Water for Elephants

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 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 show more 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 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 more 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

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 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!), show more 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

I read the first half of this book in a matter of days, and the second half in a matter of hours. I haven't been able to put it down. It is fascinating, historic, eye-opening. The impact of having a spouse who is abusive is just as strong as the impact of an animal being abused in this book. The romance of the circus is shattered among the secrets and the truth behind it. The glitz and glamour of performers that we so often can't get enough of are scuffed by the truth we are so often blind to. I will read this book again and again, I'm sure.

"Water for Elephants" is an expertly-crafted historical novel that creates an engaging fairy tale love story and vividly captures the grittiness of a Depression era traveling circus. The framing story, which has the protagonist, Jacob Jankowski, at the age of 90 (or is it 93?) in the present day alternately looking back at his past adventures and reflecting on his current old age, adds a nice sepia tone to the rough grimy world of the 1930's. The surprise revelation towards the end is wonderfully effective and satisfying, as is the final little twist ending that brings Jacob's life full-circle.

Jacob Jankowski was one week and his final exams away from being a vet. Then tragedy hits, claiming the lives of his parents, and revealing that they’d mortgaged everything to keep their only child enrolled in Cornell University. The weight and guilt of this bears down on young Jacob, and he just walks off from school… and keeps on walking. When he finally stops for the night, he decides to jump aboard a passing train, only to find he’s just joined the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

Vividly imaginitive and well-researched, Water for Elephantsby Sara Gruenis a compelling, character-driven tale with the feel of magic and wonder we feel as children going to the circus for the first time. It has a gritty realism to show more it and exposes the behind-the-scenes working and stratification of classes of the travelling circus. Bosses, freaks, an exotic menagerie, performers, clowns and dwarfs, working men and roustabouts… in that order. Everyone has a history, and a pervasive loneliness binds them all together.

I was enrapt by both the writing and the story in Water for Elephants. Gruen, a female writer, captures the male perspective amazingly well. The story takes place in two timelines: Young Jacob at 23 and joining the circus, and the elderly Jacob, who is either 91 or 93 (he can’t remember anymore), in an assisted living facility, dealing with the emotions of being left behind -by his kids and his deceased wife- in a place where there’s baby food to eat, your neighbor poops his pants, and your desires and opinions are discounted and ignored. I was carried along through the story, and it was over before I even knew it.

Click for full reivew: http://thekoolaidmom.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/water-for-elephants-by-sara-gruen/ show less

“I’m ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.”

This opener is a classic, an interlude to an old man’s reminiscing of his youth. You’d think, that someone who can’t correctly remember his age, would at best, have blurred memories of his past. But Jacob Jankowski is made of sterner stuff. He may forget the name of the nurse in his old-age home, he may not quite remember his grandchildren or their children, but memories of his youth are as fresh as if they happened yesterday.

Jacob was studying to be a vet when an accident leaves him both orphaned and penniless. In a state of delirium, Jacob begins walking and keeps walking, away from the civilization into some unknown future. And that unknown future brings him to a train, that show more in its many carriages, carries the magic of an entirely different world, for on this train, travels a circus.

And the drama unravels. There are performers and the workmen, freaks and animals. All the typical circus things. There’s even a gorgeous, Marlena, who is the star performer of the show, who makes her performances come alive with the animals she works with. She’s married to the equestrian director August, the sometimes charming, sometimes abusive man. And of course, Jacob falls for this woman.

What makes this book superlative is that it isn’t just a romance, at least not just between Jacob and Marlena. It is a sketch of the human soul – of how human some animals can be and of how beastly some men.

Sara Gruen’s characters are all strong, heroes and villains alike. But its the side characters whose story adds depth to the emotions. Kinko and Camel, the sort of “roommates” of Jacob or Queenie and Bobo, the dog and the chimp who in their animal-ish sort of way make your heart swell. And of course, Rosie, the elephant. For me, she was the star of this book. Every time August lashed out her or Jacob fed her whiskey to soothe her wounds, were the times that had me welling up.

“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”
And there is that secret, right towards the end, that the author throws at you. Of course, that’s not what you expected, but you hoped all along while reading the book, that something like that would end up happening.

In Sara Gruen’s own words,

“Life is the most spectacular show on earth”
…and that is exactly what she shows you through this spectacular story about a circus.

Believe it or not, Sara Gruen had never actually been to a circus in her life, before she started writing this book! Surely, you wonder then, where did the inspiration to write this story come from? The author says it all started with an article in the Chicago Tribune in 2003 on Edward Kelty, a travelling circus photographer who travelled across the U.S. following circus trains during the 1920s and 30s. She was so fascinated with the premise and the photographs accompanying the article and those in two other books, that she dropped the idea of the novel she was actually writing, to start one on a circus instead.

Sara Gruen’s favorite character in her book was Rosie (just like mine!). She loved the elephant almost enough to belive that Rosie was real.

Sara Gruen could visualize strongly how her characters would look like and behave if they were real. When asked in an interview who she would like to see cast in the movie, she chose Scarlett Johansson as Marlena (eventually played by Reese Witherspoon), Jim Carrey as August (played by Christoph Waltz). Danny DeVito would have made a great Uncle Al, according to Sara Gruen, but the actor to finally bag that role was no one. This character was eliminated in the movie version.

The film adaptation hit the screens in 2011. show less