Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen
Date Released: April 9,2006
Pages: 335

Summary:

Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.

Jacob was there because his luck had run out - orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive 'ship of fools'. It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act - in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

My Review:

Truthfully, I thought I would like this book a lot more than I did. It wasn't so much that the whole book was okay, it was really just bits and pieces of it that I didn't like. So, let me start with the things I liked.

I really liked the chapters that were told from the point of view from the older Jacob. In them I liked how he talked about his kids and how his wife had died, but he kept us hanging until the end as to who his wife was. Did he actually end up with Marlena? Or did their story not end in a happily ever after?

I also really liked Rosie. I liked the way Jacob fell in love with her just as much as he fell in love with Marlena. I felt like the whole story just got better in general after Rosie was introduced as a character, I just wasn't feeling the first half. But the second half I really liked. I even liked August and all his crazy problems because he added a certain dynamic to the whole story.

One thing that bothered me was the beginning of the romance between Jacob and Marlena. One second Jacob was just thinking about her beauty, and the next BAM he was all of a sudden completely in love with her. The author kind of cheated us out of the details as to how he fell in love with her. After that moment of revelation on his part, I liked their love story. It was just the start of it that bothered me.

The second thing I didn't like was the character of Marlena. The way the author wrote her it wounded like she was a secondary minor character that strived to be a main character, instead of sounding like she was the main character. She was flat and predictable, and I did not like her at all.

With all this said, I have to mention the movie version for a second. I actually liked the movie better than the book, and it was for one main reason. In the movie, the character of Marlena (portrayed by Reese Witherspoon) was actually likable. Witherspoon added a certain dynamic to her that made her a good character, instead of a flat predictable one.

My Rating: