"Water for Elephants"

Author: Sara Gruen
Genre: Historical
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007
Pages: 350
My Rating: Highly Recommend

Water for Elephants will stay with you long after reading the last page.

Synopsis: 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.

Review: I finished this book and thought "now that was an interesting story" and then I slept on. It was more than interesting. The author was able to successfully weave the past and present into a really great story. One of my coworkers said his sister-in-law found it depressing. While I found certain themes to be depressing, I felt the author did a good job of presenting life as it must have been like at that time. Human right and animal rights were still a thing of the future. People were just trying to survive any way they knew how. This is a story that will stay with you.