idea that was in fact what he had done- Uncle Al, the head huncho and a mean man to be sure, hires him on. Al discovers Jacob has a near complete degree in veterinary medicine and is more than happy to keep him. Jacob is placed under August, head of the menagerie, and drawn ever closer to Marlena until an incident happens that causes her to make a final break from August and pushes her into Jacob's arms.

Thrown into the mix of Jacob and Marlena's love story, there is a cast of characters that endear you just as much as the protags and a particularly stubborn elephant named Rosie whose not as dumb as the bosses think!

The climax, which we read about in the prologue, comes back in greater depth with a twist I didn't see coming. Silly me. The falling out is satisfying enough for any great lover of Happily Ever Afters- and I'm not talking about Jacob getting the girl either.

Don't miss this one!

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First book I have read in years.

I have just started reading again and I decided this would be my first book in years.

I was not disappointed as the author paints a vivid picture of the characters with an adequate storyline. If you are looking for large adventures in the Circus, then this book is probably not for you.. but if you are interested in a good read with some very interesting characters, then I recommend it.

It brings you into a world that you likely never knew existed.

Good read

Loved this highly entertaining story. Very different from all the other rehashed story lines out there. Unique and wonderfully written.

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