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Water for Elephants: A Novel

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Author: Sara Gruen
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$13.95~~
Buy Used: $3.50
You Save: $10.45 (75%)

New (107) Used (295) from $3.50

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:

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

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.

Book Description
An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of iRiding Lessons/i.brbr When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.brbr Beautifully written, iWater for Elephants/i is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Circa Circus December 2, 2008
Running away to the Circus is at the epicenter of this great adventure and I delighted in every page. The writing creates rich images of tastes, smells, senses and life on the road during the depression, interspersed with the realities of the cruel way Circus animals were once treated.br /The work of a great story teller and I believed every word.br /br /

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Read December 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Could not put this book down. Eye opening and very well written. A must read for all book lovers.

4 out of 5 stars

Excellent, engaging book December 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I've taught this book several time to college-aged (and older) students, virtually all of whom have fallen in love with the story. For teachers, I recommend it because there's also so much to talk about (historicity, identity, etc.), and because it's such a "pleasant" read, the students tend to get excited and bring much to this well-written, engaging text. Highly recommended for readers and for teachers.

4 out of 5 stars

What the circus was really like, way back when November 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book was enchanting. Immediately you become under it's spell from the first words. The mystery, history, action, and love stories of the circus all wrapped up in one.br /br /The story is about Jacob Jankowski, the circus vet. Under tragic circumstances, he joins a second rated circus and becomes entangled into all their lives, whether he wants to or not. Bouncing between his current status, which is in a nursing home at the age of 93 or 99 (he's not sure) and his circus life, there is a mystery deep in the heart of it.

4 out of 5 stars

Magical November 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

What a great story. The book is very beautifully written with words that make you feel like your there. It is engaging at every turn of the page. Each character is interesting and well developed. This is a fairly quick read and you will be so engaged in the most spectacular show you wont want to put it down.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
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