"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

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Read: 5/30/09

3/5 stars

I'd have to say I was disappointed with this book. Maybe because I was expecting a lot after seeing it ranked 2nd on the 50-Book Challenge Group's "Books We Loved in 2008" list. I thought it'd be as unputdownable as the others, but no. I could comfortably put it down, and did so for a whole month.

Water for Elephants opens with an aged main character, Jacob Jankowski, who's living out the rest of his life in a nursing home. He flashbacks to his 21-year-old self, a graduating veterinary student at Cornell University during the Depression era. Jacob then receives the devastating news of his parents' death in an automobile accident. Because of stress, lack of money, and general grief, Jacob fails to take his final exams. He leaves campus and, presumably because he has nothing else left to do, he inadvertently joins a circus.

The cirucs, called the Benzini brothers, is a shady little operation. Jacob starts out as a hired hand, but gradually works his way up, courtesy of his educational background and his friendship with the paranoid schizophrenic August, the animal trainer, and his beautiful wife, Marlena. Within the circus, Jacob practices his craft, learns the realities of social stratification, even amongst circus people, and becomes a man, in all possible ways. The situation becomes more complicated when the circus acquires its own elephant, Rosie, who is reputed to be as dumb as elephants can get. As a result, Rosie suffers through August's cruelty, though Jacob feels that she is not as dumb as she appears. Moreover, Rosie is not the only female that Jacob wants to save from August's grasp.

The story toggles from the present day elderly Jacob, trapped in a nursing home and expressing his desire for freedom only through his ornery habits, and young Depression-era Jacob, travelling with a circus, yet trapped, too, by circumstances beyond his control. The portrayal of circus life, too, is an interesting piece of Americana. However, I felt that the failure of this book for me was that the emotional relationships between humans and animals were not sufficiently explored. The animals did occupy a supporting role, but sadly, it wasn't a role that engendered a lot of compassion for them because we didn't get to know them well.

The only thing I did like, though, was the portrayal of Jacob in his old age. When all else is taken from you, sometimes anger and rebellion are the only things you have left, and I believe that this is all Jacob, at ninety or ninety-three, had left. For him, one could have a lot of compassion.

Comments

Angelo said…
would it be okay to email some info on a book called Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin (Little, Brown)? let me know! thx...
June 11, 2009 at 9:28 PM
fantaghiro23 said…
Hi, Angelo. You want to email me some info on a book? Sure, but what does it entail? Thanks!
June 11, 2009 at 9:33 PM
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