One Page at a Time
Katie Kendrick
Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen.
It’s been quite some time since this novel first came out and since I last read it in 2008. I happen to notice it sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust and I realized, I can’t really remember what happens in this book. Sure, I remember how it ends, but what about everything else? So, I decided to pick it back up.
Water for Elephants is set around Depression-era circus and follows the tale of Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student from Cornell. He discovers that his parents have been killed in a car accident and that he has absolutely nothing left. No family, no money, nothing. Looking for a way to cope, he hops on a train that happens to carry the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He is eventually allowed to stay on with them as their animal doctor. His job has him answering to August Rosenbluth, the circus’s volatile menagerie director and his wife, Marlena, who performs with the horses.
Jacob is immediately thrown into this bizarre universe that, at first, he has no idea how to handle. As the novel
progresses and Jacob learns his way around the circus, the ringmaster, Uncle Al, purchases Rosie. Rosie is an elephant who loves lemonade and seems to have a hard time following very simple commands. With the loss of their prized stallion, Rosie must take the lead in the circus, but since she can’t do what she is asked, it looks like their show is doomed.
The narration switches back from Jacob during his time at the circus to Jacob as an old man living in a rest home. It’s a thrilling, emotional, and compelling novel—a remarkable novel that includes love, heartbreak, corruption, deceit, murder, and the pains of getting older.