Sara Gruen - Water for Elephants

Review by Ro Bennett on show 8th Feb 2010.
I loved this book. It starts in a very dramatic way when we discover a secret that Jacob the narrator has kept for seventy years. Then we begin the story, which alternates between life in a circus in 1931 and the present day reality for Jacob who is now living in a retirement home. A circus comes to town which brings back all his memories.

I’ts a love story, not only between Jacob and Marlena (a married woman who he loves from afar) but also between Jacob and his animals, in particular an elephant call Rosie. I loved the story line about Rosie. I don’t want to tell you what it’s about as it would spoil it – but it is one of the few books I could read again.

I found it to be a real page turner and couldn’t put it down. For me it’s the sort of book that when it’s finished I feel a bit lost and think, ‘Hmm, now what am I going to read?”

From the back cover: orphaned, penniless Jacob Jankowski jumps a freight train in the dark and in that instant transforms his future. By morning he’s landed a job with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular show on earth. By nightfall he’s in love. In an America made colourless by prohibition and the Depression, the circus is a refuge of sequins and sensuality. But behind the glamour lies a darker world where both animals and men are dispensable. Where falling in love is the most dangerous act of all.

In the Author’s Note, she says that she was going to write a completely different book but then read an article about a photographer who followed travelling circuses around America in the 1920’s and 30’s. She started to research the subject and found that it was so rich she plucked many of the story’s most outrageous details from actual facts or anecdotes.

The book had mostly excellent reviews:

This is a wonderfully engrossing, captivating novel and I felt lost when I had finished it. I truly had withdrawal symptoms.

What a lovely book! Funny, gripping and tear inducing all at onec. I picked this up by chance and couldn’t put it down.

Then of course you have one or two detractors:

The subject matter is so rich and fascinating – how she managed to wrestle all life and interest out of it so emphatically is quite an achievement in itself. The film version can only be better. Meanwhile the book provides, if not entertainment, at least hope and confidence to wannabe authors.

I was on tenterhooks in parts and some bits were quite shocking, but it had an overall feel good factor and I loved the ending!
Review by Ro Bennett