I know what you're all thinking: "Oh my gosh! Jen the Book Tart isn't dead after all!"
I know, I know ... it's been a while since I blogged. I've been busy, and I needed a blogging vacation. But my slightly delayed New Year's Resolution is to blog more - at least 3-4 times a week - so hopefully that will motivate me to blog more.
And what better way to celebrate my triumphant return to blogging than to review a book I recently read, which I completely devoured, and which is being made into a movie soon? Yes. I'm talking about "Water For Elephants" by Sara Gruen.
"Water For Elephants" is not my normal type of book - it's a romance, but not a bodice ripper. It's a historical drama, but the history is not the main focus. It wasn't the type of book I usually read, but I really had trouble putting it down. It was a very easy read with likable, if somewhat stock, characters and a really incredible setting.
"Water For Elephants" follows Jacob Jankowski, a 90-something-year-old man in a nursing home who spends his days privately reminiscing about his days working in the circus. When Jacob was 23, in the middle of the Great Depression his parents died suddenly and he was left with no money. Rather than finishing his exams and becoming a veterinarian at Cornell, he jumps on a train ... which happens to be a circus train for The Benzini Brothers Circus. Because of his education, he quickly becomes the vet for the circus. The book talks at length about the terrible conditions for the animals, the performers and the workers and what it was like to live aboard a circus train during the Depression. It's especially bad for Jacob, because he works under August Rosenbluth, a very cruel, brutal man. And, of course, Jacob falls in love - hard - for August's wife, the gorgeous Marlena, who performs with the horses and, eventually, an elephant named Rosie.
The plot is not the most creative - there were very few things that I didn't see coming. Anybody who has seen or read a basic romance will be able to see a lot of things coming. But the characters are fun enough - I especially enjoy the quiet, innocent Jacob's reaction to the raucous world of the circus. But the raucous world of the circus is what really makes "Water For Elephant" sing. Gruen expertly describes the unsanitary, abusive conditions for the animals and the wildness of the performers and workers. The circus isn't a fun, innocent, safe show that we might think it would be - it's dirty, crooked and, as you find out by the end, dangerous.
I'm glad I read "Water For Elephants," and I look forward to seeing the book come to life on the big screen. Jacob will be played by "Twilight" heartthrob Robert Pattinson, and I think he should be good as the gentle, innocent, brooding Jacob. The gorgeous Reese Witherspoon will play Marlena, and she should be wonderful as usual. But I'm most excited about the incredible, Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz (Nazi Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds") as August Rosenbluth. I can't imagine a better casting.
If you're looking for an easy, romantic, fun read, "Water for Elephants" is a good choice. It wasn't the best book I've ever read or anything, but Gruen's descriptions of the circus and a quick, breezy plot make it worth the few days it will take to read it.
This story was so well-told and absorbing, I cannot praise it enough. It is told through the eyes of Jacob Janks, now an old man in a nursing home, he recounts his life in the Benzini Brothers circus during the Great Depression. Ms. Gruen's very unique talent for writing quickly draws the reader into this tale.
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