Water for Elephants: Sara Gruen
Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen
When I finished all the books I’d brought on vacation, I wandered into Cloud and Leaf (Manzanita, Oregon) to find a new read. A long day on the beach and one late night reading-fest later, I’d already finished the whimsical, romantic Water for Elephants.
I’m an unabashed fan of all things circus-y : Circus Contraption, Cirque de Flambé, and the Aerialistas being three of our favorite local haunts. But after the second season of Carnivale turned out to be a disappointingly creepy follow up to its fabulous first season beginnings, I’ve been left high and dry for stories of redemption and belonging among the freaks and roustabouts. The historically-backed folklore of Sara Gruen’s third novel was just the thing to feed my jones for dust bowl era tales of traveling with The Show.
Water for Elephants features Jacob, an ivy-league trained vet who starts riding the rails after a personal tragedy and ends up living the life fantastic with Benzinzi Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Brutal, psychotic managers take Jacob into their motley crew where he finds himself embroiled in a tale of wonder, mystery, murder and romance. A quick but yummy read, this 300+ page novel reads like a short story. Some reviewers have found the twist-ending a bit too neat given the dire realities of the setting, but I say there’s nothing wrong with a bit of a potboiler ending and a little romance when you are reading in the dog days of summer. You’ll be glad to have read this in paperback or from the libary, and eager to pass it on to a friend. In fact, I’ll pass my copy on to one lucky reader who submits their favorite summer read in the comments below. (I’ll draw a name next Wednesday.) Happy Reading!
Hear an NPR review of this book here.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 8:46 am and is filed under Fiction, magpie girl, rachelle mee-chapman, sara gruen.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Entries
XHTML
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Ooohh…Only one?! Then I would have to say that my favorite read this summer was definately Mircea Eliade’s Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Kind of strange, I know, but it was a fascinating read, especially as I was able to read it while in Central Asia. Anne Lamott’s Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith was a close second.
August 25th, 2007 at 9:31 am
My favorite this summer so far is Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. Despite the title, it’s a really uplifting novel. Anyway, I’m not actually finished with it since I just started it yesterday but I hope that doesn’t disqualify me from the drawing as Water for Elephants has been recommended to me by several people.
September 29th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
[…] p.s. Don’t have your Tweet yet? Buy one here. And don’t forget to go here and comment-to-win a new summer read. […]
September 29th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
[…] I did manage to happen upon a fun summer read while on vacation, and offer it to you now as twlight read for the dog days of Summer. Check out my review of Water for Elephants over at Magpie Suggests — and enter to win your very own copy! (Ooooo, I love give aways!) […]
December 17th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Check out my review at my blog. This is a book not just about circuses but about the circus that is a nursing home. Jacob’s aging is a fascinating subject.