Sep. 2: Book review

I just finished reading Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. It was an entertaining story, full of adventure and suspense with lovely descriptions of amazing human-animal communication.

From Amazon: 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.

I found the descriptions of the filthiness of the circus train and conditions/care of the animals a bit disturbing, but I think they were probably very accurate for circus trains in that day. In fact, the author did extensive research to present the story believably; you may want to have an English-to-Circus-Lingo dictionary handy for some of the terms she uses. That being said, Gruen’s style of writing is easy to read, which helps even more to make this book a delight. I especially enjoyed the way she used Jacob’s decline into dementia as subtle hints of what was actually happening at the book’s end.

If you’re looking for a good read, this could just be it. I loved it.