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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.6 EAN: 9781594132001 Format: Large Print ISBN: 1594132003 Label: Large Print Distribution Manufacturer: Large Print Distribution Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 561 Publication Date: May 09, 2007 Publisher: Large Print Distribution Studio: Large Print Distribution Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison. Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea. The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. --Valerie Ryan Product Description: 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. Surprising, poignant, and funny, Water for Elephants is that rare novel with a story so engrossing, one is reluctant to put it down; with characters so engaging, they continue to live long after the last page has been turned; with a world built of wonder, a world so real, one starts to breathe its air. Book Description: An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of Riding Lessons. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. Beautifully written, Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - An authentic feelThis is an excellent, well researched book. The author obviously has a lot of empathy with the animals. Descriptions of life on the circus train seemed genuine. The ending that involved the elephant was a real surprise. One criticisim I have is that all of Sara Gruen's books have happy endings. I guess I'm just a Jude The Obscure kind of guy. Rating: - Very well writtenA well written story that held my interest to the end. If you're a sensitive animal lover as I am, some of this book may be hard, but it's worth the read. The ending seemed a bit rushed, but overall, I enjoyed the story. Rating:  - I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This is one of my favorite books of all time! It's about 90 (or 93)-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembering his life when he was young. The story starts with his parents dying in a car crash, and him having no money. He stumbles upon a circus in town, and gets hired as the veterinarian. There are many other aspects to the story, including a romance between Jacob and his boss's wife, and an elephant who captures the hearts of many. Rating: - Too Good to be True?I love animal stories, but I always read them bracing for the sad ending. This book was a mixed bag. In the first part of the book, terrible things happened to both people and animals. In the latter part of the book, the angels practically came down to sing. Everything good that could happen, did! I'm not opposed to that. It just seemed a bit much. Too simplisic. Even the ultimate solution for old Jacob was just strangely perfect and therefore hard to believe. Read More Rating:  - Great book but a little flatThe book has some good charactors, interesting story line, but some of the charactors seemed a little flat to me. For example, the roommate in the stock car, I some how felt more connected to him than Jacob. Overall a fun and light read, but just lacking a little depth to the main charactors. I will absolutly read other Sara Gruen, I think she has some good talent as a writer. Just my opinion. |
