Sara Gruen
Author of Water for Elephants
About the Author
Sara Gruen was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1969. Before becoming a full-time fiction author, she worked as a technical writer. She has written several novels including At the Water's Edge, Ape House, Riding Lessons, and Flying Changes. Her novel, Water for Elephants, appeared on the New York Times show more Bestseller List for more than 4 years and was adapted into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Rob Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz in 2011. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Sara Gruen
Associated Works
Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do (2013) — Contributor — 212 copies, 10 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1969
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Carleton University
- Occupations
- technical writer
novelist - Relationships
- Gruen, Bob (husband)
Puffett, Kathryn (mother)
Bailey, Terence (father) - Short biography
- Sara Gruen (born 1969 in Vancouver is an author with dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship. Her books deal greatly with animals and she is a supporter of numerous charitable organizations that support animals and wildlife. She is a 2007 recipient of the Alex Awards.
Gruen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. She grew up in London, Ontario, and attended Carleton University in Ottawa to get a degree in English Literature. She continued to live in Ottawa for 10 years after graduation.
Gruen moved to the United States from Ottawa in 1999 in order to take a technical writing job. When she was laid off two years later, she decided to try writing fiction. Gruen is an animal lover; both her first novel, Riding Lessons, and her second novel, Flying Changes, involve horses. Gruen's third book, the 1930s circus drama Water for Elephants, was initially turned down by her publisher at the time, Avon Books; as a result, Gruen was forced to find another publisher, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. It went on to become a New York Times bestseller and is now available in 45 languages and as a 2011 film adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, and Robert Pattinson. Her fourth novel, Ape House, centers around the Bonobo ape and was sold to Spiegel & Grau on the basis of a 12-page summary. Ape House is published by Two Roads Books. Her fifth novel, At the Water's Edge, was published in 2015. - Nationality
- Canada (birth)
USA (naturalized) - Birthplace
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Places of residence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
London, Ontario, Canada
Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Grayslake, Illinois, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- Canada
Members
Discussions
Group Read (August): Water for Elephants in 2014 Category Challenge (August 2014)
Reviews
Water for Elephants is another of those novels that I somehow managed to miss reading when it was at its peak of popularity, this time by well over two years. But I’m here to tell you that, in the case of Water for Elephants, it is definitely better late than never.
Even in Depression-era America, Jacob Jankowski is doing pretty well for himself. He is a Cornell-trained veterinarian who only needs to sit for his final exams to make it official. He thinks he is in love but his lack of show more experience with the ladies means that he is more likely to be in lust than in love. For him, life is still pretty good.
But things change sometimes when one least expects it, and for Jacob change comes in the form of a tragic traffic accident that claims the lives of both his parents. As bad as that is, it gets even worse when he learns that he has also been left destitute because his parents mortgaged everything to pay his Cornell tuition, and Jacob finds that he cannot sit still even long enough to finish his exams. Wanting to get away from it all, he hops the first freight train that comes along, avoids getting thrown back onto the tracks, and soon enough finds himself a member of Benzini Brothers traveling circus.
Sara Gruen lets Jacob tell his own story by alternating the first person narrative of ninety-something-year-old Jacob, now living in a nursing home, with the voice of twenty-three-year-old Jacob as he experiences his summer with the Benzini Brothers. And what a story it is because the Benzini Brothers circus is not exactly The Ringling Brothers show and only circus owner, Uncle Al, tries to pretend that it is. Everything about the Benzini Brothers is second rate: the ragged animals in the zoo’s menagerie are badly treated and lucky to eat once a day, the roustabouts and other workers are not paid consistently, the freaks are usually fakes or not all that freakish in the first place, and the girly show performer has been known to take paying customers after show hours.
Jacob manages to catch on permanently with the show even with his incomplete veterinarian credentials and all goes relatively well until he falls in love with two ladies: Rosie, the elephant who joins the circus after he does, and Marlena, the beautiful young equestrian performer unfortunately married to the sadistic August, a man who beats both Marlena and Rosie.
Gruen paints an unforgettable picture of life in a small-time Depression-era circus, an environment filled with filth, underfed animals and humans, cruelty, alcohol abuse, varying degrees of crime, lust, and callousness. Jacob, appalled at what he sees and what he learns about August, Marlena and Uncle Al, fights to maintain his sense of decency in a world he never knew existed, but his love for a married woman and his guilt at not doing more to defend Rosie from the beatings she suffers at the hands of August has him doubting himself.
Surprisingly, as intriguing as the young Jacob’s story is, the nursing home predicament that the older Jacob finds himself in is an equally touching one. The audio version of Water for Elephants (10 CDs and 11 ½ hours long) is read by David LeDoux, as the young Jacob Jankowski and John Randolph Jones, who turns in an absolutely brilliant performance as Jacob, the old man. Frankly, both of the worlds created by Gruen are somewhat horrifying and both will linger in my memory for a long time.
Water for Elephants is, however, a tiny bit blemished by its unlikely ending even though it is the kind of fairy tale ending that I personally would have wished for Mr. Jankowski. Some things, though, are just too good to be true - or to ring true in a novel even as good as this one.
Rated at: 4.5 show less
Even in Depression-era America, Jacob Jankowski is doing pretty well for himself. He is a Cornell-trained veterinarian who only needs to sit for his final exams to make it official. He thinks he is in love but his lack of show more experience with the ladies means that he is more likely to be in lust than in love. For him, life is still pretty good.
But things change sometimes when one least expects it, and for Jacob change comes in the form of a tragic traffic accident that claims the lives of both his parents. As bad as that is, it gets even worse when he learns that he has also been left destitute because his parents mortgaged everything to pay his Cornell tuition, and Jacob finds that he cannot sit still even long enough to finish his exams. Wanting to get away from it all, he hops the first freight train that comes along, avoids getting thrown back onto the tracks, and soon enough finds himself a member of Benzini Brothers traveling circus.
Sara Gruen lets Jacob tell his own story by alternating the first person narrative of ninety-something-year-old Jacob, now living in a nursing home, with the voice of twenty-three-year-old Jacob as he experiences his summer with the Benzini Brothers. And what a story it is because the Benzini Brothers circus is not exactly The Ringling Brothers show and only circus owner, Uncle Al, tries to pretend that it is. Everything about the Benzini Brothers is second rate: the ragged animals in the zoo’s menagerie are badly treated and lucky to eat once a day, the roustabouts and other workers are not paid consistently, the freaks are usually fakes or not all that freakish in the first place, and the girly show performer has been known to take paying customers after show hours.
Jacob manages to catch on permanently with the show even with his incomplete veterinarian credentials and all goes relatively well until he falls in love with two ladies: Rosie, the elephant who joins the circus after he does, and Marlena, the beautiful young equestrian performer unfortunately married to the sadistic August, a man who beats both Marlena and Rosie.
Gruen paints an unforgettable picture of life in a small-time Depression-era circus, an environment filled with filth, underfed animals and humans, cruelty, alcohol abuse, varying degrees of crime, lust, and callousness. Jacob, appalled at what he sees and what he learns about August, Marlena and Uncle Al, fights to maintain his sense of decency in a world he never knew existed, but his love for a married woman and his guilt at not doing more to defend Rosie from the beatings she suffers at the hands of August has him doubting himself.
Surprisingly, as intriguing as the young Jacob’s story is, the nursing home predicament that the older Jacob finds himself in is an equally touching one. The audio version of Water for Elephants (10 CDs and 11 ½ hours long) is read by David LeDoux, as the young Jacob Jankowski and John Randolph Jones, who turns in an absolutely brilliant performance as Jacob, the old man. Frankly, both of the worlds created by Gruen are somewhat horrifying and both will linger in my memory for a long time.
Water for Elephants is, however, a tiny bit blemished by its unlikely ending even though it is the kind of fairy tale ending that I personally would have wished for Mr. Jankowski. Some things, though, are just too good to be true - or to ring true in a novel even as good as this one.
Rated at: 4.5 show less
I could not have loved it more. Water for Elephants is one of those wonderful novels that has an interesting setting, but it doesn’t let the setting take over the story. It is a novel about the people in that place, and the people of Benzini’s circus took over my mind and stay with me still.
Jacob begins Water for Elephants alone. Orphaned by his immigrant parents, he is weeks away from his Cornell graduation, but he simply cannot return to the life he has known. He jumps aboard a moving show more train-the train carrying the Benzini circus to its next production. No one on the circus cares that Jacob didn’t finish his final exams. The diploma, he is told, “is just a piece of paper, and nobody here gives a damn about that. You’re on a show now. The rules are different.”
In fact, the circus seems to have no rules at all. Jacob somehow finds other kind souls among the misfits, and these people work together to protect themselves and the animals. The villians-Uncle Al and August-are well described and three-dimensional. You understand why they behave the way they do. These villians are not cookie-cutter images, and their real-world sensibilities make them even more frightening. show less
Jacob begins Water for Elephants alone. Orphaned by his immigrant parents, he is weeks away from his Cornell graduation, but he simply cannot return to the life he has known. He jumps aboard a moving show more train-the train carrying the Benzini circus to its next production. No one on the circus cares that Jacob didn’t finish his final exams. The diploma, he is told, “is just a piece of paper, and nobody here gives a damn about that. You’re on a show now. The rules are different.”
In fact, the circus seems to have no rules at all. Jacob somehow finds other kind souls among the misfits, and these people work together to protect themselves and the animals. The villians-Uncle Al and August-are well described and three-dimensional. You understand why they behave the way they do. These villians are not cookie-cutter images, and their real-world sensibilities make them even more frightening. show less
I cannot believe that this book was written by the same author of Water for Elephants, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Despite the strength of Riding Lessons being the author's love for and knowledge of horses, I was disappointed in the story otherwise. The biggest factor was that I intensely disliked AnneMarie, the narrator. I got hooked into reading this book by the strong opening pages in which AnneMarie is at one with her horse Harry, both going for a big win in a horse event which included show more jumping. That was the highlight of the book for me, and it went downhill from there.
Soon-to-be-divorced AnneMarie returns to New Hampshire where her parents own a home, a stable for school and boarding horses,and have a business of riding lessons. Along with AnneMarie comes Eva, her 15-year-old rebellious daughter. AnneMarie takes over the family business as her dad becomes increasingly incapacitated due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a degenerative muscle disease). While living with her parents, AnneMarie discovers that Dan, a vet who does horse rescue, has obtained a rare brindled (striped) horse that was about to be killed. She wants that horse for herself because it because it reminds her of Harry, her horse from her previous, glorious riding days.
AnneMarie seems to botch up everything with which she meddles. While that is excusable, I could not understand nor stomach her complete disregard for the important people in her life, including her parents, her daughter, and two men who could have been better companions for her at a difficult time in her life. I grew to dislike her so intensely that I wanted this story to be over just to give relief to those whom she abused in that personal sense.
In all fairness, there was one incident which I did enjoy reading. It was the description of how AnneMarie (once again) made a mess of something. In this case, she intended to prepare an elegant dinner for Dan. Her plans went completely awry, but this situation did have me laughing out loud. I desperrately needed comic relief at that point in the book!
I'd suggest that this book be skipped entirely, but I would like to point you instead toward Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. This author can (and does) do better. show less
Soon-to-be-divorced AnneMarie returns to New Hampshire where her parents own a home, a stable for school and boarding horses,and have a business of riding lessons. Along with AnneMarie comes Eva, her 15-year-old rebellious daughter. AnneMarie takes over the family business as her dad becomes increasingly incapacitated due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a degenerative muscle disease). While living with her parents, AnneMarie discovers that Dan, a vet who does horse rescue, has obtained a rare brindled (striped) horse that was about to be killed. She wants that horse for herself because it because it reminds her of Harry, her horse from her previous, glorious riding days.
AnneMarie seems to botch up everything with which she meddles. While that is excusable, I could not understand nor stomach her complete disregard for the important people in her life, including her parents, her daughter, and two men who could have been better companions for her at a difficult time in her life. I grew to dislike her so intensely that I wanted this story to be over just to give relief to those whom she abused in that personal sense.
In all fairness, there was one incident which I did enjoy reading. It was the description of how AnneMarie (once again) made a mess of something. In this case, she intended to prepare an elegant dinner for Dan. Her plans went completely awry, but this situation did have me laughing out loud. I desperrately needed comic relief at that point in the book!
I'd suggest that this book be skipped entirely, but I would like to point you instead toward Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. This author can (and does) do better. show less
This book made me want to run away with the circus. Set in the US of the Great Depression, the story follows the wonderful, and not so wonderful characters that make up the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth as they travel by train entertaining many along the way.
The story is narrated by Jacob Jankowski, both as he takes part in events surrounding the circus, as well as reminiscing as a ninety-something year old man. The good guys are easy to love and the bad guys are easy to show more hate. It is perfectly impossible not to fall in love with Rosie. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for elephants and Rosie doesn’t disappoint.
This story has a little for everyone. A love story, circus freaks, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), and even a little bit of adventure and intrigue. I personally loved the scenes in which Jacob must carefully traverse the roof of the train, jumping between cars, all the way to his destination – any more information will spoil the story!
Water for Elephants is a perfect summer read with an excellent story and an ending that leaves you feeling great.
Oh, how I long for an elephant of my own! show less
The story is narrated by Jacob Jankowski, both as he takes part in events surrounding the circus, as well as reminiscing as a ninety-something year old man. The good guys are easy to love and the bad guys are easy to show more hate. It is perfectly impossible not to fall in love with Rosie. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for elephants and Rosie doesn’t disappoint.
This story has a little for everyone. A love story, circus freaks, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), and even a little bit of adventure and intrigue. I personally loved the scenes in which Jacob must carefully traverse the roof of the train, jumping between cars, all the way to his destination – any more information will spoil the story!
Water for Elephants is a perfect summer read with an excellent story and an ending that leaves you feeling great.
Oh, how I long for an elephant of my own! show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 10
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 37,535
- Popularity
- #484
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
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- ISBNs
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- Favorited
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