Water for Elephants

by: Sara Gruen

Published by: Algonquin Books

Reviewed by RJ McGill

Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants is one of those rare novels that will be read and re-read, discussed and enjoyed for many years, by old and young alike. Destined to be passed among family and friends and back again, until the tattered, timeworn pages resemble the books beloved central character and narrator.

Jacob Jankowski had studied Veterinary Medicine and was days from exams when his parents were killed in an auto accident. Alone, frightened and penniless, he hopped a train, never intending to “run away with the circus”.... It was the midst of the depression and life was hard. Joining the Benzini Brothers Circus would change his life again. From town to town, day after day, set it up, tear it down–the freaks and geeks, midgets and clowns worked, ate, lived and often died together. The harsh conditions are made even more unbearable by the greedy manager and his insane animal trainer. Yet somehow, in the midst of despair, friendships and laughter persevered. Although much of the laughter was alcohol induced, during the height of the depression and prohibition, you took what you could get.

The narrator’s transition from the young circus vet, to the elderly, cantankerous nursing home resident, is a well-crafted, bi-lateral view that pulls the reader into this fictional world and never lets go. Whether in his twenties, admiring the beautiful equestrian performer, Marlena, and caring for the animals he loved–or in his nineties, complaining about the indignities of old age, the warm, quick wit comes through loud and clear. From the big top to the nursing facility Gruen’s sharp, three-dimensional, fictionally fluid characters will have you laughing out loud one minute, mouth agape in disgust the next.

Hurry, hurry, step right up, readers and book lovers everywhere. If you hunger for a reading experience chock full of every conceivable emotion, beautifully written and wholly engrossing, Water for Elephants is a wondrous world, where fact and fiction combine, delivering the most memorable and pleasurable hours, you will be spend with a book. Characters so sharply drawn and wrought with emotion that there nearly flow off the page.

Armchair Interviews says: If you only read one book this summer, let this be it!

Author’s Web site: http://www.SaraGruen.com