Water For Elephants is one of the best books I have read this year. Initially, I did not have any interest in reading this book because it involved a circus and I am not a huge fan of circuses. But at the insistence of some friends, I picked it up and began reading. Boy am I glad I did!

Jacob Jankowski is a young man who is thrust mercilessly into the aftermath of the cruelties of life. Despite his circumstances, however, he is a good and honorable man and his compassion and honor shine through on every page of this book. He is a character that reader's immediately fall in love with and can relate to on some level or another. The story itself grabs you instantly and takes you back to a time where traveling circuses were the biggest events in town.

Set in the 1930's, Water For Elephants offers a glimpse into a very strange and wonderous world of circus folk during a time when many, if not most, of the country was unemployed and doing anything they could to earn a buck or at least a meal. It was fascinating to read of the lifestyle of the circus workers and how they were treated, how they related to one another, how they treated their animals and what they thought of the townspeople they traveled the country to entertain.

Water For Elephants is also a story that tells of the love and life of Jacob and Merlena and their love for the animals that they come to know while working with them in the circus. The book is beautifully and vividly written, the characters well developed and easy to love (or hate as the case may be) and the animals' antics, especially Rosie, will make you laugh out loud.

Water For Elephants is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it! ( )

I was attracted to this book for the carnival theme but loved reading it for the compelling story with the push and pull from present to past. I loved the ending, quite unexpected. I definitely recommend for anyone who dreamed of running off to be a Carney! ( )

This is a wonderful book and I would recommend it - I even want my teenage son to read it. It is a heart-felt story told by an aging man in a nursing home who looks out the window to see a circus has come to town. Seeing the circus spins his mind into the past - re-living his memories of working the circus during the Great Depression. You will find this book enjoyable from beginning to the end. ( )

I have never been to a circus or ever wondered about circus life. There was nothing about the book that particularly interested me before I picked it up and started reading. However, I found it very easy to become and stay interested in the story and the characters. This book is very well written and the author does a wonderful job of switching between the active story and the current state/recollections of the main character. I very much enjoyed reading this book. It was an effortless read - a very enjoyable story. ( )

Love it ( )

This was a beautiful and wonderful book. The cover art attracted me but the story line was amazing and pulls you through. The life of the Circus... how can that not be amusing in some way? This is a great book, all should read it. ( )

What a great book! Water for Elephants caught my interest from the very first page. It is set in two alternating times, the present when Jacob is an irritable frail old man and the past when he is in his early twenties.when flight and chance find him joining a travelling circus, with its curious mix of beauties, freaks, bullies and animals. Life on a Circus train is none too genteel especially with the likes of Barbara (the stripper)and a dwarf who reads Shakespeare (or does he?) , the beautiful Marlene and of course, Rosie, the elephant who would do anything for a drink. Sara Gruens portrayal of Jacob as an old man is brilliant . I loved him, cross and all as he was. The story is at times brutal and graphic and even the notes at the end are well worth reading. Great satisfying story. ( )

Block, M. (2006). Water for elephants. Booklist, 102(16), 36-7. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from Article Citation database.

Coan, J. (2006). Water for elephants. Library Journal (1976), 131(5), 62-3. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from Article Citation database.

This book is the first, and only one so far, that I have won from participating in a giveaway! I had been wanting to read this one for a long time, so when I received an email to tell me that I won Water for Elephants I was thrilled.

The story is told from two different perspectives, that of 93 year old Jacob, and the same Jacob at the age of 22. In 1931, the young Jacob finds himself unexpectedly joining a traveling circus after a family tragedy leads him to quit school. There he meets Marlena, the equestrian on the show, and as time goes by their affection for each other keeps growing. However Marlena is already married to August, the animal trainer who is a certified paranoid schizophrenic. The time he spends with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth is further complicated due to the struggle circuses everywhere were going through because of the great depression, which made Uncle Al, the ruthless owner of the circus even more difficult to deal with. Now at 93, Jacob cannot grasp the idea that he is getting old and he can't believe this old man's body is his, neither can he accept the fact that he has to live in an assisted living home. One day a visiting circus arrives, and while eagerly waiting for his family to take him to the circus, his memories are triggered and the younger Jacob takes over to tell the story.

Most of the time when I start a book it takes a couple of chapters to actually decide if I am liking it or not, however I liked Water for Elephants from the very start! It was an easy and enjoyable read, and although it might be considered as chick lit this book is very well researched and gives you just enough detail to make you feel like you know what it's all about. The characters just come to life, I loved the young Jacob and Marlena, and felt so bad for the older Jacob. In this book, even the animals are given a personality, especially Rosie the elephant who was definitely a favorite of mine because of the fact that she has more human characteristics than some of the other characters. In the end it turned out to be very moving, with a pleasant surprise included as well. It made me so happy to know that Jacob found a way to be content again.

The book finished with a note and a conversation with Sara Gruen. I really enjoy reading these as it gives you an insight on the author's thoughts, and what was the idea behind the story. In fact I was really impressed to learn that most things in this book are based on real life events. I would have never thought! ( )

One of my favorite reads... can't say why. Wanna read more from Guen. ( )

Ever wonder what it would be like to run away with the circus? Sara Gruen tells us in this story about Jacob, a young man who does just that. It’s the height of the Great Depression and Jacob is just about to write his final exams to become a veterinarian when disaster strikes and he is left homeless. This adventure/love story is full of interesting characters including one very special elephant. Told from the perspective of an older Jacob. Gruen is masterful with the details.

A story of a boy in the 30's depression who joins a circus and also about him as an old man in the old folks home. Very entertaining and enjoyable. ( )

For the past year practically everyone I know who reads has been telling me, "You have to read Water for Elephants!" I don't know why, but so many people telling me I would like the book made me afraid I wouldn't like the book. Instead I've read 2 other books Sara Gruen wrote, Riding Lessons and Flying Changes, horse stories which I enjoyed greatly but...not as much as I relished Water for Elephants!

This is the story of a vet who runs away with the circus around the time of the Great Depression. The circus travels the country by train. Really I feel that's all I can say about it without giving anything away. But if you are an animal lover, you will like this book too. Don't be scared. Read it! ( )

I don't even know how to begin this review. This book is so wonderful, and so very different from anything that I've read, that I still can't believe it. Sara Gruen has written a book that is so carefully researched and so well-written that it puts the reader right into the story which is Depression-time circus life. Jacob is a character that is so real, both as he's portrayed at a young age, and as he is portrayed as a 93 year old living with his memories in an old aged home. The story is poignant and also sad. It is quite heartbreaking to think of the way the animals lived that travelled with train circuses during this time. And they had all manner of animals, from elephants to apes to zebras to horses to the big cats like lions and tigers. They even had polar bears if you can imagine! This book is dark in its portrayal of circus life circa 1920, but it's also heartwarming in Ms. Gruen's portayal of the many kinds of people that also travelled with these circuses. These train circuses were an entire community and everyone in them was part of the family, including the animals. The story is also a love-story that is so beautifully depicted amongst this varied kaleidoscope of characters and the wonderful animals. And what about amazing Rosie? She is an elephant that I will never forget! A totally wonderful reading experience that I didn't want to put down, and that I'm now sad that I've finished. ( )

I’ve heard raves about this book for ages and I just got to it. I wish I’d read it earlier – it really is wonderful, as so many people have said. Strangely enough, it wasn’t what I expected – given the reactions of others, I had expected the whole thing to be much more melancholy, and in some ways it was, but much more of it was hopeful, enlivening, and even, on a few occasions, darkly funny. Lovely.

When I originally picked up this book I read the back and put it down. Circuses really aren't my thing. Then I heard a review on NPR and thought I'd give it a go. I am so glad I did. This was one of my best reads of the year. I loved the storyline with Jacob. I can still visualize him as I type this. Getting a glimpse of life behind the scenes of the circus was fascinating. Although I don't know it to be fact, I assume the circus details are fairly accurate. For the first time in my life I actually wanted to run away and join the circus. ( )

Story Overview

Jacob Jankowski is 90—or possibly 93. He's not really sure.

"When you're five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties you know how old you are. I'm twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It's a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I'm—you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you're not. You're thirty-five. And then you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it's decades before you admit it."

Jacob lives in a nursing home—a bit of a grumpy old man but he does OK overall. He likes to give the nurses a hard time every so often. He resents having to eat Jell-O and the other soft food they try to pass off in the dining room. But his mind is drifting a bit; sometimes he finds himself in vivid dreams—and wakes to find himself unsure of where he is and why he is there. And when a circus sets up shop near the nursing home, Jacob's mind begins to wander more—back to when he was a young man of twenty-three. Back when he knew exactly how old he was. Back when his life lay before him like a blank canvas.

He was studying to be a veterinarian. Unbeknownst to Jacob, his parents had mortgaged themselves to the hilt to put him through vet school. The idea was for Jacob to return home and join his father in the family practice—E. Janokowski and Son, Doctors of Veterinary Medicine. But on the brink of graduation, Jacob is called out of class. His parents have been killed in a car accident. He's alone in the world. He returns home to bury his parents and finds that his legacy—the vet practice—is gone. It is the Great Depression and like others, his parents had fallen on hard times and there is nothing left—the bank claims it all.

Although Jacob returns to school to sit for his final exam, he walks out without completing it, follows a road down to the train tracks, and hops onto a passing train—a n action that changes everything. For this isn't an ordinary train—it is the Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Jacob has landed on a circus train.

A less profitable and more shady circus than Ringling, the Benzini Brothers circus is its own society—populated by two basic social castes: the Performers and the Working Men. They live their lives on the circus train—crisscrossing the country and setting up in various small towns around America. With his veterinary background, Jacob soon finds himself in charge of the menagerie—the collection of animals that perform in the circus. From horses to tigers to monkeys, Jacob cares for the animals with compassion and concern—doing the best he can in difficult circumstances. (After all, when even the men don't get paid some days, there isn't much money for animal food.)

He is befriended by a married couple who perform in the circus. Marlena is the beautiful star who performs with the Liberty Horses. August—Marlena's tempermental husband—is the equestrian director and superintendent of animals (in other words, Jacob's boss). Jacob is instantly smitten with Marlena but works hard to conceal his feelings—August has a dark temper that can flare unexpectedly. At first Jacob can control his attraction, but when the circus takes on Rosie—an elephant—things become complicated.

The fates of Jacob, Rosie, Marlena and August become forever intertwined—linked together by love, hate, jealousy and violence. How this story plays out forms the core of the book—taking a path that is full of twists, turns and surprises.

My Thoughts

Sara Gruen does a brilliant job of creating a world that I've never read about before—the world of a traveling circus train in Depression-era America. What a colorful and fascinating setting this was. Gruen does a wonderful job of giving you the feel for a life of a circus worker, and the story is enhanced by the black-and-white photos of actual circus performers from the era. You feel like you're looking at photos of the actual characters that populate the book. In the Author's Note and the accompanying interview, Ms. Gruen talks about her inspiration and research for the book. There are a million little details that give this book such an authentic feel. She really did her homework and it shows. From the words used by the characters to the descriptions of the logistics of the circus to the types of men and women who made their home in what was essentially a traveling, self-contained community, I felt like I was really there on the circus train.

Although the heart of the book is what happens to Jacob when he joins the circus, the book alternates between the elderly Jacob in the nursing home and young Jacob in the circus. I thought this juxtasposition worked well (except for the very end—I personally didn't care for the final choice that Gruen made for the elderly Jacob). When the circus comes to town and triggers Jacob's memories, his story unfolds in a natural way—with the reader getting more and more drawn in to Jacob's story as it unfolds in the book and in his memories.

In addition, Gruen establishes a framing device in the prologue that influences the reader from the very start of the novel. I found this particular choice extremely effective—and I loved how she pulled it off and tied it together at the end. I love when an author plays with her readers a little bit, and Gruen did a great job in this aspect.

If you're looking for a movie to go with the book, I must recommend Dumbo. I kept picturing scenes from that movie as I read the book, and I could completely imagine this story being told in a similar way.

My Final Recommendation

I definitely see why this book was a bestseller. It offers something for everyone—a unique setting, a bit of history, a romantic triangle, animals, an examination in what it means to grow old. This book effortlessly fits all of this in without seeming forced or strained. And on top of that, it is just a good story that makes you want to find out what happens next. If you haven't read it already, I think it is definitely worth a read. If I was attending the Benzini Brothers circus, I would be standing up and yelling "Encore! Encore!" ( )

This is a fascinating tale of life in a travelling circus in depression and prohibition era USA. Jacob Jankowski tells the story from his nursing home at age 90 (or 93, he is not quite sure). He was a final year veterinary student at Cornell, when told of his parents’ fatal car accident. Devastated, he returned home, only to find that the bank would repossess the family house and all its contents. Unable to focus, Jacob walks out of his final exams and wanders off into the forest. He comes across a train and decides to jump aboard one of the wagons, in the hope that it will take him somewhere that might provide employment. It turns out to be a circus train, and the wagon’s occupants debate throwing Jacob out before relenting. The fact that he has veterinary skills lead to his retention in the circus, where at least he is fed, though never actually paid. Gruen’s research has been extensive and she depicts a tough but colourful life on the circus train, with fascinating characters and a villainous management. Jacob develops greaty affinity with the animals, especially with an elephant the circus acquires from another failed company. He also becomes involved with one of the main performers, whose jealous, schizophrenic husband is master of the performers, and this leads to a dramatic conclusion. In addition to the fine portrayal of circus life, Gruen masterfully conveys the frustrations and feelings of the ninety-plus nursing home patient at his physical failings and inability to communicate well with his fellow inmates. It is a fine and very accessible novel. ( )

I have to say that seeing the title and cover picture on this book, I probably would not have pulled it off the shelf. That would have been a mistake. I read it for my reading group and was captivated by the depiction of life in a Depression-era traveling circus. A very good novel.

Jacob Jankowski is old -- so old, in fact, that age has lost its urgency and is no longer even a point worth remembering. Trapped in a nursing home under the oppressive supervision of well-intended nurses, he finds himself escaping to youthful memories in an attempt to free himself of the drudgery of strained food and excessively sanitized accommodations. The circus has come to town, sparking a flurry of memories of Jacob's time with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth -- a fictional yet relatively historically accurate version of a 1930s Depression-era circus. Jacob, who had just run away from his former life, and from his Ivy League veterinary education only days before graduation, joined the circus quite by accident, but found that it was there that his life began.

Perhaps one of the strongest elements of Gruen's writing is the narrative frame that she sets up. Jacob's entire life, at least insofar as this story is concerned, revolves around the circus. There is a certain degree of closure that makes the story quite satisfying. And it's a quick read: the plot never stagnates, and things keep happening to draw the reader forward to find out what happens next. It reads like a tall tale of sorts, except that against the backdrop of a 1930s circus, it's actually quite a plausible story. Odd, certainly, but pausible nonetheless.

The characters, however, need a bit of work. I found it incredibly hard to reconcile Jacob's narrative voice with that of a 90-something-year-old man. His reflections didn't seem to have the proper distance that age inevitably supplies, and his turns of phrase were not those of an older gentleman. In fact, there seemed to be no discernible difference between Jacob at age 24 and Jacob at age 90 (or 93). His character's actions were believable, but his narrative was unconvincing.

Other characters were similarly unremarkable. Marlena and August seemed to be mostly shells of people, stock characters used to progress the plot rather than to contribute to the development or depth of the story. The story contains all the useful archetypes, but doesn't really expound on them or craft them into something new and original. In fact, I kept stumbling across elements that seemed to be liberally borrowed from other stories, such as HBO's Carnivale series (which, sadly, was canceled well before it ought to have been).

Even with all those criticisms, I have to confess that I very much enjoyed reading it. With a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief, it's actually quite an engaging read, and a fun story besides. With such a happy ending, what's not to love?

The most intriguing part of the book is the description of circus life which is, I presume, well researched.

Unfortunately, the circus life is wrapped up around a cornball melodrama with paper thin characters (All Marlena seems capable of doing is sobbing and saying, 'Oh, Jacob!' before collapsing into his arms in every scene.) The present day segments in the nursing home slow the story down.

Not the earth shattering book I was told it was. ( )

This isn't the kind of book I would have picked up on my own, but once I started reading it for our book discussion group, I couldn't put it down. The story is told by a feisty old man who resents being left by his children to wither away in an old folks' home. It goes back to the end of his college days, a Cornell student on the brink of becoming a veterinarian. Due to circumstances beyond his control he winds up being the vet for Benzini Bros. Circus, and without his degree. In one short summer his life is changed forever. His story is mesmerizing, and the ending ivery satisfying. ( )

Jacob Jankowski is a 93 year old man living the last days of his life in a nursing home. When a circus comes to town, and the nursing home residents get permission to attend the festivities, Jacob begins to reminisce about his life. The story traverses back and forth in time.

Jacob’s memories take him back to the 1930’s, the years of the Great Depression and Prohibition. He is a student at Cornell University studying to become a veterinarian, and preparing for his final exams, when his parents are killed in a car accident. Jacob is suddenly penniless and homeless. One fateful night he hops a train headed west, and by daybreak comes to realize he is in the Flying Squadron car of the “Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth”. Thus he begins a new life with a second rate traveling circus.

I may be biased about this book because my own father is 92 and just as tough and ornery as Jacob. My Dad still lives alone in the house he build in the 1940’s and despite his physical ailments he still puts in a vegetable patch, mows his own lawn, and accompanies me to do his food shopping. He still eats steak and occasionally has a shot of his own homemade wine. So, I can relate to Jacob, and sympathize with his disdain for the generic, controlled, sterile nursing home routines. “The old Jacob” is a wonderful character.

Water for Elephants is loaded with colorful characters; Uncle Al the circus owner, Marlena the beautiful sexy equestrienne, Marlena’s sadistic husband August, Walter the Dwarf, Rosie the elephant, and Queenie the Jack Russell Terrier. But don’t expect too much (depth) of the characters. This book is more about Jacob’s melodramatic journey and the dysfunctional circus crew than character development. Sara Gruen’s extensive research into the archives of circus life provided a wealth of information, details, facts, and anecdotes, which she cleverly used to bring the story to life. In the hardcover edition, each new chapter begins with an authentic vintage photograph of the various American traveling circuses.

Water for Elephants is action packed and rife with animal cruelty, sadistic behavior, and violence; a simple love story in a unique, exotic setting. ( )

I was introduced to the book by Margie Lawson in one of her classes. I liked the excerpt so much, I bought the book. Excellent read, great imagery, very real. If you like stories about circuses, you will love this one, especially with the romance involved, and the murder. ( )

One thing I had to appriciate while reading this book was how much research the author did. My favourite moments were when Jacob was old, and comparing himself now and back then. Most of the fascinating facts were depressing but learned a lot about the circus during the depression. ( )