Product Description As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.
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
Fascinating and Insightful January 9, 2009 I have been fascinated by them since I was young and watch some things on tv when they come up, so the subject of the book appealed to me and I am very happy I picked this up.
With the use of flashbacks you are bought into the 1930s and the harsh existence for both people and animals that are part of the circus. Jacob and his background creates a special bond with the animals and his kindness is heartwarming. Fromt he first page you are bought into the story - seeing life and some of the things we hope for in our lives and things we want to avoid and not become.
Fascinating look at the circus, the time period and most importantly, people.
Exactly why I don't read fiction January 9, 2009 Was talked into reading this as a change from non-fiction. I read all the reviews about not being able to put the book down. I had to force myself to finish it. Ridiculous, cliched, almost campy dialogue. What exactly, is supposed to grab you & make you continue? Boy, I wanted to like this. Sorry.
Great! January 9, 2009 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I never would have read a book about the circus but this was recommended by a friend and I loved it. Don't let the subject matter distract you from a great novel!
"Like Water" is a must read! January 8, 2009 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Like Water for Elephants is a terrific work of art. I thought the characters and plot were well thought out and tied together nicely. I plan to put this one on my book club list, I can't wait to share it with my friends! You should do the same!
Water for Elephants a hit January 8, 2009 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When this book was recommended to me, I wasn't sure I wanted to read it, but I am glad I did. It begins in a depressing nursing home - which we visit a few times throughout the book - but it is really about Jacob Jankowski's first year with the circus. At 90 - or is it 93, he isn't sure anymore - Jacob recalls his life in the circus at age 23 when he learns of his parents' death. The reader gets to go along for the ride: from his first leap onto a circus railroad car, to his falling in love with a woman and an elephant. His tale enthralled me. Often depressing, life in the circus of 1931 is not an easy one, but it is fascinating. We wonder if Rose the elephant will survive abuse. We wonder if Jacob will end up with his love. We also wonder if Jacob will die in that horrible nursing home. Read it and find out. Even though I had to eat, sleep, and otherwise exist, I didn't put this book down once I began it. Janet Morgan Poetic Justice: A Killdeer Farm Mystery
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