Water for Elephants: A Novel

One of the more interesting and well-written recent novels. After a family tragedy, a young man walks out on his veterinary exams at an Ivy-league university and joins the circus (he really does!) The story switches back and forth between past and present, as the narrator is a grumpy geriatric in an old folks home. With its colorful characters and a fine balance of humor, humanity, compassion, and suspense, this makes for a quite entertaining read. And for those of you who, like me, fear and loathe clowns, you'll be happy to know that this is not that kind of book. Not even close.

In a long list of critical praise on the first four pages of the paperback edition for Water For Elephants, The Chicago Tribune is quoted as saying the novel is “so compelling, so detailed and vivid, that I couldn’t bear to be torn away from it for a single minute”.

My sentiments exactly.

Water For Elephants is one of the most engrossing novels I’ve read so far this year (another is Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns) and now that I have finished it in what seemed a whirlwind of time (I stay at home with two small children and I still read it in three days!), Sara Gruen is among my list of favorite authors. I look forward to the debut of her fourth novel Ape House scheduled to be released in October of this year.

The Canadian-American author doesn’t waste any time putting the reader in suspense. The novel starts off smack dab in the midst of a cacophonous stampede of circus animals (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) and someone’s impending doom. Want to find out what happened? Read the book and I’ll guarantee you won’t stop ‘til you reach the end. The engrossing tale is told in flashbacks from the mind of Jacob Jankowski, a man who is encroaching the end of his life at an impressive ninety years of age (“…or ninety-three. One or the other.”). Jacob resides at an assisted living facility and is the consummate old fart, crotchety and bitter about the black void of his current living. It isn’t until word that the circus is coming to town that something inside of him stirs and memories of his youth from the furthest recesses of his mind float to the murky surface.

We are suddenly thrust into the past at the inception of the Great Depression. Jacob is twenty-three and a student in his final year at Cornell University working towards a degree in veterinary sciences when he is pulled out of class one day in 1931 to earth-shattering news – his parents are dead after a sudden and fatal car accident. Left with little to fall back on, Jacob takes a short leave and returns to school to finish out the year but his grief over the loss of his mother and father shadows his professional goals and he walks out in the middle of his final test, the integral exam that will earn him his degree. Having committed career suicide, Jacob goes walking aimlessly for an entire afternoon and inexplicably jumps a passing train in the night. Little does he know that this one small act has just changed his entire future.

After being roughed up by a car full of “working men”, Jacob learns that he has just boarded the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth (“You done landed yer ass on a circus, boy”), a big top rivaling the Ringling Brothers and headed by tyrannical ringmaster Alan Bunkel, dubbed “Uncle Al”. It isn’t until he lets loose that he’s a Cornell-educated vet that he gets placed in the menagerie working with all the animals, in particular a bull elephant named Rosie. Jacob grows fond of Rosie as well as the other animals but his heart really belongs to a woman named Marlena, a resplendent young performer who is inconveniently married to an emotionally unstable man named August, the equestrian director and superintendent of animals. As Jacob’s love for Marlena grows, so too does his hatred of August as he watches him grow ever more suspicious and ever more brutal. His violent streak spills over onto Rosie, who is rumored to be “dumb as rocks” and disobedient ever since she was acquired and August makes her pay for her insubordination with recurrent vicious floggings.

To make matters worse, Uncle Al constantly shafts his workers and performers by docking and/or refraining to pay them for their work and when someone’s authority is unduly challenged, people mysteriously disappear in the dead of night. Jacob’s unwavering morals suddenly pit him in a dangerous situation and with a love triangle rapidly brewing and a wild animal reaching its breaking point, the thunder will crack loud and hard before the storm.

The book flits back and forth between the past and present and the transition is fluid – there is no confusion between the youthful Jacob and his ninety-year old self. The descriptions of the circus are vivid, particularly the behavior of the animals within the menagerie. Being an avid supporter of numerous animal and wildlife charities, this isn’t a surprise coming from Gruen and it’s some very interesting character development indeed.

Her human counterparts in the story don’t suffer from this, thankfully. Jacob is a well-written character, the youthful version brimming with naivete and conviction and the older of course wiser but still resolute as ever. Gruen shows with Jacob that even after the utmost disastrous of events that time can reign down upon a life, some things about our character ultimately never change. The unpredictability of August is also queerly fascinating – with expertly written passages of steely smiles, cold gazes and passive-aggressive undertones, the reader will feel just as perplexed and wary of him as Jacob does.

Along with extensive research on the subject of circuses during the Depression, Gruen included 17 black-and-white archival photos of circuses throughout the 1930’s; the photos are prominently featured at the beginning of about every other chapter and lend the story some great visuals to feed upon.

Bottom Line: A superb novel, well worth the time and money to read. With a movie deal in the works, pick it up now before the film adaptation spoils it in either the best or worst way.

There has been so much hype built up around this book, I must confess that I was somewhat reluctant to give it a shot. However, to my very pleasant surprise, upon reading it, I discovered a funny, humane story with deeply layered characters, a good, if somewhat predictable plot, and, above all, a wonderful, original setting. The frame narrative - the eldery Jacob in an old folks home - breaks away from the embedded story smoothly - it doesn't feel forced or jerky; the parallel structure of the book, in particular, had the potential to be gimmicky, but in this case, worked marvelously well. While this novel was not perfect - the romance writing was a bit...staid, or rather, cliched, and the antagonist is a bit stereotypical, but overall, I really enjoyed this book. It transported me into a boy's mind, and into a 1930's circus - I couldn't put it down.

I'm totally enjoying this read. The novel is fresh. It's taken me to two different worlds, both unfamiliar: a world of life in the circus and to a world of fear and misunderstanding in a retirement home.

this book did not overtake me until the end...but it did ultimately succeed. i felt sad during the parts read by the 90 (or 93) year old Jacob. It made me wonder what will happen to me in my old age...something I am often uncomfortable thinking about. Events occurring behind the scenes of circus life left me feeling angry and disgusted. I am not one for circuses in the first place (I rather dislike them) and I'm not one for falling for a love story that begins in an affair (I rather dislike those also). However, the love story prevails...though not the center of the events, it is the undercurrent of the story. Sadness about an old man's fate is lifts when the circus comes to town. The book was humorous (especially as told by the 90 (or 93) year old Jacob, and definitely contained enough suspense. I recommend this book.

I kind of had middle of the road feelings about this book. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't overwhelmed with the love either. I think my main issue was that I didn't really care for Jacob all that much. Sure, he was more likeable than August or Uncle Al, but I didn't really find him a sympathetic protagonist. And, I'm not a prude by any means, but I felt like there were times when the author threw in sexual situations that didn't really seem to fit in to the tone of the book. I mean, come on. Was a masturbating midget clown really necessary. I know Jacob walking in on Walter in a private moment was supposed to emphasize the tension in their relationship at that point, but, really? And his whole deflowering by the stripper and a prostitute. It kind of cheapened him to me. So when he and Marlena got together, I didn't really care.

Overall, I think the book was pretty predictable. Gruen's writing style was really fluid though, so it read very easily.

Loved this book. From the minute I opened it, until the very last page, I could not put it down.

This book is about what life must have been like during the depression era while working for the circus.

Of course there are twists and turns along the way to keep the reader engaged. I really appreciated how Sara Gruen would go back and forth from modern day to depression era and it seemed seamless.

Her characters were very believable and well developed. I felt swept away, like I was there as a firsthand witness.

I love the suspense, mystery and details. I had never really given much thought to the circus, but am sure that there are many wonderful story's to be told.

The author did a great job interjecting humor, yet kept the serious scenes serious. There is love, lust, compassion, and suspense.

I would recommend this book to others. It's a quick read and highly enjoyable.

After hearing people rave about this book I was looking forward to reading it. It was just OK, a bit of a disappointment at the end. The love scenes read like a Harlequin romance novel, and given what this man and woman went through to be together I just couldn't buy the old man's family dynamic with his grown children. If you want a better circus themed book, try Cathy Day's The Circus in Winter which blows this book away.

I loved this book it really drew me in. The story about Jacob told from his flashbooks as an old man in the nursing home really added and was also very thought provoking for him. It made me reflect on how I treat my elders and made me think of the amazing source of information that they have. It also made me realize how many interesting stories that they have and they have in the past been very capable of making decisions. That is why we should treat them that way instead of just treating them like a toddler who is incapable of making decisions. It made me realize that even if they can't make the best decision that we owe it to them to make them feel like they are apart of the decison making process if at all possible.

Also this story of his past life in the circus was just captavating. The humor, the love story, the conflict between characters was amazing. The surprises of characters not being who you excpected was just amazing. I loved it. It was full of twists and turns that just kept me wondering what was going to happen next and wanting to read to see if my predictions were correct. It was a story that really showed the real life happenings and how sometimes bad luck and hard times can be turned into good ones and sometimes it can't.

Eminently readable from first sentence. A transitional novel written by a first-time Canadian author. It moves from first person senior in rest home to what seems to be a current story exploding in action/reaction, cause and effect of the senior citizen insinuating his memories into ensuring that his own personal "show" must go on as long as possible. It is as if the characters are real, the circus in my home, the lemonade tastes brackish and the paycheck leaves me as broke afterward as I was when I entered the line to receive my regular cheque.

What I learned about elephants pales against my new knowledge of the "menangerie". In turn, each experience with the interaction between animal and circus simply reminds me at my age how much I do not know.

It is books like this that make reading fun and a growth experience. I would recommend it for all ages or gender. I would highly recommend this to everyone.