Proposed alternate title: Death by Elephant
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
I read this book for an online bookclub, I Read Therefore I Am. At first I had numerous misgivings. For one, there's no summary on the back cover. What was I getting myself into? For another, the main character was old. I've seen enough movies to know what happens when there's a old person--someone is going to die. O.O Probably the old person.
But I persevered (and peeked at the last page--I know, I'm a terrible person), and I'm glad I did. You know that feeling when a book pulls you into a completely different world? Well, this book does that--and the world it sucks you into is a traveling circus during the Great Depression. Jacob, the main character, has a mini-nervous breakdown during his finals at Cornell, and on a whim, hops a train in the middle of the night. It turns out to be the train of the Bernini Brothers Circus; and fortunately for Jacob, one of the workers takes a shine to him and gets him a job with the show.
This book has great storytelling, great characters, and non-stop action. The world of the circus is fascinating--it offers freedom and adventure, but is also harsh and fragile. If a person can't cut it on the road anymore, they are not politely fired; they're redlighted--aka thrown from the train in the middle of the night. If you're lucky, you get tossed near a train station; if you're not lucky, you get flung off a bridge. It actually reminded me a lot of the world of the ship in Master and Commander
, in that it is extremely insular and one man keeps (or at least attempts to keep) the balance of all the parties intact--in this case, Uncle Al, the show's owner.
This book doesn't really conform to one particular genre and I think would appeal to a broad range of people. The only thing I absolutely did not like at all was Jacob's "romance" with Marlena. Uhg, I hated Marlena! HATE HER. She spends half of the book crying and the other half snivelling; and then every bad thing that happens is practically her fault. How in the name of god Jacob could find her even remotely attractive is mystifying to me--but she is the only significant female character in the book, so it's not as if he had a lot of women to chose from. There are also some loose ends to the story, but they're kind of incidental.
This isn't a perfect book, but it is really good. I would recommend Water for Elephants to just about anyone.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
I read this book for an online bookclub, I Read Therefore I Am. At first I had numerous misgivings. For one, there's no summary on the back cover. What was I getting myself into? For another, the main character was old. I've seen enough movies to know what happens when there's a old person--someone is going to die. O.O Probably the old person.
But I persevered (and peeked at the last page--I know, I'm a terrible person), and I'm glad I did. You know that feeling when a book pulls you into a completely different world? Well, this book does that--and the world it sucks you into is a traveling circus during the Great Depression. Jacob, the main character, has a mini-nervous breakdown during his finals at Cornell, and on a whim, hops a train in the middle of the night. It turns out to be the train of the Bernini Brothers Circus; and fortunately for Jacob, one of the workers takes a shine to him and gets him a job with the show.
This book has great storytelling, great characters, and non-stop action. The world of the circus is fascinating--it offers freedom and adventure, but is also harsh and fragile. If a person can't cut it on the road anymore, they are not politely fired; they're redlighted--aka thrown from the train in the middle of the night. If you're lucky, you get tossed near a train station; if you're not lucky, you get flung off a bridge. It actually reminded me a lot of the world of the ship in Master and Commander
, in that it is extremely insular and one man keeps (or at least attempts to keep) the balance of all the parties intact--in this case, Uncle Al, the show's owner.This book doesn't really conform to one particular genre and I think would appeal to a broad range of people. The only thing I absolutely did not like at all was Jacob's "romance" with Marlena. Uhg, I hated Marlena! HATE HER. She spends half of the book crying and the other half snivelling; and then every bad thing that happens is practically her fault. How in the name of god Jacob could find her even remotely attractive is mystifying to me--but she is the only significant female character in the book, so it's not as if he had a lot of women to chose from. There are also some loose ends to the story, but they're kind of incidental.
This isn't a perfect book, but it is really good. I would recommend Water for Elephants to just about anyone.
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