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| Water for Elephants: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Sara Gruen
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $3.02
You Save: $10.93 (78%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $3.02
Avg. Customer Rating:  (1551 reviews)
Sales Rank: 117
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 350
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 1565125606
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781565125605
ASIN: 1565125606
Publication Date: April 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
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 iWater for Elephants/i, 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. p iWater for Elephants/i 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. p 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. I--Valerie Ryan/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1546 more reviews...
 "Like Water" is a must read! January 8, 2009
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
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.br /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. br /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.br /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.br /Janet Morgan Poetic Justice: A Killdeer Farm Mystery
I was drawn in from page one. January 5, 2009
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The author opens the story very well, grabbing your attention immediately. I love the way the story moves from the present, a 93 year old man in a nursing home, to his past and then back again. The story is well written in terms of circus life in the depression era and life as an elderly man in a nursing home.br /br /I could not put this book down. It gave me an affirmation for why I dislike the circus and reminded me that the elderly are to be respected. Having worked with the elderly, I know they have many interesting stories to share with us. The book is very well-written, fast moving, surprising, and mysterious. I loved it!
Escape with the characters January 4, 2009
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an "Indiana Jones" action packed novel. Some things predictable, some things not. Great descriptions and an emotional attachment.
Deep story; good read January 1, 2009
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Good book....well researched information by the author. I am a true animal lover and it was a little gut-wrenching to read some things, knowing that they held truth...but it was a good read and a deep storyline. Intrigues me enough to want to go beyond the book and read more about circuses in the present and the post-Depression Era.br /I recommend this book, it is rich in substance and will surely touch your heart.
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