Water for Elephants

Got about halfway through before I realized that I wasn't going to start liking the character. A very plot-driven book. The setting started out interesting but turned a little cliche.

This is a quick read. And a fascinating introduction to Depression era circus life. But after the first 150 pages or so, you become accustomed to the circus train atmosphere, after which there's nothing that special about the story. In fact, here are some problems with it: 1) The ending is so predictable! 2) The best drawn characters in the book are an elephant and a dog. And that's only because I didn't expect the animals to be anything more than one-dimensional. 3) The use of violence against Rosie the elephant was gratuitous and manipulative. Somehow it just felt cheap. Although, I did really like the narration from the elderly Jacob's perspective. I thought that was well done. I'll have to think about it some more before my book club discusses it next week.

It might sound funny, but I learned a lot about circus life from this book. Interesting and entertaining.