Book Review: Water for Elephants

 

Water for Elephants 

Sara Gruen

Algonquin Publishing

2007, 2011

I have received a reviewers copy of Water For Elephants for my honest review which is as follows:

Jacob Jankowski' may not speak of them but his ninety year old mind still holds the memories of his past., memories of himself as a young man who had been tossed by fate, after the death of his parents onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

He remembered a world full of 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. 

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 early in 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 did not even have an act, nor was she able to follow instructions.  But the bond between the three of them grew and this unlikely trio became one of love and trust and it ultimately became the only way they could survive.

Water for Elephants is one of those books, you find yourself having trouble putting down, the characters are so engaging they stay with you long after you have finished the last page.

I give Water For Elephants five out of five stars!