Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
Synopsis: 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.
My Review: I went in to reading this book blinded. I knew nothing about this author, Sara Gruen; how or what she writes, the genre, etc. I only knew that the book was about a circus thanks to the title and the cover art. And I'm not going to lie, I wanted to read this book because the movie staring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon will be out in April of this year.
Water for Elephants takes a person back in time, a reader can really get the sense of how life may have been during the Depression era. The way that Sara Gruen writes, with so much insight and detail, I could easily picture every scene. The image of a train, box car, animals and the tents for the circus were so clear to me because of the perfectly vivid descriptions. The only downfall, sometimes there were details that could have been left out ;-) Any reader would still have understood.
The research that was put into the making of this book was clearly evident. I admire authors who take the time to get every information and detail out of a certain topic correct.
I loved how Sara also goes back and forth between Jacob, the circus vet, to Jacob, the 93 year old in a nursing home. A reader is able to feel the emotions that are being portrayed of this older man, due to everything that Jacob went through in his earlier years.
I wouldn't have minded reading more about Jacob; what he does after the circus, his relations with Marlena, etc. We get a gist of all these events, but the story was so good and Jacob is such an interesting character that I couldn't help but want to find out more about him.
Overall, Water for Elephants was a very well written, captivating book! I am looking forward to seeing the book come to life.
This was my first review EVER... so I would love to hear some feedback :-)
Andrea
